There is an app for nearly every aspect of student life. They can support students with their education, help them adjust to living away from home and make organizing their social life a lot easier. Students are used to using apps and have grown up with them. The only problem is choosing which ones to download. Here’s a selection of 10 apps that most students find very useful.
Apps for recording information in lectures
Lectures are still the main way in which information is delivered to students. Some lecturers are more skilled than others and some subjects are more interesting than others. In the past, the only way in which students could record the information was to scribble it down as quickly as possible on a notepad. If the lecturer speeded through the material it was easy to miss vital information. Some lecturers provide lecture notes but they are not always comprehensive.
All students will have their smartphone with them in the lecture, so they may as well put it to good use. Lecture capture apps are a useful way of recording the lecture so that you can play it back at your own leisure and transcribe it into your own notes in a way that suits your learning style. One popular option is SoundNote which is available for Apple’s iPad. It acts as an audio recorder so it can record both written and audio information from the lecture. There are other options available including the aptly names Lecture Capture and Notes Plus.
However, sometimes you need to record a complicated diagram or equation that has been built up over the course of a lecture on a white board. To do this you can use OfficeLens which takes a photograph of the whiteboard and converts it to a PDF, Word or a PowerPoint format. This makes it easy to revise or use the information in your own dissertations or presentations. This takes document scanning to a whole new level and gives students access to technology that was previously confined to big business.
Image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/auditorium-benches-chairs-class-207691/
Apps to help with revision
Revision is never going to be a pleasant activity but some useful apps can help you make the most of the time that you spend revising. You need to choose an app that suits the way in which you like to revise. If you are used to making hundreds of flash cards, StudyBlue may be the best app for you. The app uses your course information and produces the flash cards for you so all you have to do is learn them! If you would prefer to make your own, there is the option for you to do that too and then you can test yourself.
If you get bored with revision easily and you need a lot of variety you may find GoConqr useful. Within the app, you can create a whole range of revision resources including charts, mind maps, notes, and quizzes. If you wish, you can collaborate with your fellow students or even students from around the world enabling you to support and learn from each other.
If you have problems with time management and keeping deadlines, setting up a regular revision schedule can be challenging. A useful app called Exam Countdown can help with this as it will keep track of the days you have left before each of your forthcoming exams.
Student planner apps
There is a lot going on in a student’s life and the first few months, in particular, can be overwhelming. A good planner app will ensure that you get to where you need to be when you need to be there. Timetable is a good android app that will ensure that you never miss another dental appointment or tutorial. You can set up the alerts to suit you. It will even automatically mute your phone during lectures!
Apps for essay and dissertation writing
As a student, one of the key skills that you learn is how to collate, critically appraise and present a lot of information in a concise way. There is no app that can help you with this as it simply requires brain power. However, you can get help with the tedious task of organizing and presenting your bibliography. This is the task that every student hates when they get to the end of a big piece of work. For a large dissertation, the number of references can run to many hundred. EasyBib is a super useful app that will create a reference for any book when you scan the barcode. Universities vary in the type of reference system that they require for academic work but EasyBib can cope with that as it can produce MLA, APA and Chicago styles. If there is no barcode, you simply type the title into your device. This can save you hours.
Video call apps for calling home
Homesickness is a real issue for many students and it can be very hard to be away from your folks for the first time. It is also hard for them to adjust to life without you! Keeping in regular contact helps everybody to feel happier with the situation. Skype and FaceTime are hugely popular video calling apps and your parents will already be familiar with these and will have no problems using them. Many grandparents are keen Skype users as well.
Personal safety apps
Student’s personal safety is taken very seriously by local police forces, academic institutions, and parents. Young people living away from home for the first time can be very vulnerable, especially if they are experimenting with large quantities of alcohol for the first time. Several safety apps have been developed with the aim of cutting down the risks.
There is safety in numbers and the Circleof6 app was developed to help students keep in touch with their close friends. It works on both Android and iOS. It allows students to keep in touch with their friends on a night out and the most useful feature is the ability to send out emergency calls for help by touching one button. Perhaps more importantly, the GPS tracker allows your mates to identify where you are and come and get you.
Apps to get you out of bed
The stereotypical view of students spending all day in bed may have disappeared with the advent of tuition fees but some students will always struggle to turn up to that 9 a.m. lecture! This is when you need an app to get you out of bed. We all know that a standard alarm call may not do the job. You simply turn it off, roll over and go back to sleep. The Alarmy: Sleep if you can app will never allow you to do that. Once the alarm is sounding, you have to complete a number of small tasks to stop it. The tasks are not complicated but you have to be fully awoken to complete them so there is no danger of you dozing back off to sleep.
If you like the idea of an alarm that works in harmony with your body’s natural sleep cycle, the Sleep Cycle app is what you need. It monitors your sleep pattern and wakes you during a light sleep phase so that you don’t feel so groggy at that early morning tutorial.
Apps that promote responsible drinking
You may imagine that these apps would not be very popular with students living away from parental control for the first time. However, many students do recognize that their alcohol consumption is creeping above recommended healthy limits and that they may need to cut back. One app called WiseDrinking acts like a sensible virtual friend. It records how alcohol you have consumed, suggests when you should stop and even tells you where you can catch the nearest bus back home! It calculates your safe level of drinking using data on your height and weight etc. The only downside is that it relies on information you enter on how much you have drunk and so you can lie to it!
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Healthy diet apps
Living away from Mom or Dad’s cooking for the first time can be hard. It is easy to let your diet slide and to get into the habit of surviving on pizza and fries washed down with a huge soda. Healthy eating apps such as Meal Board will help you plan healthy meals and even grocery shops based on what you have left in your kitchen. It’s like having a virtual parent living in your flat!
Exercise apps
You can combine exercise with a virtual reality game in the exciting ZOMBIES, RUN! app where you can play your own music and outrun zombies at the same time. It adds a bit of excitement to your morning jog. There are also apps such as Strava which track the distance that you have run and how long it took you. You can share your exercise routine on your social media if you wish.
