Getting any sort of help on the internet today is no novelty by any extent of the imagination. Students have access to hundreds of thousands of libraries with almost unlimited knowledge. That includes tools to solve any problem the modern education system can throw at them. All of this has changed the way a learning process works from elementary schools all the way to the most prestigious universities.
Now that students have these infinite resources at the tips of their fingers, the ability to memorize information has lost its leading position. Remembering all the materials you are being taught in lectures is no longer the best way to procure the highest quality information on demand. Using your Internet access is way more efficient of an approach. Now, how do you pick the most useful tools to use out of thousands available out there?
Functionality
One of the most important factors when trying to identify a reliable study help service is its functionality. There are thousands of websites out there each focusing on helping students with their assignments or providing educational materials. But even though their scope is somewhat similar, the precise selection of services may differ. So your first step should be determining what it is exactly you want from a study platform.
- Research materials;
- Tutoring;
- Proofreading;
- Editing;
- Ghostwriting.
The academic field has created an entire industry of services around it. Whatever you may need – you can be sure you’ll find a solution online. Compile a list of things you need and cross lines out as you go. You don’t have to try and fit everything into a single website. Don’t be shy to pick and choose the best parts of several platforms. The quality of different services may vary even within one website.
Pricing
The costs of the services you are looking to get can be a very important factor. Students are often operating on a tight budget and saving some money can easily become a deciding factor when picking a study platform. Most of these services have very reasonable prices. But the difference between service costs can pile up very quickly. Especially if you are going to be using it throughout the learning process.
Luckily, most websites are very straightforward about what sort of pay they expect for their services. There is usually an entire page dedicated to costs and various promotions. You may want to pay extra attention to the latter as many platforms have loyalty programs that can save you quite a bit of money if you stay with them long enough. The main question that remains – are they good enough to satisfy your academic needs for this long. And this takes us to the next point of order.
Feedback
At the end of the day, looking at the advertisement doesn’t really help much. Of course, you can figure out the main strengths of a given service. But how good is it really? And what about the weaknesses? This is why you should try to gather as much feedback as you can before you place your order on a particular platform. Taking your time to get to know a site can tell you what to expect from it at least to some degree.
One of the most obvious places to look for user feedback is the website itself. The customer review section is usually clearly advertised and is not hard to find at all. However, you shouldn’t be overly trusting with the reviews you find there. Take note of an interesting thing – there aren’t any negative reviews on any of these user feedback pages. And the positive ones mostly read like they were written by an alien that only knows how people talk from a book.
There is no doubt that most platforms use their own websites to pat themselves on the back a little bit too hard. So you are better off heading to a third-party website to see if you can gather some honest opinions. The target demographics of studying platforms aren’t usually very generous when it comes to feedback. But you can always find at least a couple of valuable posts that will help you figure out what you’re dealing with.
Of course, you may come across some shilling even on an independent platform. But these are usually very easy to spot. Just think of what you or your fellow students would write to praise a studying service for helping write paper. Then compare it to what you see. If the images don’t match – you are probably looking at a fake post. Keep in mind that the same goes for negative reviews as well.
But the most reliable way of gathering feedback is to see everything for yourself. It takes effort, money, and time to definitively test any service of your choosing. And these resources are oftentimes in great shortage among students. Nonetheless, try to not lean into untested services when working on important projects. A sudden betrayal in the form of low-quality information or product can backfire spectacularly.
Final words
There is still some stigma lingering over the online study resources. Old-school professors tend to treat it as something that prevents students from making ‘real’ progress. But the reality is, in most career paths, you will hardly ever be put in a situation where your internet access is going to be unavailable for some reason. And it would be irresponsible to not learn how to use such a tool in an efficient manner.
Every new generation of students is getting better and better at using technology. They are adapting to the world that’s changing around them as they should. And you shouldn’t be afraid of joining in. As long as you use the fruits of technological progress responsibly – there is nothing wrong with it. It’s not only about efficient learning. It is about stepping up to the competition. The future success of your career may very well depend on it.