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Priority Hour
You can sign up for Priority Hours ("PH") here. PHs are 1-hour time slots where you will receive priority access to new students. During your PH, we will actively feature your tutor profile and send you calls from new students. Additionally, you'll be guaranteed a minimum of 15 minutes of paid chat time per hour even if you don't connect with students. You are required to be online and answer all calls that come your way during that hour.
Exception: You are not required to answer calls that extend beyond the end of your Priority Hour. In these cases, you will have the option to decline the call. Please only accept the student call if you are able to commit to the entire duration of the incoming call.
Priority Hour Visibility
While you are required to answer all calls on priority hour, you still have the option to update your visibility status to “Everyone” or “Paid users only”. Regulars Only is not available during Priority Hour. If this option is selected during a Priority Hour, you will be visible to paid users only until the end of the Priority Hour.
How the Priority Hour System Works
If you are a new tutor, PHs are very important because PHs will help you meet new students. We recommend that new tutors tutor exclusively on PH for their first two weeks on Cambly. Because you are required to be online for the whole hour, it is a good idea to logon a few minutes early to give yourself some cushion room in case you experience any technical difficulties. If you are more than a few minutes late for your PH, you will be dropped from the PH automatically, which will hurt your ability to sign up for more PHs in the future.
PHs must be cancelled over 12 hours in advance. This gives other tutors enough time to pick up the PH. If your PH is within 12 hours but you can no longer make it, it is better to drop your PH late than to miss that hour. Dropping a PH late will hurt your PH access, but missing your PH will hurt your access significantly more.
You can sign up for as many PHs as you want, up to 10 hours of PHs within any 24 hours period. PHs can be scheduled in 1-hour intervals. Be careful to only sign up for times you will be available to chat. During each PH, you will have the option to take a 5 minute break. However, it is still a good idea to schedule breaks, so that you can rest for an hour or eat a meal uninterrupted. After your PH, you can check on your History tab to see how many students you’ve chatted with and how many minutes you chatted during that hour.
Dynamic Priority Hour Access
The higher your tutor rating, the more PHs will be available to you. All new tutors start out on Cambly being able to schedule PH one week in advance. As you take on more calls and impress more students, your ability to schedule PH automatically increases. On the other hand, if you miss PH, drop PH within 12 hours, or miss calls during a PH, your PH access will become more restricted. You can see every PH available to you by clicking the "list" view on your Priority Hours tab.
If you don't see too many PHs available to you, click here to find out why.
Priority Hour Bonus Opportunities
Cambly will occasionally have bonus periods during which we guarantee 30 minutes of paid chat time during your Priority Hour, even if you don't get any calls. That means you'll be paid $5.10 or your actual paid chat time during that Hour, whichever is higher. Time slots with this guarantee are marked with a yellow triangle:
During our highest peak times, Cambly will also sometimes have additional bonus opportunities for certain priority hour slots. These time slots are marked with a blue triangle and have a + sign. If there is both a + sign and a 30 number, that means there is both a minute guarantee and a bonus opportunity.
To see details on the bonus, hover over a priority hour with an indicated bonus. Details on the bonus will appear as pictured below:
Remember: Access to priority hours fluctuates based on supply and demand. Sign-up for these priority hours now before they fill up!
Note: This bonus is labeled "Cambly Priority Hour Bonus Payout" and is added to your pay as a misc credit about an hour before the payments get processed on Tuesdays.