I've started blocking students who just read AI-generated answers during class. It's so obvious, incredibly boring, and a complete waste of time. The answers sound so stupid and fake that I can hardly stop myself from rolling my eyes.

Do students really think we can't tell when they're just reading from an AI site?

I am considering joining Cambly Pro. I have been tutoring on Cambly for about five years and have a 100% rating. I have not been online much this year due to other obligations. My video is outdated, and I understand you have to upload a new video and photo. Is it worth the effort? Has it been a good experience? Cambly was great during the pandemic and gave me some extra pocket money. I still have some of my regulars and am happy to have been a witness to their progress over the years. Any input would be appreciated.

Hi everyone, my profile score is 97.5. I know it could be better, but it’s not terrible either. There are almost no available PH hours, even on weekends, until the day they actually open up. Monday to Friday is absolutely awful. Luckily, I don’t rely only on Cambly for income, but it still seems pretty bad. A score of 97.5 should still get me more PH hours if I want them. How is it for those of you with scores of 98 or 98.5?

Right about this time of day I get the calls from Saudi students who can barely speak and apparently logged into Cambly on a whim with zero clue about anything!

Hey....I think I'll take a Business English class titled "User Experience" even though I don't know what User Experience is, don't work in tech or want to study Business English. The teacher will figure this all out for me even if I can't make a sentence in English because they are English teachers and that's what they do.

Go ahead and lower my rating Cambly, but I will be ending the lesson at the 4 minute mark and blocking because 2 minutes is not enough time to actually determine if a student can get their head out of their arse and actually somehow communicate to me what they want to do. Sometimes they can and other times it's hopeless.

For everyone out there concerned with their rating I'll tell you one thing....for the most part it's not on you, it's on Cambly and students who don't know what they are doing or even trying to do.

I'll be limiting my hours at certain times of the day to avoid this nonsense and unfair treatment and expectations of tutors.

I wish there was a way to keep my rating high without ever getting any regulars. I don't want regulars. I don't want hour long lessons. I want 15-30 minute chats with random people who I'll likely never talk to again.

That's all I want to do on Cambly.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Yes. Maintained a perfect 100% rating for 2 years solid only to get f---ed over by new students in the last 2 months. Now I'm sat at 97% and can't qualify for Pro. Edit: When Cambly rolled out their Pro program a few months ago, I saw a tutor with an 83% positive rating 🙏🏻

This happened a few weeks ago, but I am only posting about it now. I had a student arrested during my class. He was not a regular student, so it was my first time seeing this student, and I was on a priority hour.

The student calls me from South Korea. He was probably 62 or something. I immediately knew something was wrong. He was not at home, he was at the park, at night, which is normal enough, as I get plenty of students who take classes in random places, but it was his face that surprised me. His face was somewhat bloody and beaten up, it looked like he had just recently been in a fight, and at first I was not sure if I should ask about it or not so I just tried to ask a few basic questions to know about the person but I had to ask.

I asked him about his nose and why it was bleeding, and he first said, "No, I'm from South Korea, not North Korea," which was random and had nothing to do with the conversation. In fact, he was talking over me a lot and didn't let me ask many questions. He kept saying he was not from North Korea, but I never once asked him if he was, and I would not imagine North Korea would even have access to Cambly. I started to notice he was visibly drunk/intoxicated.

So I finally got him to understand the question about his nose and face. He told me that he "fell" yesterday, but I did not believe it. Then, a few moments later, someone yells at him in Korean. He doesn't engage but looks up from his phone for a second. Then it happens again and louder and closer. He starts yelling back and stops talking to me altogether. After the yelling continues for a bit, he flips the phone, and two angry-looking police officers are standing in front of him on the park bench and are yelling and pointing at him. The student keeps the camera flipped for a moment so I can see the police, for some reason and then flips it back to his face. The police and he are still arguing. He then flips the phone camera and shows ME to the police. I have a Cambly background behind me when I teach, and I said nothing. I just sort of shook my head like "I don't know what's going on, or who this guy is," and then the police get frustrated with the student and yell in Korean. I don't speak Korean, but I swear the officer called him a liar or something because only later did I realize I believe the student was trying to use me as some sort of alibi.

