When Canton resident Jenna Carpenter returned to school last September, she decided to try a new, online study tool.
It's called Cram Stoppers and it allows students to set up an account to create quizzes using their class work.
Carpenter had always made her own quizzes to help her study. However, with Cram Stoppers, she found that she got better ones. Unlike her own static study guides, Cram Stoppers created new, random quizzes.
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"It’s a better, more efficient way to supplement what I was already doing," said Carpenter, who learned about Cram Stoppers from family friend and site creator Julie Wilson.
"It really forces you to see if you know it. I think asking yourself the questions really shows you what you know."
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A diagnostic medical sonography major at Georgia Northwestern Technical College, Carpenter takes several in-depth courses like physics, cross sectional anatomy and normal sonographic appearances. With a full class schedule, her time is limited. Because her quizzes are stored on Cram Stoppers, Carpenter can retrieve them quickly to review and study.
“You just don’t have time with finals because there’s so many, so close together, and you just don’t have time to pull all that together,” she said. “The fact they are stored in there is a huge time saver.”
Having an effective, efficient study aid was Wilson’s goal when she founded QwizzysWorld.com, a study site for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The Cumming mother of two was prompted by her son’s lack of preparation for taking tests, and wanted her kids to learn how to study. She chose an online format because that’s where the kids are.
The premise is simple: "You study as you enter the information," Wilson said. "You study as you’re taking the quizzes. You get immediate feedback via the quiz scores."
In September 2010, Wilson launched Cram Stoppers, which is geared for high school and college students. She also developed QuizInfinity.com, a free site for teachers, tutors and homeschooling parents. Wilson has more than 100 paid users (rates start at $5 per month and there's a 30-day free trial) across all three sites, but with free accounts for teachers and homeschool parents, the sites actually receive thousands of hits.
As for Carpenter, using Cram Stoppers certainly seems to be time well spent.
"The big thing for me was time efficiency," she said. "A byproduct was reduced stress. You don’t have time to go back and study everything."
The results speak for themselves: Carpenter has made all A’s and B’s in her classes.
