The first sentence of Quizlet’s mission statement reads, “At Quizlet we believe anyone can learn anything.” However, in the year since Quizlet has put up their pay wall, only students willing to pay for the $35 Quizlet Plus subscription are able to access crucial study tools. Furthermore, MFS does not have a school-wide subscription, something both students and teachers are interested in. A school-wide subscription, as proposed in Agenda Committee, would grant access to parts of Quizlet that are no longer available to free users. In particular, a subscription would grant MFS students access to the “Write” and “Spell” categories, which are specifically helpful for memorizing vocabulary terms.
The topic was brought up in Agenda Committee earlier this month, and the idea received unanimous support. Agenda Co-Clerk Mason Levens ’25 expressed that the purchase of Quizlet Plus would grant the student body “additional access to studying resources only [provided] through the use of Quizlet Plus.”
Levens elaborated, “We have begun drafting a proposal to present to the library staff, because that’s one of the primary offices that approves subscriptions.” The only concern that Levens raised was the price, where he mentioned, “Buying Quizlet Plus in bulk for a school is cheaper per person than purchasing an individual membership, but still could potentially be in the range of thousands of dollars.”
Many students believe that Quizlet directly correlates to their academic success. Willie Didie ‘’26 explained, “I use Quizlet every single day. It has helped my grades tremendously, it has boosted my study habits quite a bit, and it has made studying a lot more fun for me.” Some students are even more passionate about the learning tool. RJ McFadden ’24 commented, “Quizlet is love, Quizlet is life. Without Quizlet I do not know if there would be a Robert Joseph McFadden.” McFadden, who bought the Quizlet Plus package a year ago, asserted that it is well worth the annual fee. He explained, “You just get a more personalized experience, and you are able to learn exactly what you don’t know.”
While Quizlet has proven to be a great study tool for students, teachers also enjoy incorporating Quizlet into their lesson plans. Josefina Paolello, World Language Department Head, reported that she “uses Quizlet to create lists [of vocabulary] for students so they are able to practice at home.” On the topic of Quizlet’s shift to a paid subscription, Paollelo said, “It was really upsetting for me because I did not want to ask students to pay for that.” Although Quizlet had been primarily regarded as being most useful for language courses, teachers in other disciplines also believe that it could be used to benefit students. Upper School English teacher Dan Sussman presumed that it could be “a useful tool for vocab, grammar, and lit terms in particular.”
When questioned about a realistic timeline for when students would be able to access Quizlet Plus subscriptions, Mason Levens ‘25 optimistically remarked, “If it gets approval pricewise, access could happen pretty quickly. Within the timeframe of a month or two.”
