Due to its several unique advantages over other English language learning platforms, Cambly app is one of the most popular English language learning platforms both locally and worldwide.
After looking at student reviews for Cambly app and reading encouraging experiences, I decided the site would be my new place to learn English.
Was the experiment successful? Is Cambly.com the best site for learning English online, as many say?
I will write about all of this in this review of my experience with Cambly, in which I will explain all the advantages and problems of Cambly that you may encounter. Also, the most important points that must be considered before subscribing.
Black Friday offer for a limited time
Click here to get Cambly Promo code
What is Cambly?
Cambly is an online learning platform that relies mainly on live video chats with English language tutors.
The site focuses mainly on speaking and listening skills, ensuring that you actually benefit from the course. Over 10,000 native English tutors are available on the Combly app. Teachers must be Americans, Canadians, Britons, Australians, or citizens of other English-speaking countries as a mother tongue. In this way, Combly ensures the student benefits from the course (Most sites and institutions of English language education do not provide this feature).
Additionally, many teachers have certificates in teaching English and experience in communication, which makes them excellent candidates for teaching you.
The site makes it easy for you to learn English wherever you are and at any time you want, since you can download the application for phones from the app store for Android and IOS devices or access the website directly from your computer. So After registering, you will be able to receive your lessons without any difficulty.
It offers English language courses for children, as well, through its Cambly Kids program. These are specifically designed for children between the ages of 3 and 14 or 15.
| Company | CAMBLY |
| Foundation yeah | 2012 |
| Founders | Samir Sherif – Kevin Low |
| headquarters | United State |
| The type of services | Teaching the English language |
| Age group | Everyone |
| discount coupon | Click here |
| company’s website | www.cambly.com |
The Advantages of Cambly
- All new subscribers receive a free 15-minute video call share, so as to get a feel for the site, and to get an idea of how the site teaches English. You can also extend the length of the class if you register through the link provided by the platform to invite a friend to share it with others by subscribing to this link. You will need to copy and paste the “cambly promo code” code after registering into the Referral Code field as shown in the image below. Make sure that you complete the registration from the link we have attached to receive the additional 30 minutes.
- By practicing with native speakers, the site uses the interactive method of learning, which is the fastest and most efficient method for learning.
- This program assures its subscribers that the paid course is designed to encourage regular practice of English, as continuous practice is the most efficient way to learn it. You will be more eager and committed to continuing your education after taking the paid course.
- Lesson video calls are private, meaning there are no other students in the class with you, so the teacher’s full attention is focused on you, which will increase learning speed (Unlike most English language institutes and websites, where lessons are shared with other students in the class).
- You will be able to review all recordings that are automatically recorded within your account at any time, so you can learn more from the information discussed in class which you can delete at any time.
- The Cambly website is easy to use and has a simple design, making registration, subscribing, and signing up quick and easy.
- If you want a temporary break from the course, you can freeze your account for up to 3 weeks at a time to avoid wasting your paid minutes.
- You will receive a signed certificate from Cambly if you spend more than 10 hours on the site.
- It is possible to choose the duration of the course based on the number of daily minutes, the number of days per week, and the number of months.
- Customer support is excellent in terms of flexibility and responsiveness. It is true that sometimes it takes a few days for them to respond, but generally, they deliver a complete and clear answer to your question.
- In order to reduce the number of available options and make it easier for you to find the right teacher, the site allows you to filter online teachers according to the requirements you want in the teacher. These requirements are:
- Teacher’s accent: whether American, British, Australian, or other.
- Lesson level: Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced.
- Teacher’s personality: whether patient, cheerful, or scientific.
- Type of lesson: such as general conversation, IELTS exam, business conversation, and many more.
Top tips before subscribing to Cambly
Choose the duration of the class minutes
On a subscription plan, Cambly offers 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 60 minutes per day. Before joining Cambly, I reviewed the experiences of people who used the site, including videos of their lessons with teachers shared on YouTube, and determined that 15 minutes was the right time for a lesson. Actually, I completed my subscription by choosing a class lasting for a quarter of an hour.
When the first lessons pass, I noticed that the time passes quickly and the class does little to benefit your learning, as the first class with each new teacher usually passes in the acquaintance stage. Since the duration of the acquaintance is usually 10 to 15 minutes, the course time is wasted by repeating the process of acquaintance in every lesson.
Until I met My first teacher who told me that 15 minutes is too short for conversation, so I was expecting a 60-minute class to be very long and boring (unless it was divided into two classes on the same day), but she generally said that the most appropriate duration of the class is 30 minutes. After her call, which was my fifth call in the course, I was encouraged to increase the class minutes to 30 minutes. Actually, it was quite sufficient for getting acquainted, taking an educational lesson, or having a discussion.
