Hey guys ! It’s been a while since I’ve done a proper post sorry, I’ve just started university ! I’m really enjoying it so far, I’ve just finished my second week. I’m majoring in Business and Japanese, and it’s been really fun to study again in a classroom tbh !
What I wanted to start doing was to make study tips masterposts of all the things that have personally helped me ! Today I wanted to focus on apps, and I want to try and make a few other lists in the next few days ^-^ This isn’t a list of every single useful app, just the ones that I personally use and love.
Part One: Apps
(Note: I use an iPhone and iPad, so all of the following apps are ones that are available on the Apple Store, I’m not too sure about Google Play or others sorry ! )
- Forest - Stay focused, AUD $2.99 , USD $1.99
My first recommendation for apps of course is the Forest - Stay focused app! This is a paid app so not everyone is able to get this, but if you can afford it I really recommend it ! You set times to grow trees, and if you achieve this goal without closing the app, then you get coins, which you can use to buy different trees in game or even to donate trees in real life (which is an awesome cause)! I find it personally helps me as if you close the app then your tree will die and I really don’t want that happening so I’m motivated to keep the app open and to keep studying, and I really want to be able to buy more trees in game as they’re all so cute (which is one of my main motivators ngl !! ) You’re also able to label the amount of time that you spent on a thing and can use this to track how much time you’ve spent on one subject / activity !
- MinimaList, FREE
My second recommendation is a reminders app called MinimaList ! It’s really cute and I only just recently discovered it. You swipe down to make reminders, swipe when you’ve finished them and it’s a really nifty and minimalist take on reminder apps ! I only do four subjects at the moment, so for me it’s really helpful not having to go through heaps of different categories for each subject just to mark off one or two things and I find it really seamless ! This app is free too which I think makes it even better.
- Scannable, FREE
This has been so useful for scanning my work that needs to be handwritten but also submitted online, and especially for when I have required reading from a textbook, I’m able to go borrow it from the library for a few hours and scan the pages that I need and airdrop it from my phone to my iPad in a pdf form, and then I’m able to annotate it from there.
- Notability, AUD $14.99 , USD $9.99
I use this app to write all of my uni notes and oh my god it has made my life so much easier. I have an iPad Pro, and I’m able to type notes before class, quickly handwrite during lectures (and then convert this to text later if I need!), as well as having a split screen of my lecture notes that I can highlight and annotate then also half a screen of notes I’ve written before to help consolidate my knowledge. This app is a bit costly, but I’ve found it to be so helpful.
- Microsoft Office - Remember to check to see if your education institution offers it for free ! If not, the Google options are a good alternative.
This says as goes, if you can get Word and Excel for free, then I’d recommend them but the google alternatives work just as well. I love being able to log into google at school, work on a document, then go home onto a different computer and access the same work, as well as the autosave feature, This I suppose is standard but I still recommend it! I use Word to type up Uni Assignments when my Wifi isn’t working too well, and when I know I’m just using one device to type it up.
-Waterlogged, FREE
Drinking water is so important to your health and to keep you in top shape for studying, and this app can help you remember to drink water if you’re in an intense study session and forgetting to drink water, or if you’re like me and just simply forget to drink water. You can set up your goal for the day and you can enter custom amounts for how much you’ve drunk, which is helpful not being restricted to a small amount. It’s really nice being able to look back and see that you’re actually drinking enough water and I find having a visual representation there in front of me helps me ^-^
The following will be more language specific (especially to Japanese), as that’s what I major in. If I find any other good apps for different subjects (I will be on the lookout for some business ones too), I’ll make another list ^-^
- Japanese, FREE
This is a free dictionary that I’ve found so useful. For each Kanji there is also stroke order animations shown, example sentences for words, and examples of common Kanji compounds. You’re able to make different lists, and then test yourself on these words, as well as study the lists provided (the JLPT vocab lists are also included which is super helpful!) If you also seen an unknown kanji (which can be a pain to look up if you don’t know how to pronounce them or their meaning), there is a feature to draw kanji which then converts them into text which is so helpful. I’ve used this for the last four years and it helped me a lot when travelling in Japan, doing homework as well as when I’m watching a video and not too sure of the meaning of a word I’ve just heard.
- Duolingo, FREE
Now I’m sure that you’ve heard about how great Duolingo is, and the thing that I enjoyed the most about it is that you’re able to join a club and practise writing and communicating as well as asking for advice with other people also learning your target language. There’s personalised lessons available, and it’s great for beginners in any language. It’s also nice practise to go back to the beginning again, as there were some words that I had learnt when I was starting Japanese that I didn’t remember now, and it’s nice to be able to consolidate your language skills.
- Memrise, FREE
This is similar to Duolingo, and I personally only started using it because my high school teachers uploaded vocabulary lists to it and we had to use it, but I fell in love with how nice the app is. You can learn as many different courses as you want and you can set goals of how many points you want to earn each day. Another thing I really liked is how you can download the app and immediately go into harder courses of your target language, rather than just having to go through all the basics again. There’s also videos in some of the courses with native speakers which really helps with listening skills.
There are a lot of apps out there that are so helpful and here is some of the ones that I use the most! If you have any queries feel free to message me about any of these apps! Hope they’re able to help ^-^
