Top Five IOS Apps for Studying

New technology keeps a sharp focus on making the student life easier. Every day a new app emerges that can help you save time or make revision fun. However, since the technology designed for students expands so quickly and on such a big scale, it can be hard to find the best apps in stores. Here are our top five iOS apps to help you studying:

Evernote

This is a classic that everyone knows, but for a very good reason. Ever note allows you to be you super organized with minimal effort. You can make a notebook for every subject, and even make a bundle of notebooks - useful for grouping subjects per semester. In Ever note, you can either type up the notes, or, with a free additional Penultimate app, and a digital pen, you can write them by hand on your iPad. It all depends on you. Finally, the notes can also include voice recordings of lectures and scans of the handouts you receive (using free Scannable). This great app is free and you can have it on different devices, making your notes available to you wherever you go.

Flashcard+

If you have a lot of remembering to do, flashcards are the most popular revision technique. You can create your flashcards on both iPhone and iPad with Flashcard+. It is easy to get organized with this app. You can group your flashcards by subjects and you can make different decks within one subject. As you progress with studying, you can add new flashcards into the exiting deck. One of its best features is a big library of 22 world languages (with different accents where necessary) in which the flashcards can be read. If you’re learning a language, the front side can be read in one language while the back is read in another one. It’s a brilliant tool for expanding your vocab. Although there are some in-app purchases, the free version works very well.

XMind

XMind is a great app for making mental maps – one of the best studying strategies, since it encourages understanding of the matter and recognizing the interconnections, rather than just learning by heart. Same as in a classical mind-map drawn on paper, in XMind you pick a central topic and then start adding subtopics and their relationships. This is the best way to revise! An additional plus is that, aside from being great for studying, XMind also gives the students an opportunity to play with styles, colors and backgrounds, and so it adds a bit of fun into all the hard work. Although you can make mind-maps on a piece of paper, the benefit of using technology is that you can carry the maps around and revise at any point. It’s a good tool to use for online tutoring because you can immediately send your tutor the homework. XMind is available for different devices. It offers both a free sign-up and two types of subscriptions. For majority of students, the free version should be good enough, but if you decide to upgrade, you won’t regret it.

FocusKeeper

The famous Pomodoro technique for maximum concentration: 25 minutes of work + 5 minutes of rest is a really great way to get the maximum from your study time. FocusKeeper is an app that helps you plan rounds – one round contains 4 sessions of 25 minutes with short breaks between them, and a long break following the end of last, fourth session. With the basic account you can see your progress in the last three days. There is also a Pro version, where you can modify the study session time and the length of the breaks if another technique suits you better, set daily goals with the number of sessions you want to do and pick the alarm music that you want. With the small price of $1.99, the Pro version is a good investment. FocusKeeper works for iPads and iPhones.

Freedom

Since all these great apps require you to be on (or nearby) your laptop, iPad or iPhone, they carry a risk of distraction. While you study, it would be best to have an app blocking social media, and all other sites that you might want to visit. For your iPhone, iPad and laptop, one of the best apps is Freedom, which blocks the sites you want, allowing you to still visit academically relevant pages. Freedom offers free sessions before you have to sign up for monthly or yearly subscription.

About our guest blogger:  Annabelle is part of the Content and Community team at SmileTutor, sharing valuable content to their own community and beyond.