Today, Cliffs Notes is known as an extensive database of study materials. It has collected many life-saving tips for students as well as helpful book reviews, and one can use it in order to prepare for upcoming tests. However, you need to weigh all the pros and cons before making the final decision regarding this service. Take a look at the most fundamental points and set your sights.
Cliff Notes Design and Interface: What We Can Conclude
In most cases, people make their decisions regarding buying the product or service shortly after entering the home page of the website. Eye-catching design and good-looking interface are two things that identify whether a customer’s decision will be negative or positive. So, what can we say about Cliff Notes?
Cliffnotes, in essence, is a services-oriented company, where softly pushing a customer towards using services is crucial. However, right after entering the webpage, it becomes apparent that there is not much information outlined. More specifically, it is somewhat challenging to find the options for requesting a paper or directly proceeding with essay checking. Instead, it offers assistance in preparing for different exam types. Another point that CliffsNotes has outlined on the main page is a bunch of quick overviews of various topics.
It is rather complicated to understand how to navigate the website and where to find the entire spectrum of services. As for the design, the website does not make a significant difference by using extraordinary designs. And it is not outdated or dull either.
What We Can Say About the Quality
Cliffs Notes is not a standard service where you can get your next paper written from scratch. It does not really deal with actual, direct help regarding proofreading your essay or giving you recommendations about your writing. However, it still hosts writers who are in charge of coming up with different content ideas and study guides. Additionally, the writers create tests for preparing for complicated exams, such as GRE and GMAT.
When it comes to assisting students in preparing for crucial and decisive exams, the quality must be flawless. After having examined multiple resources provided by Cliffs notes, it came to be known that some articles are for sure of excellent quality. Such materials contain fundamental facts, current data, and overall tips for getting a more sound understanding of specific topics. Some of them also provide a sufficient literature overview.
On the other hand, not all works provided by Cliffs Notes are of the same equally good quality. Some guides and posts are somewhat outdated or lack fundamental points. It is sometimes the case that some literature pieces contain grammatical and vocabulary flaws. Most likely, it all depends on the author. So, one needs to be cautious when choosing the literature, which is a negative case for Cliff notes.
Three Services That You Can Access
Cliffs Notes is a platform for helping students with getting prepared for future exams. To clarify, the site does not provide writing services. In other words, one cannot ask Cliff notes to complete an essay for them or to proofread the paper. Instead, it is a place to find multiple helpful literature pieces and tips for getting ready for an exam of any complexity.
The range of Cliff note’s services is limited to providing test preparations and developing study guides.
Test preparations
An ability to exercise a lot and use various tips in order to boost the quality of test preparations is what all responsible students want to have. At Cliffs notes, you may find tests for four academic levels: high school, college, graduate school, and professional.
What Cliffs Notes does to help students with scoring high during tests implies providing books and sample tests. As for the books, one cannot access them for free; instead, one has an option to buy a particular book. What you can get for free is a couple of bits of advice regarding the final exam and sample questions.
Study guides
What Cliffs Notes does is provides a sufficient number of study guides to help students accomplish their study goals. In general, the website has collected many topics you will face during your college or university studies. Whenever you feel like you want to get a brief but sufficient understanding of a particular topic, you can search it and read the description. The good thing is that such one-page reports are, reasonably speaking, informative.
If you feel like you do not want to limit yourself to reading a study guide, you may opt for more advanced books. However, they are not available for free, so you will need to pay.
Literature Notes
Cliffs Notes has also prepared something for those struggling with understanding poetry or other literary works. It has collected over 300 different works and explained them for free. These so-called supplements for reading are created by experienced teachers who have ground skills and proficiency. Each text is explained in detail, and each summary follows a logical, coherent structure.
Which Payment Methods are Available
After having examined Cliffs Notes website thoroughly, we still haven’t managed to find the relevant payment information. Presumably, one can conduct a payment with a Mastercard or Visa, or even pay with Apple pay. However, this is only a guess.
It appears to be suspicious that the company does not outline any information about payments. And, most likely, Cliffs notes does not support PayPal payments. As long as PayPal is the most secure payment method, most users would be willing to pay with it.
Another essential comment implies the refund policy. Any trustworthy company that cares for its customers outlines refunds policy in case of an accident purchase or unmet expectations. As far as we can judge from Cliffs Notes website, the company does not deal with refunds, so one will not be able to get money back in case of an unsuccessful purchase.
Which Prices Should You Expect From Cliffs Notes
One good thing about Cliffs Notes is that most book reviews and literature pieces are available for free. This is undeniably a suitable option for students who are not really willing to pay a fortune for such kind of services. Nonetheless, many books are available only for sale. So, to read study guides, you will not be asked to pay anything. This means that you can read as much as you want.
