Study Woes: Bye Bye, Free Quizlet, Hello to New Platforms

In light of recent events, many students are disheartened by the change in Quizlet’s policies. The online study platform is no longer offering all of its learning services for free, creating challenges for students who depend on these programs in our digital age. 

Is Quizlet charging an adequate fee for its services in a business-savvy move, or is it putting essential study strategies behind a paywall? In Nanuet, students and teachers alike have shared their opinions on the issue. 

Peter Tynan, a current sophomore and history enthusiast, expressed his opinions on the issue. 

“I think it’s fair for a corporation to do that,” Tynan said. 

Free alternatives have already been created and implemented by the student body, according to Tynan, who added that he did not find the site especially helpful anyway. 

“There’s already some alternatives I’ve begun using,” he said,. “like Knowt.”

For context, Knowt is a rising alternative to Quizlet. It is a free platform that offers similar services, and even allows you to import study sets directly from Quizlet. 

“It’s hilarious how many teachers say ‘just use Quizlet,’ not realizing that you have to pay for it,” Tynan said. 

Mrs. Jackie Umbrino, a Spanish teacher, has also relied on the use of platforms like Quizlet in the past. As a foreign language teacher, this issue has been especially relevant to her classroom experiences. Foreign language students have traditionally relied on Quizlet as an efficient way to memorize vocabulary and grammar structures.  

Luckily, many students are adapting by straying away from the digital study methods and embracing a more traditional pen-and-paper approach, according to Mrs. Umbrino. 

It should be noted that there are some services from Quizlet that still remain free, but are still a step backwards from the old model, according to Mrs. Umbrino. 

“I also think that some students have relied on the free resources on Quizlet such as the flashcards,” she said, adding, “I find that more active methods of studying such as typing out the words work better than passively clicking through flashcards.”

Mrs. Umbrino and her students have also embraced Knowt as an alternative. 

“I have shown my students Knowt, which seems to be a viable option so far,” she said. “The site has expanded in the last month or so to include various ways to study and learn vocabulary that [are] no longer available for free on Quizlet.” 

So far, it seems that there has been enough space for alternatives like Knowt to do the heavy lifting. However, this process of adaptation has not been without obstacles. Quizlet’s changes in policy still result in issues and inefficiencies in students’ approaches to studying, according to Mrs. Umbrino. 

“I think the major challenge has been finding new ways to study,” she said. “Quizlet has been a major resource for so long that students and teachers have been able to rely on.”