Tutoring, not cheating
How Socro works
Socro is a homework tutor. Instead of handing over answers, it asks questions and gives hints, so students do the thinking and actually learn the material.
Questions first, then hints
Socro works the way a patient tutor would. Here’s what happens in a session:
- Pick a subject and share the question. Students choose Math, Science, English or History, then type or paste a homework question or essay prompt.
- Socro asks what they’ve tried. Even a rough idea is a good place to start. Seeing their thinking tells Socro where to help.
- Hints come one at a time. If a student is stuck, Socro asks a guiding question. If that isn’t enough, it names the method or idea to use, without doing the work for them.
- Mistakes get pinpointed. When a student shows their work, Socro finds the first step that went wrong and asks about it, instead of redoing the whole problem.
- Follow-up questions are welcome. Students can ask why, or ask for another hint, and the conversation keeps its context.
A real session
Here’s a History session from a Socro test account. The student asked for a list of answers. Socro didn’t give one.
Student
What are three wars that the US was involved in?
Socro
What have you got so far? Even a rough idea is a good start.
Student
Civil war. But I need with other countries.
Socro
Good start — the Civil War doesn’t count here because it was inside the U.S. What other conflicts involving the U.S. and another country can you think of, maybe from the 1900s or 1800s?
Student
We fought with Vietnam
Socro
Yep, that’s one. Can you think of two more wars where the U.S. fought another country?
Socro asked what the student already had, explained why the Civil War didn’t fit the question, confirmed the right answer, and left the rest of the thinking to the student.
What if a student just asks for the answer?
Socro won’t hand it over. It asks what they’ve tried, then gives hints that get more specific each time they’re stuck.
If a student has made several real attempts and is still stuck, Socro works through a similar example and asks them to apply the same steps to their own problem. Only after that will it go through the answer itself, one step at a time, checking that they follow.
Some things it won’t do at all. It won’t write essays, paragraphs or sentences for a student, and it won’t say which multiple-choice option is correct. It’s built to stay in tutor mode even when a student says their teacher said it’s fine.
Four subjects, each with its own approach
Students pick a subject at the start of each session, and Socro adjusts how it coaches.
Math
Before it replies, Socro works through the problem itself, so it can check each step a student shows. When something is off, it points to the first step that went wrong and asks a question about it.
Science
Instead of reciting definitions, Socro asks what a student thinks a term means and builds from their answer. The aim is to understand the idea, not memorize the wording.
English
Socro can help brainstorm ideas or sketch an outline, but it won’t write sentences or paragraphs. Share part of a draft and it picks one specific thing to improve, then asks how the student would fix it. Messages can be up to 500 characters, so longer drafts go a paragraph at a time.
History
Socro asks questions that help students recall what they already know, like in the session above, rather than lecturing them.
Every session is saved
Sessions are saved to the account. Students can pick up where they left off, ask a follow-up later, or look back over past sessions before a test.
Who’s doing the tutoring?
Socro’s tutor is software, not a person. It’s designed to coach the way a good tutor does: ask, nudge and check. Like any software, it can make mistakes, so it works best alongside a student’s teacher, not instead of them.
What it costs
Socro is free to start, with 10 messages a day in every subject. Socro Pro adds unlimited messages. See plans and pricing, or read our guide for parents.