As we mentioned already, you should buy books when you have an intention. Nonetheless, you can always read the study guide instead of a book. But when this is not the case, you will need to pay. Additionally, test preparation is also a paid feature. For instance, you may buy a plan for a GMAT exam for $17.99. Or, you may purchase books, prices for which start from $10.99.
Yet, you can even download a mobile app and pay $1.99 to access the course. When buying a book or a course, keep in mind that you will also need to pay a tax and cover shipping costs.
Estimated Delivery Time and Deadlines
As long as Cliffs notes does not offer you any subscription plan or help from expert writers, there are no deadlines at all. Once you pay for a course or purchase a particular book, you can access it straight away. So, the good thing is that you may download such courses right after you have decided to. However, you may need to wait until your purchase is unlocked for you.
Is There a Refund Policy?
When dealing with relevant services, one needs to be confident that he or she will get the quality in exchange for the money paid. Otherwise, one needs to be sure that the service is capable of refunding. It looks like Cliffs Notes does not assume that refunds are necessary in their case. Partially, we can understand this: there is no subscription and no physical product. Additionally, there is no exchange option. So, we may admit that by limiting refunds, the company protects itself from unwanted losses. However, there is always a risk of downloading wrong study materials or merely downloading them by mistake. In this case, the company needs to provide refunds. Overall, the fact that Cliffs Notes has no money-back policies is a drawback.
The company states that there is no point in doubting the quality of study materials. As the official webpage claims, experienced teachers and professors are the only authors. Nonetheless, there is no chance of finding any data about these real teachers on Cliffs Notes webpage. So, there is not enough evidence to trust this claim.
Is There any Customer Support?
Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to contact the support department or make an inquiry. If you have found a flaw in the content of a study guide or just want to make a suggestion, you may freely contact a specific support department. Additionally, you may submit your feedback or make a suggestion regarding the website’s performance. Overall, it looks like Cliffs Notes motivates customers to contact them whenever they feel like doing so.
If you are interested in a partnership with Cliffs Notes, there is such an option available. In essence, you may contact support to advertise your own product or learn about different sponsorship opportunities.
One More Thing Before the Final Word: Pros and Cons
Like any students-oriented service, Cliffs Notes has both advantages and disadvantages. It suits one purpose, but is totally irrelevant for another:
Pros
- A variety of study materials
- Many resources are available for free
- Tools for preparing for advanced exams
- A mobile app available
Cons
- Study guides do not cover an extensive range of topics
- No refunds policy
- One cannot pay via PayPal
- Prices are somewhat overvalued
- A tiny number of services
- No real writers who can offer you a direct assistance
Final Verdict
Cliffs Notes is a service that may come in handy for those who seek literature reviews and study guides. If you are pretty aware of what you are looking for, you may take Cliffs notes into account. Additionally, it may pass those students who need nothing but general, shallow information regarding a particular topic. Nonetheless, sometimes you may find yourself in a situation when you strongly need the help of a real writer. In this case, Cliffs Notes is not the top option. Cliffs notes, additionally, works well as an extra helper for specific purposes. It is better not to rely on it fully if you are not 100% sure of your own academic and research capabilities.
FAQ
What is Cliffs Notes?
Cliffs notes is a service that helps students to prepare for various tests and supplies them with study materials. Unlike many relevant students-oriented services, it does not offer assistance in essay proofreading. Besides, there are no human writers that can write a sophisticated paper for you.
Is Cliffs Notes legit?
Cliffs notes is a legit website that provides nothing but study materials and guides for degree-seekers. Having looked through other cliffs notes reviews, we may conclude that it is not associated with any illegal activities.
How much does Cliffs Notes cost?
There are no fixed costs for using Cliffs Notes. You don’t even need to create an account and subscribe to use the guides. However, test prep is a paid feature, and the price for it varies according to the test type (e.g., near $18 for GMAT). Books are also paid, and the price for them is different for each book.
Is Cliffs Notes scam?
There is no reason to assign Cliffs notes a ‘scam’ mark. There is nothing fraudulent in its activity since you pay only for the study materials you purchase.
Is Cliffs Notes safe?
We may admit that there is no need to doubt Cliffs Notes safety. However, there is yet not enough evidence of the safety of payment methods it uses.
Is Cliffs Notes plagiarism-free?
Professors and teachers write content for Cliffs Notes. Therefore, it is based on different literature pieces but is plagiarism-free.
Are there Cliffs Notes discounts?
You may sometimes come across some books, the price of which is reduced in the short-term. Normally, there are no discounts for other study materials.
Chief Editor
William Hill
William has been working in the essay writing industry for the last decade, helping high school and college students to find perfect writing companies that meet their needs. He is fond of content creation, web writing, and everything linked to digital marketing.
