In this article, we talk about what you can do before, during and after class to productively use Cambly to your advantage.
We’ve based our suggestions on the way students who successfully reached their language-learning goals on Cambly used the platform.
1. Before Class
Steps to take: Picking a tutor, scheduling a lesson, signing up for a course, preparation for class.
You can have lessons with tutors who are online at the same time as you, or schedule sessions with them in advance through their profiles.
We recommend you attend lessons with different tutors during your first week at Cambly to decide which ones you want to work with long-term. We also suggest you schedule your lessons a few weeks in advance using our booking system.
You can find a tutor who meets your criteria by filtering your search. The filter icon is located above the tutors page of our website, and on the upper righthand corner of the tutors section of our application. This feature allows you to pick tutors based on their English accents and teaching styles. This way, you can work with tutors who you deem best to assist you with reaching your language goals.
If you find a tutor you like in your search and see that they’re listed as online on their profile, you can start a lesson with them right away. If they’re offline or unavailable, or you don’t want to have a lesson with them at that moment, you can look at their calendars and book a session on a date and time that suits both your schedules.
Another way to schedule a lesson is to filter your tutor search on our homepage based on the date and time you want your lesson to take place. This way, you can see which tutors are available when you are.
We recommend you attend lessons regularly with the same tutors for a couple of weeks to ensure continuous progression in your learning process. Having a consistent schedule with the same tutors will allow them to pinpoint the areas you need to improve and guide you better.
Students who successfully reached their goals on Cambly opt for experienced tutors who have high ratings. Our studies show that these students took lessons from tutors who specialized in the area they wanted to improve and had experience teaching students at their proficiency level. To ensure you use your time on Cambly as productively as possible, you should consider prioritizing these criteria as well.
Choosing a course that’s geared towards your specific learning goals and compatible with your proficiency level will also bring you one step closer to success. Once you choose a course, you’ll follow the lesson plan it comprises step by step. This way, when you start your session with your tutor, they’ll be able to see which topic you’ll be studying that day, and you can begin your lesson right away.
If there’s a topic you want to study in class that’s not part of the course’s program, you can let your tutor know. For instance, you might want to discuss a newspaper article or learn vocabulary specific to a certain field. If you want to incorporate specific source material into your lesson, you can notify your tutor at the beginning of the session.
In order to make good use of your time with your tutor, we suggest you take a look at the lesson material of the course you’re registered to, or the external sources you’re studying in class, and prepare any questions you might have ahead of time.
2. During Class
Steps to take: Greeting your tutor, choosing the topic of the class, using the translation tool, asking your tutor for corrections, requesting source material from your tutor, agreeing on a date and time for your next class.
Upon logging on to your session and greeting your tutor, they will ask you the topic you want to study that day in class. If there isn’t specific source material you want to study as part of that day’s topic, you can ask your tutor to provide you with some (for instance, articles to improve your reading skills or vocabulary). If you’ve brought source material to study in class, you can send your tutor a link to the material through the chat box. Or, if you’re registered to a course, you can let your tutor know that you want to follow the lesson plan of the course that day.
Make sure to inform your tutor that you want them to correct your errors while speaking English. They can write out the accurate way to say what you mean through the chat box.
If you can’t remember a word or expression in English during the class discussion, you can use the translation tool in the chat box. This feature will provide you with the English translation for whatever you write in the chat box in your own language.
At the end of your lesson, you can ask your tutor for additional sources to help solidify what you learned, or to prepare you for the next class.
3. After Class
Steps to take: Looking over what was discussed in class, watching the recording of the lesson, rereading the corrections your tutor made, taking notes.
Your account gives you full access to your tutor’s corrections and the recordings of your lessons. Watching the recordings of your lessons, glancing at your tutor’s corrections, and taking notes of key information you learned in class will allow you to solidify what you learned.
Make sure to book your next lesson right after you finish your session. Remember, it’s important that you work consistently with a tutor so they can establish which areas you need to improve and assist you in your progress.
If you have questions or concerns, you can always visit our help centre. We wish you a productive time on Cambly.
Good luck with your studies!
