Study Soup

Study Soup Review:

If you’re a college student looking for a way to earn some pocket money, Study Soup provides an interesting option. By signing up to take notes in class, you can earn $100 or more per class. And there’s a good chance that the detailed notes you’ll need to take for this job will help you get better grades.

How it works

Study Soup enlists college students at accredited universities to take notes in large classes and make them available for sale to their fellow students. However, you must be enrolled in the class to qualify. And, you generally won’t be enlisted to take notes for small classes — those with less than 50 students — or for classes that have just one exam. Ideally, the class should have at least three exams.

If you meet those requirements, you can sign up at the site and it will have you sign a contract stipulating what you need to do, when and when and how you’ll get paid.

Pay formula

Students get paid for two things — uploading notes as per the contract, and for each time someone joins Study Soup to get access to your notes.

If you meet all the contract requirements, which involve uploading weekly notes and study guides prior to tests, the site will pay you $100 at the end of the semester. However, the site will also provide you with a QR code to share. This QR code allows your fellow students to go directly to your class notes. Anytime someone signs up for the Study Soup service from your QR code, you’ll get an extra $20.

All payments are made at the end of the semester via PayPal.

What they expect

Every class is different. Study Soup expects you to provide details of the class schedule — when classes and exams are held. You’ll then sign a contract stipulating when you’ll upload notes and study guides. Your notes must be original to you. You cannot upload the instructor’s study guide or any other materials that you didn’t personally create.

The site prefers typed notes. Use full sentences that are easy for anyone to understand. Also share your unique study guide QR code widely. This also benefits you since you get a commission on each sale.

Multiple classes

The site allows students to take notes for more than one class. However, discourages you from agreeing to take notes for more than two classes at a time. That’s simply because it’s tough to meet all the note-taking requirements and still live a normal life on campus.

Cautions

Read the contract. It’s likely that you won’t get paid the $100 per-class stipend if you miss any one of the required uploads. You should know that in advance and understand that there’s not likely to be any exceptions for illness or extenuating circumstances. After all, the main reason someone will buy notes is because they might miss a class. If you do too, there’s little value in incomplete notes.

Also some schools discourage selling notes to and through outside companies. However, most universities also provide jobs taking notes. These jobs are normally listed by the school’s “disability services” departments. It’s worth checking for these opportunities. They sometimes pay more generously with fewer requirements than Study Soup.

Recommendations

If you have the initiative to work with the Disability Services department at your school, you may be able to sell your notes without StudySoup, like this blogger did. When neither your school nor Study Soup offers note taking jobs for your classes, know that there are several other sites that also pay for notes. Some worth looking into: Nexus Notes and Stuvia.

What their note-takers say:

Weekly requirements

“Job required class notes, at least one upload per week. Two exam study guides must be uploaded per class subscribed. Money was uploaded to account one week after requirements were made. Flexible hours since you work on your own time. You make your own management. The hardest part of job was meeting the weekly requirements. The most enjoyable part of job was being own boss since you work on your own time.”