Even though there is plenty of published information about the advantages of peer review, little can be found on what the beneficiaries (i.e. the students) feel about this method and what they might expect from it. In this paper, we present an analysis of the perceptions of 44 students at one of the largest universities in Ecuador, who had just undertaken a course in academic writing which used peer revision as the main tool for improving final essay compositions. The results show that participants of the groups who followed a peer revision approach do believe that they benefited from this method. This conclusion was reached after analysing students' answers to a questionnaire which comprised closed option (multiple choice) questions as well as open-ended responses on the same three aspects pertaining to the impact of peer review: critical thinking, collaborative work and composition quality. This research is based on Vygotsky's socio-cultural approach; it also supports and broadens previous investigations on this topic giving a more detailed and deep-rooted perspective, as participants who have used this methodology comment on its benefits and/or flaws.