Study Soup

What is Study Soup?

Study Soup is a peer-to-peer marketplace that connects students who need help with students who can provide it, offering study guides, course notes and tutoring.

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.

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 as much as $100 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, too.

Pay formula

Students get paid for two things — uploading notes ($5 per upload) and study guides ($10) and they get a $20 referral fee anytime someone joins Study Soup to get access to their notes.

The site pays you for every upload via PayPal, generally within 48 hours.

However, the more lucrative activity is simply telling students who need study help about the platform and getting them to sign up. Study Soup note takers get a QR code to provide to anyone they refer to the site. For each referral, you get $20. If you get 10 referrals, the site will give you a $100 bonus.

Other options

Study Soup also enlists college students to write for its newsletter and for “Campus Marketing Coordinators.”

Each of these jobs pay $15 per hour and require about 10 hours a week of work.

What they expect from notetakers

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. Study Soup also wants you to 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, it 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

Study Soup generally provides a contract, which you should read to make sure you understand all the requirements. Realize that it can be a major negative if you miss any classes, for whatever reason. (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. So be sure to check with your school to make sure you’re not functioning outside of the rules.

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.”