From there, the student put the camera back towards his face, while I saw the two police officers forcibly grab him off the bench and take the phone from him. Moments later, the call disconnected.

So I don't know exactly what happened, but from what I understand, he was probably in some bar fight, or I have no idea, but I don't think he was arrested for anything serious. But he definitely did something wrong and was involved in most likely some sort of fight. I really can't confirm why he was arrested. But I never thought I would be an alibi on Cambly haha. That was not expected at all. I reported the student afterward to hopefully prevent this from happening again, at least for me, but I am not sure what happens when one reports someone and if they can keep using Cambly or not. I really want to know what this person was thinking. Running or hiding from the police and then deciding to just hop on real quick onto Cambly and start an English lesson.

I am curious what other tutors think about this. Have any other tutors had any experiences like this before?

Just got a notification that Cambly Pro will be rolled out to ALL tutors. Finally we all get a chance to show what we got and earn a bit more doing it.

Hello everyone! I'm starting to set up my Cambly account and I'm thinking about what headset to get. Should I get earbuds or headphones? A background noise suppression software? Which ones have the best noise canceling feature? What's worked for you?

But I also have an issue with dogs possibly barking in the background and landscapers mowing the lawn outside. Has anyone else had this issue? How did you resolve it? Thanks in advance!

I think she has mental health issues since she kept speaking really loudly and acting like something was freaking her out during the last class with this student. I had to use Google translate to ask her to keep it down.

Today, the mom walked next to my student and looked in on the class while in her bra and underwear and just walked back and forth in the background a few times. Her poor kid got annoyed with her and told her to go away the second time she did that.

The mom is from Korea and that is definitely not normal behavior. It is normal to see Chinese dads walking around in their underwear in the background. That's happened a few times.

At least she wasn't naked. We'll see what happens in the next class...

Hey folks, I’ve been on Cambly Pro since the beginning, (no I’m not Cambly rep or anything but I started Cambly Last year in September and quickly earned 100% with regulars and full PHS in like 3 months) ……and I want to clear up the confusion. I’m also friends with another Pro tutor and they have had the same experience as me.

1. YOU DO NOT GET EXTRA WORKLOAD

You set or confirm student goals in the first 5 minutes, and then it’s like any other class—chatting or focusing on their needs. If it’s a first time student you can just go over their goals with them, ask them what they’ve been working on etc. If you are trying to build regulars this is a solid way to do it because if YOU WANT you can say”hey I can help you reach these goals by blah blah…”. But honestly 75% of the just want conversation lol.

2. You do NOT lose visibility.

I still get regulars, classic students, Pro students.
I do 25 Priority Hours weekly, and they fill up with all types of students. I’m not sure where this misinformation is coming from. Maybe this will change ?? But so far I’ve not had a single lapse in my student variety or visibility

3.Feedback is easy.

Cambly’s AI generates it, and you can tweak it in seconds if you want. I often will delete one of the feedback categories and just use the first box of feedback to share how well the student did. But I don’t spend more than 15 seconds or less with feedback.
The only thing I type in is the subject line. “Hi___ our class was great! See you next time!…. Which also saves as a drop down menu lol. So I only really change the name 😅…

Bottom line: Don’t let rumors scare you—apply if you want to earn a little more for the same amount of work.

As the title says, can Stripe send the Cambly pay to a personal bank account (other than your country of residence), or is it limited to a Wise account only?

The new Wise (Thailand) is looking worrying.

PS Paypal is a non starter for me!!

I guess that the title isn't totally accurate because of course there is a reason, but what I mean is they haven't done anything THAT bad. Just generally boring conversation, not replying to messages, not an overall friendly vibe. I have a regular that I find myself dreading the classes a bit. They also complained once that they didn't feel like they were improving fast enough, so tried more challenging lessons but he didn't like them. Today I was about 90 seconds late for a class and he closed the lesson. My fault to be fair, but I had a wifi issue and had to reset it. I thought they were a little impatient here and I am tempted to block them. I just find all my other regulars have an easy and friendly vibe to the lesson that is missing here. What do you guys think?

