The tutoring website Paper has recently risen in popularity among students at Carlmont after frequent referrals by Carlmont staff members. However, there have been inconsistencies in the quality of tutoring across the platform based on which online tutor is assisting a student.
Many students first learned about Paper through the weekly email sent by Carlmont’s principal, Ralph Crame, but many students only began to use the resource because of teachers’ frequent recommendations.
Teachers have been recommending Paper because they have full access to the service, including what their students are getting help with from Paper, allowing for them to better adapt their classrooms to help with areas many students are struggling with.
“When teachers log in, they can see which of their students have submitted essays for review and the feedback that was given. If a student has a live messaging session with a tutor, we can see the transcript. We also get a monthly report sent by email,” said Susan Gold, an English teacher at Carlmont High School.
Many students are surprised by their tutors’ quick feedback and comments, which they usually receive after a three-hour wait time.
“The general rule is a 24 hours wait time to receive feedback, but for me, it only took around two or three hours after I submitted it, and I received an email that my writing was reviewed,” said Alice Finkelstein, a junior at Carlmont High School.
There were some tutors whose comments were either too vague or focused more on mechanics, which students found unhelpful. Some chose to resubmit their essays and ended up getting a more substantial response from a different tutor.
— Susan Gold
Although the tutors are quick to review the writings, the quality of the feedback is oftentimes inconsistent, leaving some students unsatisfied.
“There were some tutors whose comments were either too vague or focused more on mechanics, which students found unhelpful. Some chose to resubmit their essays and ended up getting a more substantial response from a different tutor,” Gold said.
Aside from submitting English essays, Haley Chen, a senior at Carlmont High School, has used Paper multiple times for her college essays.
“I get an extra viewpoint [on my writing], which is always great and helpful to have,” Chen said.
Live messaging with a tutor offers a different experience than submitting work for some students. Lotus Tang, a junior at Carlmont High School, who tried the live messaging with a tutor, is not content with the wait time and believes the tutors are not helpful.
“It took three minutes for me to get a response every time I sent a message, and I know he was helping multiple people at the same time, but it was too slow, and after a whole hour, he still couldn’t answer my question, and so I just ended up giving up,” Tang said.
Although Paper does have its pros and cons, many teachers and students will continue to use it as it can be helpful when students are doing work without access to other resources.
“Nothing beats getting help from a teacher and tutoring provided by Carlmont’s Academic Center at school, but sometimes students need help on assignments in the evening or on the weekends, and they don’t necessarily have homework support at home,” Gold said.
