When Thirsty Thursday rolls around, the last thing you want is to be stuck behind a pile of books of the library, pulling an all-nighter to finish up that essay. These great apps can help keep you on track in school so you'll never miss a deadline, sleep through class, or have to put down the Solo cup because you forgot about that term paper.
Google Calendar (free with your Google account) makes staying on top of your schedule a painless endeavor. Just say “study group on Friday from 1 to 4” and you're good to go. The iOS app Fantastical ($5) makes a more robust version, with less fiddling required to get your schedule just right. Trying to juggle homework assignments from four different professors? Todoist, a cross-platform task manager, sorts your tasks into projects for each class, so you'll be able to stay on top of all your different deadlines. It's free, though you can upgrade to the premium version for $30 a year.
Of course, a good calendar and to-do list won’t matter if you don’t wake up in time for class, so make sure you have an alarm clock you can trust. On iOS, Bedtime can make sure you get to bed on time, and it’s already installed on your iPhone. Android users can rise and shine on time with AMdroid, a free and totally customizable alarm clock app that uses challenging games to get you out of that drowsy state. Best of all? Set it to not wake you up on holidays or when you’re in designated locations, like when you're home for winter break.
Want to cut down on desk clutter and keep your backpack from filling up with papers? Download Scanbot (free, with a $7 in-app purchase for pro features). The app uses your phone’s camera to scan documents, annotate them, and them saves them to your photo library, Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, Todoist, or OneNote. Use any of those apps to store your notes and study guides; on iOS, Bear ($1.50 per month) offers a great alternative for anybody looking to stick to text-centric notes.
When it’s time to get your study on, use Brainscape (free) to make flash cards for those late night cramming sessions. Your cards can be color-coded based on how well you knew the answers, so if getting the right answer was a fluke, you can go back and review that one later. You can even share your cards with classmates if you’re feeling generous, and maybe they’ll have your back on the next exam.
All your friends are on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, but you’ll need email to talk to your professors. Make it less boring with a good email app like Mailtime (free, or $2.99 for the pro version), which makes email feel more like a chat room than a thread of comments.
If you want a better way to talk to your classmates about that group project, Remind is a chat app built for classrooms. You can share files with classmates, ask your professors questions, and get reminders on upcoming assignments and exams.
With all of the studying and homework you’ll be doing, it might be hard to keep up with everything else happened in the world. When your Twitter feed just doesn't cut it, try Nuzzel. The free app creates a feed of articles people in your circle are sharing, so you can stay in the loop of what your friends are talking about without spending hours scrolling through news feeds If you’d rather skip the extra reading, download Pocket Casts ($4) and catch up on the news between classes with a few podcasts.
Your bag might be weighed down with textbooks, but if you still a novel to page through during breaks, download Libby (free). It plugs into your library’s database so you can download ebooks straight to your phone or Kindle, and you can even find some good audiobooks when your eyes are feeling a bit strained.
