Hey Gurus,

My name is Mary Claire Kilmer-Lipinski and I am the new student blog editor and social media intern for GradeGuru. I am a senior Strategic Communications major with a Marketing minor at Miami University in Ohio. Last semester, I was a Campus Brand Ambassador for GradeGuru. This semester I decided to switch over to editorial and social media and provide a student perspective to GradeGuru’s digital presence. I am excited to connect with current and new readers.

Throughout the semester, I will be blogging about different trends related to college students, learning, and educational technology. I will also be inviting professors and students to participate in the conversation and contribute thoughtful articles. Blogs have always been an important source of news in my professional and personal life. Previously I worked with Time Out Chicago, Zig, and Delta Zeta headquarters. At Time Out Chicago, I was in charge of researching and learning about social media and how to implement a social media strategy for Time Out Chicago using Twitter and Facebook pages. While juggling the social media project, I was also working at Zig, an advertising agency in Chicago.

In my free time, I live in a house with ten girls and enjoy being a second semester senior. Most of my time is consumed by job searching but if I have some time to spare, I love watching reality TV. As trashy as it can be, it is interesting to see how the dynamics of television has changed with these TV shows; plus the characters are great entertainment.

Hopefully this post lets you know who I am and where I come from. I am excited to see where this semester takes us. Let the blogging begin!

Are there any specific topics you’d like me to cover this semester?

GradeGuru will be at NYU  this coming Monday, December 7th 2009!!!

GradeGuru’s Marketing Specialist, Yianni Garcia, will be a panelist at NYU’s “Lessons From The NYC Digital Startup Community Panel” presented by the Information Systems Society at the Stern School of Business.

The panel moderated by Panos Ipeirotis, Assistant Professor at the Department of Information, Operations, and Management Sciences at Leonard N. Stern School of Business of New York University will also include Alex Krug, Vice President of Platform at Behance.com,  Sam Lessin, Founder and CEO of drop.io, and Mary Casey, Co-Founder of Jatched.com. Panelist will discuss the challenges and opportunities for NYC web startups. Attendees will receive free giveaways as well the potential for career opportunities.

Check out the event flyer below for more details on the event and the panelist:

Today, The Independent Collegian- The University of Toledo newspaper, published the article, Website Allows Students to Share Course Materials.

News Editor Randiah Green of The Independent Collegian interviewed our founder, Emily Sawtell as well as one of our UM (Ohio) ambassadors Allie Nikitas asking them a series of questions about GradeGuru.  The article discusses the development and benefits of GradeGuru for students across campuses.

The article also mentioned the newly released school specific pages and highlighted the perspectives of students at UT regarding online student note-sharing.

To see what UT students had to say check out the UT article: Website Allows Students to Share Course Materials

Jackie Hughes is a Junior Marketing major at Pennsylvania State University, a GradeGuru brand manager and a contributing editor for our blog. Click on her name to view her GradeGuru profile.

When I think back to my freshman year of college, I recall time and time again, my roommates and I frantically heading downtown before exams to purchase Nittany Notes. During finals week, the line for Nittany Notes was out the door, crammed with students all doing the same – spending more than $10 for each set of notes. After only a short time, a large portion of my bank account was grudgingly put towards Nittany Notes. My Senior year I found GradeGuru (sigh of relief).

GradeGuru allows students to view class notes for free. The rating system on GradeGuru allows me to see which notes are the most detailed and reliable, ensuring dependable notes. I just search the name of my class and the results for all contributions, including notes, exam study guides, and presentations, just to name a few, are located. From the contributor perspective you can earn extra cash and enticing prizes just by uploading notes. Nittany Notes requires contributors to take notes for every class in the semester in order to contribute, which is a lot of pressure to put on one individual, to be responsible for everything the teacher says all semester.  With GradeGuru contributors can put up any amount of notes they attain from class, as well as a variety of other helpful materials such as exam study guides and assignment related material. GradeGuru allows students to compare notes on a national level, and students are able to access notes from different colleges and universities for similar classes. The array of knowledge on GradeGuru is from a much larger selection.

