Yep this is what I have found too.

I've never heard of such an e-mail being sent out before. Has anyone else heard about this?

I've only had one student become advanced from graduating the mentor program, all the rest either transitioned during or were already advanced - which I don't mind either. I don't mind putting in the work, but when I get three or four requests for class in a day, and have to select just one because of the limits and then they put in for advanced on their own, I feel the same way - like my work was disregarded. I suppose I could request that up front as well, it seems fair as long as it's put on the table from day one.

I also think a lot of the votes come from the newest advanced reviewers who have just been upgraded themselves. I'm not sure I agree with the whole voting up system as it is right now, but it's not up to me, and I understand that EF can't please every person, every time.

"maybe there should be a higher limit of reviews accomplished or a block for mentor students?" Or a higher limit of votes. I agree. I have suggested both of these.

Wow that's shitty. All the ones I have asked have not.

I actually don't agree with it either which is weird probably coming from me or maybe I just don't understand it yet but seriously it appears not to be about doing good it's just about getting advanced I think. Not even sure what's overly different about it yet. I realize they get to ask for assignments and free stuff but still it seems it should be about bringing in awesome reviews so others can benefit from them. *shrugs* leaves before I put a foot in my mouth...

You shouldn't give up on the gift cards. Being a mentor requires a lot of time and effort. Having gone through it myself, I appreciated everything my mentor did. You deserve that gift card, no apologies.

I'm glad you said that. I thought I was thinking selfishly on this...I'm happy to help those who need and appreciate it, but it does require a lot of work and the gift card is a nice reward for it, and is part of the program for a reason.

I appreciate the driven new reviewers like you!

I could see how this makes sense, but not everyone can be a mentor and others should have their say as well.I then could see it being more fair if you included graduated students...but then again not everyone has to go through the mentor program to be a good reviewer and not all of them come out much better...so I see your logic, but it isn't fair to a lot of people.

And the doing away with voting and implementing or changing it might work, but the solution cannot be to ask everyone to go through the mentor program because there are only a select number of us and that would be a lot of work. I thought of this too. It was shot down and I totally see why.

Students don't have to wait a full month to get their next assignment actually. They can get it as soon as they finish their first one.

I wish there was a little bit more incentive for students to do the mentor program even if it was just a similar number next to their name in a square instead of a circle to signify how many classes they have graduated and it show up on their page similar to what the mentors have. Something small like that.

Ugh thanks for finding that. I am far too tired this morning.

Lauren, you've probably graduated more students than any of us...do you see this problem with students being voted up DURING class a lot? Do you have anything you do to avoid it?

Hmm I didn't know that they could do it as soon as they finish their first one, good to know!

Why yes I have lol. For the volume of students that I have had, it sounds like I have not seen it as much as some of you who have reviewed less.

October especially was a bad month which is when I believe the system was changed somehow intentionally or non-intentionally to not allow GCs for students who went up for voting in the middle of a class. I got super frustrated with it because of all the work I put into being a mentor. So this month I started explaining the program to my students and asking them to not short cut. I explain the hard work we do as mentors and that if they put in the work too it will reap rewards. So far every single one has respected that. I think it has been about 6? Not all of them are done with class as of yet though.

I have even had other students from other mentors ask me how they get to advanced while they were in someones class as if they had no clue that they would become advanced from graduating. So be sure to explain that, because it apparently is not getting communicated as someone mentioned they didn't remember seeing that in the guidelines. None of the mentors here had students who came and asked me btw lol. But maybe that would help...explain that right off the bat in the first message you send them, like I have been doing recently.