In my opinion, you should also subscribe to a 30-minute session if you are serious about improving your English. However, you are not obligated to choose a particular period of time based on what education method you plan to use.
Black Friday offer for a limited time
Click here to get Cambly Promo code
Using a laptop or mobile app
One of the things that made me choose Cambly was the ability to attend classes easily from my phone without limiting my location, and this is what I did when I began the course.
On the other hand, using the mobile app as a tool for learning had some negative aspects. The video call from a phone has a traditional interface and does not offer any additional options, like on a laptop. For example, if you open any other application on the phone during the call, such as the Translator application, the call will end automatically. Therefore, it is preferable to restrict the attendance of classes from the phone to specific circumstances.
Later on, I only took the lessons from my laptop, which has an interface for simultaneous translation from Arabic to English and vice versa. This will allow you to translate what you want to say to your teacher as you speak.
During the call, the teacher can share with you links to educational lesson sites so that you can review and discuss them together. You can also open them in separate windows without ending the call. This will allow you both to interact smoothly with the lesson.
Furthermore, the teacher will be able to change the video call interface to a display screen so that the lesson can be seen there. This will be an efficient way for both of you to participate in the lesson.
Therefore, I can say that receiving the course via laptop is much better than receiving it via phone.
Choosing the best Cambly teachers
The most important thing that remains for you to choose the perfect teacher is their evaluation that is available after you have filtered the teacher search options based on your requirements, such as the type and level of the lesson as well as the tone and personality of the teacher.
As I observed the teachers’ performance according to their different assessments (because I sometimes had to choose teachers with weak assessments due to a lack of time and the lack of options available after filtering); I can say that the best teachers in Cambly are usually those with an assessment of at least 4.85. All teachers who achieved this rating were rated satisfactory, and you will be fortunate if you get a Super tutor with a rating of above 4.90.
At first, you may have to try several teachers. What’s important is that at the end of each lesson, if you liked the teacher, you saved his file in your favorites list by pressing the heart icon to make it easier for you to find it again as having a lot of meetings will make you forget which one is the right one for you. And believe me, following this step will save you a lot of time later on.
I also avoided picking teachers with the title of New talent, since they are still new without evaluation, and their choice would be a risk and maybe a waste of time. As a final step, make sure you leave a fair evaluation of the teacher after the call so that others can benefit from it if they are also seeking a good teacher.
The quality of Cambly Lessons
During my first class, I spent most of the time talking and exploring the course. As time passed, it became more counterproductive to improve my English, which made me take the course more seriously. I started attending the course from my laptop, which enabled me to take educational lessons and focus on teachers who are interested in giving methodical lessons.
A good teacher will encourage you to take a lesson, and in my opinion, this type of teacher is the best one. Not all teachers prefer to provide lessons, some prefer to chat only. In fact, my problem wasn’t with the chat itself, as there are teachers who are good at opening topics that allow you to practice the language more widely.
However, there is a type of teacher who uses the platform to spend their time and engage in conversations with other people without paying attention to improving their skills, such as not giving you an opportunity to speak or correcting your linguistic mistakes (They will find their evaluation weak if they use this type of communication). Additionally, I have also noticed that some teachers are not as engaged in correcting errors as they should be. If you find a teacher correcting your mistakes, you can still consider them a good teacher even if the class continues to chat.
As a general rule, don’t expect all classes to run smoothly, and there will be lost time for various reasons. Therefore, you will need to take some steps seriously from the start of the subscription to reduce the total number of minutes lost in the course and make the most of it.
As an example, I requested the teacher to take a lesson at the beginning of class, although this did not prevent me from passing the class in a lesson below my language level. Thus, try to determine the level for the teacher and it is better to prepare the lesson you want from the favorite sites of the course teachers such as engoo.com, content.cambly.com, or the Cambly courses found in the courses section of their site.
Finally, I also recommend that you request lessons from the beginning of your subscription because in any case, you will pass sessions that expire in the chat.
If your level is beginner or intermediate, then you should start with educational lessons after the first private lesson. All I had to do after greeting and getting to know each other was to say “I would like to take a lesson.”.
Method of connecting to the Internet
Due to the fact that the call will be video, it is very important to have a high-speed internet connection in order to get a smooth and comfortable call; if the connection is weak, the teacher may feel annoyed, waste time, or not be able to join. Make sure your connection is good before you begin the call.
You may also encounter teachers who have poor communication skills or communication issues, so try not to waste too much time with them.
