7 Awesome Apps for Successful College Students

In the past you may have gotten into trouble for using a mobile device during class. This school year, however, mobile devices are more commonly accepted in classrooms. Teachers now don’t automatically assume that you’re texting someone, posting on Facebook or playing games if you’re using your phone or iPad in the classroom.

Now teachers might believe you’re using your device for academic purposes because there are so many apps that can help you with school. These applications can help you stay organized and help you study. Here are several awesome apps you should check out:

Flashcardlet

Flashcardlet is an app that allows you to create or download flashcards onto your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. You can either create your own flashcards within the app itself, or download flashcards that you have made previously on Quizlet.com or that you have saved into your Dropbox account. The cards appear on your screen and allow you to filter them so you can focus on areas where you need more studying.

The great thing about Flashcardlet is that you can use the app without being connected to the Internet. If you do not always have Internet connection and need to brush up on vocabulary for class, then Flashcardlet will definitely help you.

Flashcardlet is a free app available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store.

Notability

Notability is my favorite note-taking app. Available on the iPad, you can create multiple notebooks and folders to keep to organize notes from different classes. When taking notes, you can either type or use a stylus to write like you would with a pen and paper. The magnification feature on the app allows you to write large letters in a space, and then the app will automatically put what you are writing in a normal size on the screen. This way your handwritten notes are legible and easy to read and write.

Another great feature that is useful in school is being able to download PDF’s to the application and being able to annotate the PDF in the app with the highlighters and pens. After you’re finished taking notes you can send the file to Dropbox so you can open your notes on your computer as well as on your iPad.

My full review of Notability can be read here: Take Note of Notability!.

Notability is available for $1.99 for the iPad at the iTunes App Store.

Evernote

Evernote is another helpful note-taking app. The great thing about Evernote is that the app is available on so many devices (iPad, iPod, Android, iPhone, PC, Mac). Any notes that are taken on any of your devices automatically sync to all of your other devices. This is a helpful app if you want to quickly jot something down, like homework, or if you want to have your class notes quickly accessible on your other devices.

Carolyn’s full review of Evernote can be found here: Evernote: A Powerful Organizational Tool!.

You can sign up for Evernote for free at their website. The Evernote app is available free for:

• iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch from the iTunes App Store
• Android devices from Google Play
• BlackBerry phones from App World
• Windows phones from the Windows Phone Store
• Kindle Fire and other Android devices from the Amazon Appstore

iStudiez Pro

iStudiez Pro is an app that serves as an electronic assignment book. You can enter your class schedule and homework, just like a normal assignment book. The great thing about entering homework on your iPad, iPod, or iPhone through this application is that your device will notify you when you have a class or assignment due. This way you are not scrambling last minute when you remember that you forgot to do a big assignment due tomorrow.

The app will also sync your iCal appointments so that you do not accidentally plan two things at the same time and so that you can plan ahead to know whether you will have enough time to finish homework that night. If you have a hard time keeping all of your homework and schedule synced, then this app may help you manage everything.

iStudiez Pro is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for $2.99 at the iTunes App Store.

Kindle

Kindle is not just an e-reader that Amazon sells, but is also an app that is available on apple devices. Since Kindle is available on mobile devices as well as computers, you can start your book and annotate it on your mobile device, and then finish it on your computer.

The most helpful feature of the app is that you can highlight and take notes on the pages of the book. Another useful feature is the ability to search for text in the book. This is helpful when you are finished the book and want to look for quotes by a certain character when you want to write that essay in English class. Many Kindle books also have the same page numbers as printed books for easy reference.

The Kindle app is free for:

• iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the iTunes App Store
• Android devices at Google Play
• Windows Phone devices at the Windows Phone Store

The Elements

The Elements is a fun and helpful iPad app if you’re taking chemistry. When opening the app, you’ll see a big periodic table of the elements, but not the one that you see in the back of your textbook. No, the elements in this app are in 3D and can be manipulated to spin.

Each element has a 3D picture of an example of the element. When you tap on an element, you will see a magnified version of it, and information about the element including atomic weight, density, melting and boiling points, electronegativity, radius, electron shells, and much more specific information.

Another fun feature of the app is that it has the Element Song and video that you can play whenever you want to help you learn the elements.

The Elements is available for the iPad for $13.99 at the iTunes App Store. The app can be used in English, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote

Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are Apple’s equivalent Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. They include all of the features that you are used to on your computer. The great thing about them is that you can export your document to Word, Excel, or PowerPoint before sending it to yourself through email or Dropbox. However, if you have Pages, Numbers, or Keynote on your computer you can save your document to the Cloud and access the latest changes on your document on any of your devices without having to hassle with changing the format and emailing it to yourself. Having these applications on your iPad is a great thing, because you do not have to carry your laptop to class to have your documents with you.

Bottom line: If you have an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch there are some great apps that will help you stay organized and study for classes. Having these apps on a mobile device will allow you to lighten your load by not having to carry a laptop to all of your classes.

What are your favorite apps for school? Do you use a mobile device in the classroom? To study? Let us know in the Comments section below!

For this post, YouTern thanks our Carolyn Nicander Mohr (@wonderoftech) at The Wonder of Tech!

About the Author: Elizabeth Sexton wrote this post for The Wonder of Tech. The Wonder of Tech is a blog is designed for tech lovers, tech haters and anyone else who wants or needs to learn about the world of personal technology. This blog is designed to help you learn about the amazing and rapid developments in personal technology in plain English.