If there’s anything that the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, it’s the fact that our smartphones can prove to be quite the multitool. College students in the 21st century (myself included) struggle with meeting deadlines and staying on top of their schedules, but are not out of options just yet. At present, it is important to make the most of our devices to achieve the best learning experience. Our phones can become an all-in-one tool that can make our bags lighter and our tasks and lessons easier to accomplish.
We’ve scoured the internet to find apps that offer the most benefits to students like us. Having these apps can help you study more efficiently and save you from last-minute troubles like forgetting where you placed your scientific calculator or running out of space on your binder filler. Here are five useful apps for college students.
Asana
Asana is available for both iOS and Android devices.
Asana can help you and your group stay ahead of deadlines and manage tasks effectively. It helps you monitor each other’s progress, see if you are finishing tasks according to your time frame, and prioritize which needs to be accomplished first. Design, marketing, and other business teams use Asana to plot their weekly workflow.
Asana’s basic features include unlimited projects, messages, file storage, and collaboration with up to 15 teammates. However, having a stable internet connection is necessary for making the most out of these features. The premium and business offers, while pricier for the student budget, have additional features mostly used by marketing firms, such as advanced search, admin console, and private teams and projects.
Evernote
Evernote is available for both iOS and Android devices.
You can opt to use your phone’s default notes app, but using Evernote takes your note-taking game to a whole new level. Evernote integrates various features to make your notes dynamic, enabling you to find everything you need in one place. With Evernote, you can create your own note template, sync and organize your notes on various devices, use the web clipper to save links from the internet, manage tasks, schedules, and notes in one place, scan and save content from physical documents, and design a custom dashboard with all of these features in one place.
Using Evernote would be much like having a physical notebook for each of your classes every semester, minus the space that they would occupy. Evernote’s free plan allows you to sync the app on two devices and entitles you to 60 MB monthly uploads with a 25 MB limit on each note file. This might not be enough space, so you would have to frequently delete notes that you would no longer need, perhaps after every semester.
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is available for both iOS and Android devices.
The shift to online learning has made platforms like Canvas, Google Classroom, Moodle, or any other learning platform the counterpart for the conventional classroom. Usually, these apps have a calendar feature that displays schedules for synchronous sessions and upcoming deadlines for quizzes and other assignments. You can integrate your school due dates with the calendar you use for everyday life by using Google Calendar. However, you may face some compatibility issues while you import the calendar. There are instances where deadlines for certain activities and quizzes do not appear in the calendar so relying solely on the calendar may not be a good idea.
You can create or synchronize a calendar from another user, a link subscription, or through the learning management system application (like Moodle or Canvas) that your school uses. Doing so can help you increase your weekly productivity and never miss a beat.
Microsoft Lens
Microsoft Lens is available for both iOS and Android devices.
You can completely do away with bringing a pen and paper to class for note-taking when you have Microsoft Lens on your phone. This app allows you to use your phone’s camera to take texts on documents, blackboards, and whiteboards, among others then export them into a PDF file. Some convenient features, however, are limited to premium subscriptions, such as scanning multi-page documents. Also, using Microsoft Lens would require you to install OneDrive as well since the app defaults to storing the documents there.
Your phone’s gallery won’t have to be filled with photos of your professor’s PowerPoint presentation slides nor would you have to rush to write things down when you could simply take a picture that gets stored as a PDF. Of course, don’t forget to ask permission from your professors before you take pictures of their presentations.
RealCalc Scientific Calculator
Realcalc Scientific Calculator is available for Android devices only.
As quarantine restrictions ease in most parts of our country, the likelihood of the resumption of face-to-face classes increases. It pays to come prepared with everything you might need for your classes. College students who major in Physics, Economics, or any other mathematics-based degree program must have RealCalc Scientific Calculator on their phones. You can save around ₱500-₱1000 that could have otherwise been used to purchase an actual scientific calculator with this app that practically has the same features as listed on the Google Play Store:
Traditional algebraic or RPN operation
Unit conversions
Physical constants table
Percentages
Result history
10 memories
Binary, octal, and hexadecimal (can be enabled in Settings)
Trig functions in degrees, radians, or grads
Scientific, engineering, and fixed-point display modes
7-segment, dot-matrix, or standard font display
Configurable digit grouping and decimal point
External keyboard support
Full built-in help
Realcalc has these, and more:
Fraction calculations and conversion to/from decimal
Degrees/minutes/seconds calculations and conversion
Landscape mode
Homescreen widget (now with RPN support)
12-digit display
Extended internal precision (32-digit)
User-customizable unit conversions and constants
New RPN styles (buffered-entry, XYZT rolling stack)
Samsung multi-window support with drag & drop.
Now, your only problem would be if the professor allows you to use your mobile device instead of a calculator. Some things do not change at all, from high school through college.
Everything a college student needs almost always has an app for it. Whether you are taking notes for a quiz next week or trying to set a strict deadline for you and your groupmates, these apps can help you maximize the time you have and use every available resource to your advantage. Personally, having all my schedules, notes, and tools in one place saves me the time and effort I would use on more traditional methods. Pairing your good study habits with these useful apps will surely help to relieve yourself of the stresses and inconveniences.
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