It’s no secret that education is the key to a successful career and a solid financial future. So why not start early, making sure your children take advantage of every learning opportunity available to them?
Shmoop is a website that offers over 400 online courses and over a half million pieces of original content, designed to help students of all ages enhance their learning capabilities in every subject imaginable.
“We created this site out of love of learning,” said David Siminoff, Shmoop’s founder, who spoke to RewardExpert. The goal of the company is simply to make learning fun.
Shmoop’s Beginnings
Siminoff said he got the idea for Shmoop (the word means to move things forward a little bit) while reading Jack London’s Call of the Wild with his daughter.
“We wanted to create a relatable, trusted source that would help people love and understand literature,” he said. “We wanted to look at stories from all angles and really focus on why you should care.”
Shmoop expanded beyond literature and now offers learning guides, test prep, online courses, teaching guides and much more, on virtually anything. “From third grade through adult education, from JavaScript to Ulysses, there’s nothing we don’t have,” said Siminoff.
That includes numerous financial courses, including personal finance 101, financial literacy and even how to buy a car. And of course adults looking to pick up new skills and possibly make more money at a new career can easily explore coding, programming and other courses.
Does College Pay Off Financially?
Another section of the Shmoop website gives students valuable insight about the rewards and challenges of going to college. Siminoff stated, “We try to be honest with students in a way that sadly, most schools can’t be. We don’t pretend that they really can do anything they want in life. Rather, we try to focus them on optimizing the skills they do have to make their life as rewarding as it can be —and for most, it only takes very small awareness level changes to open doors to higher education and successful careers.”
Shmoop offers a variety of college assessment tests, checklists, advice and more to help students succeed. There is also a page on the true financial cost of college. “We have devoted a page to financial aid, and we even have an Essay Lab to help students write college scholarship essays,” said Siminoff. Test prep courses for the SAT, ACT, AP and more are also available.
The Career Question
In addition to the college section, Shmoop offers a careers page, where a user can explore various careers, take assessment tests and discover how much money various jobs pay. You can explore careers by salary range, education qualifications, geographic regions and more. There are also in-depth profiles to describe the day-to-day life and benefits and drawbacks of doing various jobs.
Shmoop’s Content Library
Shmoop’s entire catalog is available on mobile for convenient learning on the go. It offers both a free and a paid premium version. “Our premium content gives you access to test prep, courses, and RTI (plus teaching guides if you’re a teacher), along with our online classrooms and gradebook. Our free version gives you access to everything else,” said Siminoff.
So if you’re looking to enhance your child’s or your own learning capabilities, take a look at Shmoop, a treasure trove of educational information, already used by more than 16 million users. “We aim to provide fun rigorous materials that engage and challenge. We’re all about being relevant, real and approachable,” he said.