The privacy of choosing a teacher
Cambly allows you to choose whether you want to practice English with a male or female teacher, which is a great feature for those who prefer not to interact with people of the opposite sex for personal reasons because of their religion.
The possibility of turning off the camera is also available. I think it is necessary to communicate face to face with the teacher to be able to respond to you more flexibly, especially since you can select the gender of the teacher.
Session reservations in advance
It offers the advantage of allowing you to book your favorite teachers in advance to ensure they are available at the time of your study, which will save you the trouble of finding a good teacher every time.
Alternatively, if you miss the booking date, your daily minutes will be reduced. Missing your appointments frequently with the same teacher can annoy them and disrupt their schedule, so make sure you stick to your appointments if you book in advance.
Nevertheless, if you are unable to attend the class due to an emergency, you must cancel your reservation 6 hours before the start of the class and at least 12 hours before the start time, as otherwise your minutes will be deducted from your account.
Therefore, reservation has both a positive and a negative aspect, just as not having a reservation has a negative aspect. For instance, if you can’t find your favorite teacher online, you will need to search for a suitable teacher. As for the positive, there is no possibility of deducting the minutes from you.
As for me, I did not try booking because I knew in advance that I couldn’t commit to a specific date. Every time I searched for a new teacher, or I might find one of my favorite teachers with the heart icon online and contact him.
However, the advance booking feature is extremely useful if you plan on taking a 15-minute class.
Black Friday offer for a limited time
Click here to get Cambly Promo code
Weekly and daily classes
In Cambly, minutes are calculated on a daily basis. For instance, if you use your daily minutes on a conversation, you must finish them by 3 am according to your local time on the same day. Cambly adjusts the timing of the site automatically based on your geographic location.
In terms of the number of subscribed days, these are calculated on a weekly basis. Therefore, you are able to pick any day you wish to use your minutes on, but make sure to make use of them all before the end of the week.
In Cambly, the week ends automatically on Monday at 3 am, so that the share is renewed by canceling the remaining minutes that you have not used with new ones. That means there is no carryover of unused minutes.
Review lessons
During the course, you will encounter new English terms and words. You might think that cumulative education and repeated practice of the language in the course will enable you to memorize these words, but this is actually not the case.
Using a notebook or even a text file on your laptop would be the best way to review your learning and memorize the new words. As you write down all the new words, whether from the educational lesson or from what the teacher tells you during class. Also, You will be able to review the Video call log and watch the Video call again to review the conversation between you and the teacher and write down the words in your notebook.
Keeping a record of all new words is paramount since with time, the number of lessons will increase, and you will have too many words. If you don’t write them down from the beginning, you won’t be able to remember all of them and review them later.
Moreover, it is important to learn other English words on your own and not just rely on words taught in the course lessons, although the educational lessons do ensure that you learn new words, and that is one of the reasons why you should commit to taking the lessons.
However, learning new words that you might need during the course will also be beneficial to you. I further emphasize the importance of extending your knowledge of English words so that you can practice the language better as it will actually help you improve your English during the course.
Talk to your teacher
In fact, you can even specify the duration of the lesson with your tutor by telling the teacher at the beginning that you will spend 10 minutes and then end the call. Remember, the teacher is always available to help you.
Also, make sure you do not discuss sensitive topics or use offensive or hateful expressions towards any group of people since you don’t want to leave a bad impression about yourself that may result in harassment or complaints from the teacher.
Cambly is the World’s Gateway
In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of this site, which I find invaluable, is the rich experiences I gained through interaction with Native English teachers Speakers of different nationalities in different countries around the world.
For example, some of them were in China, others in Mexico, France, Germany and other countries.
I was able to learn about different cultures, foods, and customs of these countries through the personal experiences of the teacher, who shared with me all sorts of details about their lives, opinions, and thought processes. In addition, this helps you expand your awareness and view the world more closely while you are at home, especially since all the teachers were kind regardless of their evaluation profile.
Prices, packages, and payment methods for Cambly
You may wonder how much is a Cambly subscription? Actually, Cambly subscription prices vary depending on the number of minutes, days, and months you choose. Also, the subscription value varies from one country to another. Cambly prices appear to you in the local currency of your country. For instance, if you live in Saudi Arabia the prices will appear to you in Saudi riyals and if you live in Egypt the prices will appear in Egyptian pounds and so on.
In general, the prices of the Cambly plans are reasonable in comparison to the features it offers, such as its ability to teach you exactly what you want, and other points mentioned in this review. The availability of different subscription plans makes them suitable for everyone, especially since there are huge discounts, up to 55% in annual and 60% in quarterly subscription plans.