Just checked that last 3 months - got 96% 98% and 97%... goodbye $15 an hour.... it was nice while it lasted thinking i was finally going to get a little pay rise for some classes.... oh well

Once upon a time, there was a profitable little magical kingdom ruled by a mean Queen named Cambly. She ruled her vassals (the tutors) with an iron hand and low pay for more than ten years. One day, she was feeling so guilty about it that she decided it was time to give them the raise they deserved. She consulted her noble advisors on how she could pay them more without spending a single dime.

After many discussions, the main advisor came up with a brilliant idea: “Let’s create a new category of vassals called Pro vassals, and let’s pay them a little more.”

The Queen yelled, “Pay a little more? I don’t want to pay anything more! That’s why I have advisors like you!”

Quickly, the advisor replied, “Don’t worry, Your Majesty, you won’t pay more—the people (the students) will!”

“And how are we going to convince them to pay more?” she argued.

“That’s easy, Your Majesty. We’ll promise personalized classes with feedback from only the elite—the chosen ones!”

“Are you sure they’re going to believe that? After all, it will still be the same old thing: people wanting to chat in broken English. Besides, many don’t want to learn anything; they just want someone to talk to in these dark times!”

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. They will. People almost want to be fooled—they want to believe!”

A year passed, and the Queen summoned her advisor. “How is the Cambly Pro project going?”

“It’s going perfectly well, Your Majesty. Many students have already moved to the Pro plan, and now we are moving to Phase 2.”

“What is Phase 2?” the Queen asked.

“Everyone will become Pro, and everyone will have to pay more for the same product. Congratulations, Your Majesty—you did it! You gave the tutors their deserved raise without spending a dime.”

The Queen clapped her hands in irrepressible joy. “Congratulations, team! You are brilliant! But tell me—did everyone really agree to pay 50% more for the same class?”

“Almost everyone,” said the advisor. “A few left for other kingdoms—Italki, Preply—where they say they can find equal or better work. But we’ve made it difficult for departures.”

In a dark room, a tutor packed their bag. Years of "iron rule" had left them with nothing but low pay and a "Pro" rejection letter. The Queen had doubled the price for students, but the job hadn't changed: it was still just endless small talk and unpaid prep. When a regular student messaged saying they couldn't afford the new fee, the tutor shut their laptop. Their hands shook with a choice: stay a nameless servant or find a place that actually cared.

Word got around fast. Some students stayed for the "elite" hype, but others just vanished. As the best tutors headed for the border, the Queen’s bank account grew fatter.

Months later, a report about the "unhappy staff" landed on the throne. The Queen tossed it into the fire without a second thought. The kingdom kept humming along—profitable and quiet—while its best voices slipped away to neighboring lands.

A student booked 1 hour and canceled at the last minute. I want to block her so it doesn't happen again as it is too much income to lose. Other companies pay in full, but Cambly doesn't. How can I locate her profile so I can block her. She is no longer on my schedule.

Did anyone else leave the Facebook group? some of the people there are so rude and think they're better than everyone else. They suck up to the rules so bad and chant about the handbook like it's a cult.

Hey, colleagues.

I’m curious to see if anyone has observed a shift in the Priority Hour grid that seems to precede the actual ratings update.

I’ve noticed that certain hours for next week, which were fully available as of this morning, are suddenly no longer visible or selectable immediately after a really bad class with a totally rude and difficult student.

We all know that Cambly tends to keep their protocols opaque, but has anyone noticed that their PH access is tied to some kind of a real time internal score rather than the visible weekly number? If you've seen gaps appear on a Saturday or Sunday, did it inevitably lead to a visible rating drop on Wednesday, or is this just a matter of the hours becoming overcrowded with tutors?

I’m trying to determine if I’m looking at a secret shift in the algorithm or just a suddenly busy upcoming week. Any info from you guys would be appreciated.