With all the twists and turns of high school, it can be difficult to find ways to effectively manage your time and sort your priorities. Here are some apps to help you stay organized, efficient, and successful for the rest of the year.
1. Note taking& Revision Apps
If you’re looking for an app that contains everything in one tap or click, Evernote is the best of the best. It’s a note-taking app that includes countless features such as composing, clipping, bookmarking, to-do-listing, and more. This app is free within all devices and platforms (iOS, Android, Windows), and gives the option to sync files across mobile devices and computers. For power users, you can always pay and upgrade from Basic either to Plus or Premium, which allow for more space, offline access, annotations, and many more features. Using Evernote on the iPad comes with a particular advantage – you can use Evernote Peek, a popular revision app that uses notes made on Evernote in order to quiz users on what they’ve learnt so far.
If you’re a flashcard fanatic searching for something free of charge, consider Quizlet, the ultimate flashcard revision app that includes millions of study sets for numerous subjects (you can also make your own). However, if making flashcards manually seems tiresome, try considering StudyBlue, a modern-interfaced favorite flashcard app that allows you to make flashcards just from your notes. It uses your course information to present you with a selection of card sets for revision and tests you on the material. For Evernote lovers, there’s a bonus: StudyBlue allows you to connect to Evernote to import your notes and vice versa. Both of these are available online and as apps for iOS and Android devices.
2. Exam Prep Apps
High school presents us with a plethora of standardized tests that we’re bound to get overwhelmed with unless we take action. Though there are always exam prep tutors or outside institutions, there is also Benchprep, an interactive course library exam prep app for iOS, Android, and the Web that helps students prepare for standardized examinations such as the SAT, ACT, AP Exams, and TOEFL Speaking and Writing. It includes hundreds of practice questions, tests, flashcards, and study lessons in the form of games and other creative mediums that can make studying for standardized tests actually fun (or at least less stressful). You can also track your learning progress as you learn, making revision manageable. The pricing plans and the duration of study materials available to you differ from test to test, but they are all reasonably priced and considered.
Searching for something that requires no charges? There are cost-free mobile alternatives such as ACT Up (iOS only) and SAT Up (both iOS and Android) that work like Benchprep. For users taking the ACT, play2prep (iOS, Android) is also an excellent alternative.
3. To-Do Apps
We have so many things to do on a daily basis that it’s easy to forget some of them. Todoist, a free to-do application that holds a minimalistic and practical interface that is similar to an inbox layout, helps us to untangle our busy lives with to-do lists and reminders. To gain access to unlimited notes, productivity tracking, improved reminders, and syncing processes, users can upgrade to Todoist Premium. If you don’t like the minimalistic feel of Todoist, try Wunderlist, one of the more aesthetically pleasing to-do-list app out there with similar features. Both of these are available on most devices and platforms.
4. Student Planner Apps
Planners are essential for time management. iStudiez Lite is a great digital option that lets students record their course schedule, assignments, and tests with appropriate color coding. It allows you to move around and sort your tasks by date, course, and priority and helps you to track your GPA when you input your scores for assignments. There is also iStudiez Pro, the premium option, that gives you access to more features such as notifications, backup options, and iCloud sync. Both are only available for iOS and Mac OS X users.
If you’re an Android user, try Timetable, a free app that is very similar to iStudiez that features a sharp and clean interface which you can map your timetables on it with ease. If you’re a Windows user, try Power Planner, a free app that holds the essentials to planning your assignments and classes effectively.
5. And many more…
We’ve all been there: it’s finals week and you’re trying to study, but Facebook and Youtube compete for your attention and you eventually give in. If this happens to you, SelfControl, available for free for all Mac OS X users, is right for you. SelfControl lets you set a period of time in which certain websites or mail servers that may distract you are blocked by adding them to a “blacklist.”One caveat to this is that there is no use in trying to finish your work earlier than the given time – restarting your computer or trying delete the application do nothing to disable it.
Avoid interrupting class and getting on your teacher’s bad side with Studious. Exclusively for Android users, Studious silences your phone during your class times once you input your class schedule and times, keeping you safe from that dreaded in-class cellphone symphony. In addition, it also acts as a planner, giving reminders and allowing you to input different assignments with dates.
Add Dictionary.com’s mobile dictionary app for all your English-related learning needs. The main app is free and comes with many features like word etymology, search history, Words of the Day, synonyms, antonyms, a thesaurus, and many more that will only help to broaden your vocabulary. It operates on both iOS and Android devices.
This article originally appeared in the August/September, 2015 issue of UNIT-E. It was written by Daisy Yang, a student at the Western Academy of Beijing.
About UNIT-E
UNIT-E was founded in the spring of 2010 with the aim of establishing a non-profit, student-run magazine for international students in Beijing. Staffed by current students from a range of international schools, the magazine provides an amalgam of cultural tidbits, fragments of Beijing student life, and a broad spectrum of unique perspectives from a diverse group of young adults.
Photos: thecontemporaryteacher.com, graphite.org, catchmyapp.com, todoist.com, appsonic.com
