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January 9, 2009

Cramster – Ace Your Tests With the Help of Others

ss-cramster

College can be a pretty intimidating place, especially during a student’s freshman year as he tries to learn the ropes, make friends, and grasp the fundamentals of each course. However, when it comes to studying for tests or solving complex problems, students have a new solution called Cramster.

Cramster is large social community of students, educators, and knowledgeable subject matter experts. Cramster starts by offering specific guidance and solutions to problems from over 250 common college textbooks. If your textbook isn’t covered, the Q&A board offers the next best thing by connecting students with experts across four core subject areas: Math, Science, Engineering, and Business. Individuals who respond to questions with helpful answers are awarded ‘karma points’ that can be traded for items like iPods or gift certificates.

The immense amount of information on Cramster is quite impressive – if not overwhelming but with an emphasis on learning rather than cheating, Cramster provides a service that even educators can support.

Practical Uses:

  • Solve that tricky trigonometry problem by asking for assistance on the Q&A board
  • Brush up on your physics knowledge by taking a few practice exams
  • Use the library of lecture notes and presentations to augment your knowledge gained from textbooks and class instruction

Insider Tips:

  • Start by verifying if Cramster has your particular textbooks covered – you’ll still be able to get general assistance even if your book isn’t available
  • Be sure to check out the practice exams and lecture notes under the Resources section as a great way to boost your knowledge
  • Before asking a new question on the Q&A board, try using the search box first – someone may have already asked the same question previously

What we liked:

  • A wealth of information across many subjects
  • Users who help others by answering questions obtain karma points which can be redeemed for a variety of merchandise
  • Active community of educated responders and engaged students who tend to answer questions very quickly
  • Answers and tips to problems in many popular college textbooks
  • Dynamically-generated practice tests

What we didn’t like:

  • While the selection of textbooks was reasonable, our experience shows there are many that simply aren’t covered yet
  • Textbook assistance opens up a new window and uses a cumbersome Flash viewer
  • We couldn’t find any way to chat real-time with another student or advisor (although Cramster does have a chat option for their billing/customer service)

Alternatives:

Company Info:

  • Launched: February 2003
  • Privately Held
  • Headquarters: Pasadena, CA
  • Founded by: Robert Angarita and Aaron Hawkey
  • Web site: http://www.cramster.com

Costs:

  • Free for a basic account
  • $9.95/month for a premium account

Comments

  1. Awesome review!

    Thanks for supporting Cramster.com! As for your desire to chat with users, that feature is coming soon! We are actually working on a Chat feature – it is in beta right now.

    I’d love to get into contact with you– feel free to email me (Carleigh@cramster.com) and I can alert you of new features for you to preview and review!

    Thanks,

    Carleigh McKenna
    The Cramster.com Team
    Blog: Studytips.cramster.com
    Twitter: @Cramster

  2. Cramster – Ace Your Tests With the Help of Others AppVita I was recommended this web site by my cousin. I’m not sure whether this post is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my difficulty. You’re wonderful! Thanks! your article about Cramster – Ace Your Tests With the Help of Others AppVitaBest Regards Veronica

  3. Mukesh Kumar

    Cramster is fake , i have not done any cheating but cramster team has terminated my account,giving excuse that i do copy pasting.
    I am challenging cramster to re-check my account and show me where i have done cheating, but he is not doing, it shows that it is fraud.

    I am asking you “The cramster users” that whether it is false to re-post your own answer to two or more different users, when the Question is same, which i have done.
    Plz comment on my post.

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