In my case, I registered without subscribing to any plan, used the free minutes, and allowed Cambly to send me discount offers to my Yahoo. I then waited for a good discount for a while, and when I got one via Yahoo, I immediately made my first purchase.
After copying the discount code they sent, I went to the subscription page and selected the time period I wanted, wrote the code in the activation box, then applied. I finished the payment and subscription as usual.
In other words, you can also complete your registration via the link to get additional free minutes from this link at the beginning, and then subscribe later to the plans when you get a good discount code. In my opinion, any discount of over 45% is actually quite excellent.
If you don’t want to subscribe to their email newsletter as I did, you can find their discount codes by following either their Twitter account or their Instagram account. Cambly offers the best discounts during holidays, special events, and the beginning of school.
The following credit cards are accepted for payment: Visa, MasterCard, and Saudia Mada. Bank account payment options are also available in some Middle Eastern countries.
The following pictures illustrate the prices for two different subscription packages in terms of minutes and days:
How to join Cambly?
You can register on Cambly and subscribe to it through this link: Cambly.com, by following these steps.
Disable auto-renewal of Cambly (very important for subscribers only)
How to activate the Cambly discount code?
Cambly offers two types of discount codes that you can use on the Cambly app:
The first is the friend’s code, which is the code for the additional free minutes as described in the link below. You can use this code if you register without needing to activate a paid subscription. This can be used once only, at any time.
As for the second option, you can also take advantage of a special discount code that will reduce the price of a paid subscription, which you will get by following up on the company’s emails and social media posts. This code can be used before the payment process is completed. Please watch the video below to learn how to activate it before completing the subscription process:
After signing up, don’t forget to complete this step
Cambly relies on the automatic renewal system for its English education courses, such as when you sign up for a three-month course. Your subscription will automatically be renewed for another three months after the initial three months, and so on. The website will automatically charge your credit card.
Before the end of the first course, you will need to access your account settings and manually turn off automatic renewal if you do not wish to continue for another subscription cycle.
However, if you cancel the automatic renewal, you will lose the discount offer that you subscribed to, and you will not be able to take advantage of the discount offer in future subscriptions. You will need to find another discount offer later.
The automatic renewal can only be turned off through the app on iOS phones, while if your phone is an Android, you will have to go to the platform through a browser such as Chrome and sign in through that, or cancel via the laptop by signing in your account on Cambly site.
If you would like to stop auto-renewal after enrolling in the course, please click the following address and follow the instructions:
Having completed the Cambly course
Cambly offers three subscription options: one-month, three-month, and one year. I think the annual subscription is the best because of the huge discount Cambly offers on this package, but it still depends on your budget.
As for what will follow the course, I’m likely to purchase a new subscription shortly after my current package expires. Nonetheless, I’ll choose the cheapest option, 15 minutes, to ensure the continuity of my English practice periodically and be fluent in speaking English
In particular, since I know how the lessons on the site are going. With my familiarity and collection of good teachers in my favorites list, I will be able to directly communicate with them to resume lessons. This is what I also told you earlier about preferring teachers by adding them to my favorites list.
Therefore, it is very important to continue practicing and reviewing the English language, especially with the great discounts offered by the site. Additionally, I have no other way to practice and learn English that would be of the same quality and low price as this course.
The final Cambly Experience Rating
It was a great experience for me and I was able to improve my speaking and listening skills during my subscription period. The only problem was just that I could not find a detailed review that gave me a comprehensive look at the Cambly site after signing up in terms of what I might encounter and how to deal with it.
In conclusion, my experience was based on data that may vary from person to person, so my advice may not be applicable to everyone, as it is intended to clarify some details of this beautiful site, and how you choose to deal with it will be according to what works for you.
To ensure your participation is successful, it is important to determine an appropriate strategy to follow according to your level of English, your budget, or your goal of practicing it.
FAQ
Is Cambly just for beginners?
No, it is not only for beginners. you can still benefit from it if you are at an advanced level to review what you have learned previously.
Are Cambly’s prices too high?
According to my own experience with Cambly, their prices are very good when compared to other paid courses.
What is the best subscription for me?
The longer the subscription period, the more you’ll benefit, which means your level will improve faster.
What is the longest period that can be subscribed?
The longest subscription period is currently a 12-month subscription, which means a full-year subscription.
Is Cambly suitable for those who have zero level in English?
Well, I think it isn’t suitable for zero levels. You must be a beginner and have a few words that allow you to respond to the teacher and clarify your level for him to be able to help and teach you.
I hope you have learned from my experience and wish you success and progress. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.