My advice to Penn State students next time any are considering purchasing Nittany Notes is log into GradeGuru and see if they can find what they’re looking for before paying.

Angela Santiago is part of the GradeGuru marketing team and an NYU student majoring in International Business & Marketing.

As if a Finance midterm isn’t enough to have you stressing out… How about searching through  your classnotes to find the one midterm review sheet for use on the exam (which you spent the entire night preparing) and then realizing a few minutes before the exam that you forgot it at home! Of course the first thought that comes to mind is “THIS IS HOPELESS!”

Yet instead of dwelling on the bad luck I logged on to GradeGuru not thinking that there would actually be notes specific to my class and that particular test. Thankfully I found a review sheet for my exact class so I printed it out just in time!!! And while the midterm review sheet usually is more like a security blanket and most of the preparation comes from the actual writing up of the review sheet, having something I could refer to if need be was better than nothing!

Today The Spectrum - the Independent Student Newspaper at Buffalo University, published an article titled “Cash for your note stash”. The Spectrum staff writer discusses how students at Buffalo University are using GradeGuru to earn rewards for their notes, the perks of using GradeGuru and the role GradeGuru Campus Ambassadors have in informing classmates about the benefits of GradeGuru.

“Grade “A” notes taken last semester may be worth a hefty penny, now that GradeGuru.com has turned quality note taking into a profitable business.”

“Kim [Bri] became a campus ambassador for GradeGuru through an internship program at UB. Campus ambassadors are top note sharers on the site and work within their universities to promote this new way of studying.”

“It’s a community that feeds off itself,” Sawtell said. “Campus ambassadors are telling friends about it and spreading the word.”

“I like it because it’s so easy to search on,” Kim said. “You just put the class name and hundreds of notes will come up … you can search it, click it, download it and bam.”

Ben Nangeroni is an International Business major at UDel, a GradeGuru brand manager and a contributing editor for our blog.

University of Delware students are finding that GradeGuru offers them the opportunity to reap in more benefits for their notes than just good grades. This week student editor Chelsea Caltuna from The UD Review published an article titled,  “Web site swaps class notes for cash”

“Students could be getting more out of their note-taking than just higher test scores. GradeGuru.com, a new Web site created by the education company McGraw-Hill, allows students across the country to upload and share their class notes and get paid for them.”

“It rewards you for going to class,” sophomore EJ Ekhatosaid. “I think the site is a great idea because it spreads class notes around and makes them more available to everyone.”

“After students upload their notes, GradeGuru uses a formula based on the thoroughness and relevance of the notes to determine how many points the student receives.”

Kaylin Dalrymple is a Junior at The University of Illinois. Kaylin is majoring Communications with a concentration in Advertising.  Kaylin is a Brand Director at Illinois and a contributing author to our blog.



We all know that Facebook and Twitter are super efficient tools for keeping up our friends and acquaintances.  But what a lot of people are not aware of yet is that Facebook, and other social networking sites like Twitter and YouTube, are starting to be used for educational purposes.  I am currently taking a Twitter marketing class and the professor periodically sends out tweets regarding upcoming class information. Given the general direction of business communication, it is unsurprising that a class in the College of Business here at the University of Illinois is using Web 2.0 technology. Using social platforms to update students and connect them to relevant information is brilliant. I check my Facebook and Twitter accounts more often than I would like to admit, and the following academic related updates have been very helpful:

1. Reminders about an assignment I forgot to even start on
2. Notes on GradeGuru that are relevant to my upcoming mid-terms
3. Articles that could give me some background information

According to a recent article in The Guardian, there is a lot of debate in the United Kingdom over proposed plans to change the curriculum of schools to include Web 2.0 technology.  This shows how important it is for our generation, who grew up with the Internet but not with tools like Facebook and Twitter, to learn about and to embrace these sites, as our future careers will most likely deal with them in some way.

