Quizlet is a popular study site with 50 million monthly users. However, recent platform changes have frustrated students here.

With unique study tools, students nationwide report that Quizlet has contributed to their academic success. In fact, in a 2020 report, 92 percent of users reported higher grades after using the site.

“I think that Quizlet is helpful when there’s vocabulary to study for a foreign language class or other kinds of terms for history or something like that, I found it helpful,” Ruby Cohen-Weinburg ’25 said.

Quizlet’s popularity soared because it was free. While there was an option to pay for a premium account, a free account enabled access to study tools.

However, as of August 1, unlimited use of both the “learn” and “test modes” are only available with a Quizlet Plus account.

Now, those without a Quizlet Plus account will have just one practice test and five rounds of learn mode per study set. Quizlet Plus users are charged either $35.99 annually, or $7.99 per month.

The learn and test modes are favorites among many students, especially the Learn feature. These tools are well-liked for their effectiveness, their ability to help students with memorization, and for helping students master unfamiliar terms.

“That’s what I’ve been using for my Spanish test. And I have to say with Spanish, it’s very much about writing very much about pronunciation. And the learn feature had all of those things and used to be free,” Stephanie Altschul ’25 said.

Some students here, like Altschul, say they are upset about these changes, and while they appreciate the premium offer, they do not want to pay for the tools that they have been able to use for free in the past.

“The premium features they had before those are great. I appreciated the premium offer then, for dedicated Quizlet users that is a great option to have,” Altschul said. “However, for my Quizlet using, I need to use Quizlet for my classes and I cannot do that effectively with the changes they have recently made.”

Additionally, this sudden change has disrupted studying for students who find that Quizlet works well with their learning style.

“I think that this sudden change is kind of breaking the study habits of students that have have been using Quizlet because it works well for their own learning style,” Cohen-Weinberg said. “And now Quizlet starts to charge money for this kind of studying. I don’t think it’s fair for students who have been using it long-term, and who know that it helps them learn.”

With the news of the new adjustments, one of the biggest dissatisfactions among users has been about the learn tool.

“I definitely used the learn feature a lot and then when I felt that I was comfortable I would do the match or do like a sample test,” Cohen-Weinberg said.

While the new features do let users access several free trials per study set, students report that the amount of free rounds is not nearly enough to help memorize material.

“I use the learn feature correction, I used to learn to use the learn feature, however, with the new Quizlet plus features, I can only use learn five times. What? What does that even mean? I can’t even study anymore,” Altschul said.

People seeking free or cheaper alternatives to Quizlet can turn to sites like Kahoot or Course Hero.