Some professors and other educators have even gotten creative in how they teach their courses.  For example, there are many fake “historical figures” accounts on Twitter, and the tweets tell you something about history. Take one of Abraham Lincoln’s latest tweet for example, “The enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying why he does not stop it.”  The tweet of course referring to Lincoln’s congratulatory order to the battle of Gettysburg. I admit, I googled the phrase on the tweet but I learned something new today! Whether we like it or not, social media for academic and learning purposes is here to stay. So the next time someone tells you to get off Facebook, make sure they know, you’re just investing in your future!

Nicole Saren is a Junior at University of Miami majoring in Business Management, International Finance and Marketing. Nicole is a GradeGuru Ambassador at UM and a contributing author to our blog.

Miami Hurricanes live for game day. We spend Monday through Friday anxiously awaiting the next chance we get to be banded with neon orange and take in the sight of “J12” jerseys filling Landshark Stadium. This year in particular is an excellent time for a ‘Canes fan as we now have an experienced football team that just achieved a top-10 ranking for the first time since December of 2005. Going into the season unranked, we jumped right to #20 after beating FSU on their own turf 38-34. Next, a home game victory against the 14th ranked Georgia Tech shot us straight up to #9. This past week, we dropped down to #17 after a loss to Virginia Tech. Nevertheless, our team shows enormous potential and ‘Canes fans see this as no more than a helpful reality check. We still want to go all the way.

So how do students with such a passion for football find more time to enjoy it amidst the endless homework and studying? GradeGuru is exactly the answer they’ve been looking for. Instead of spending hours rummaging through messy, scribbled notes, they can quickly log onto GradeGuru, search for a course, and find a top student’s nicely organized notes. This can significantly reduce work time for both regular students and members of the football team.

So just how does such a dedicated player balance schoolwork with practice, meetings, play memorization, and everything else he does to prepare for the games? “I mean it’s not a challenge at all. I’m here for school and football so I know what I have to do”, sophomore wide receiver LaRon Byrd said. “That’s where all my focus is at—trying to be one of the best student athletes in the country. All the other stuff is side distractions. When you are focused on accomplishing a goal and you have dreams that you want to obtain, then there is no challenge at all. It’s all about being committed to what you are doing.”

Sophomore offensive lineman Tyler Horn adds, “It’s tough. Football is a job, but you’ve got to remember that if you don’t get your schoolwork done, then you can’t get out on the field. So getting your schoolwork done is sort of an extra incentive to play.” For any student, especially athletes, GradeGuru is a highly valuable resource. “GradeGuru helps because a lot of times we don’t get the chance to study as much or get to talk to teachers about a certain subject, so it’s helpful having students who understand the material better lend out their notes for help,” said Tyler.

Jessica Lo is a junior at Cornell University majoring in Operations Research and Information Engineering. Upon graduation, Jessica wishes to pursue a career in the consumer goods industry. Jessica is a GradeGuru Brand Director at Cornell University and a contributing author to our blog.

At the beginning of the semester, I noticed a lot of students handing over $60 to purchase a set of TakeNote lecture notes for their popular class. I was thinking to myself, why are students paying for a note taking service when there is a much better (and free) alternative available.

The main advantage that GradeGuru has over TakeNote is that GradeGuru is absolutely free. GradeGuru provides reliable lecture notes and great study material for a wide variety of classes, and not just those that are considered popular. From economics to computer science, you are sure to find the material that you need. And if the notes are not available for your specific class, you can also look at other students notes from another college or better yet, you can be the first to upload your notes to the site.

When you share your notes on the website, you can accumulate points toward great rewards, including cash and gift cards. If you are already taking notes for your classes, why not share it with other students? Not only will other students thank you for your efforts, but you will also be rewarded by GradeGuru. Money shouldn’t be flowing from your pocket into Takenotes for their lecture notes, but you should be the one rewarded and recognized for your great notes.

GradeGuru really provides a sharing network that allows students to share their notes, study together, build their academic reputation and earn rewards. And with the price of education rising, the last thing you need is to be spending more money on lecture notes, and GradeGuru is helping students to do just that. So, make sure to hold onto your $60 and go see what GradeGuru has to offer you. Im sure youll get more out of it than youve ever thought I definitely have.