This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s spring editorial intern Kelly Xiong. Find her on Instagram at @k.3lly. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
College is a whole new chapter in your life. It is full of new opportunities and more freedom. It can also be harder and more strenuous classes. But you don’t have to go at them. These apps and extensions will help turn you into an academic weapon to get through classes with more ease. I have found them to be amazing study tools for college students.
Notion
If you have trouble keeping all your classes and assignments organized, Notion may be your problem solver. Notion has many templates for students, teachers, managers, coaches, and so much more. It is truly a tool that anyone can use.
For students, there is a template where you can organize all your assignments by class and date. You can make it into a calendar view — if you’re more of a visual person like me, or you can have it in a table view sorted by due date. Notion is really great because it lets you customize pre-made templates or create your own to fit all your needs. It’s like a digital planner but with a lot of features. And if you’re a Type A person like me, this app is perfect for you.
Quizlet
We have all heard of Quizlet at this point. It’s gotten most of us through high school. At its core, Quizlet is a great digital flashcard tool — though, unfortunately, a lot of other features are now hidden behind a paywall. I have recently discovered Quizlet+. The premium features of Quizlet are really great for language learning — especially when that language is dissimilar to English. Their writing feature — which is included in the premium version — allows you to practice writing the words and characters when the flashcards give you the word. This is especially helpful for languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Korean, or Greek.
The learn and test features on Quizlet+ are more personalized to your skills and capabilities. So whether you’re learning a language or maybe trying to identify parts of cells, Quizlet and Quizlet+ are a huge help. Yes, it may be annoying now that so many previously free features are hidden behind a paywall, but it is still a really helpful tool to really have things memorized.
While these tools are helpful for independent learning, some students may benefit from more personalized academic support. If you’re struggling with certain subjects, consider using platforms to find tutors who can offer tailored, one-on-one guidance to strengthen your understanding and boost your confidence.
Grammarly
Many of you may have already heard of Grammarly before, but I have to give it mention nonetheless. If your major falls under the social sciences category, Grammarly is truly a lifesaver. With the amount of essays we have to write, we are bound to slip up here and there. Grammarly is there to catch all the little mistakes that you may have missed. It can also help rephrase and restructure any sentences for clarity and conciseness.
I have recently tried Grammarly Premium and I must say, it is worth the money. For the average student, the free version will work just fine and you don’t need to spend any money on this — unless you really want to. As someone who majors in political science and minoring in law whilst also working at a university newspaper and taking on an editorial intern role — The Zine — I use Grammarly a lot. And my one-week free trial definitely helped my writing more than the free version. However, please don’t feel like you have to buy the premium version. The free one has gotten me through three and a half years of college just fine.
Speechify
Speechify can be a real lifesaver for those who have a very reading-heavy major or have a reading-heavy class(es). Speechify is a website where you can upload your textbook chapter, article, etc and it will read the contents out loud to you. With their paid features, you can select different voices to read aloud to you, skip page citations, and headers. Having a nice soothing voice to read your reading assignments to you is actually so relaxing. My favorite is Gwenyth Paltrow — and no I’m not kidding, that is literally an option.
I typically use Speechify to read aloud to me and follow along on my iPad — where all my readings are — so I’m still paying attention to the content, but it does not take as long to do the reading. I can look away on my phone for a bit while still retaining the reading. When you have a lot of readings for a class or multiple classes, getting all those readings done on top of extracurriculars, jobs, and other responsibilities can get overwhelming. That’s why I’ll also sometimes use Speechify when I’m doing my hot girl walk on the treadmill or when I’m just walking to class or work. It also makes me feel so productive and like a true academic weapon.
Notability
If you’re an iPad note-taker, Notability is a wonderful tool for you. I prefer this over Good Notes for one reason, and one reason only — the voice recording feature. Notability’s voice recording feature lets you record the lecture while you’re taking notes. You can then go back to a certain part of the lecture where you may have missed some things and replay what the professor said. Notability will also highlight your handwritten notes based on when you wrote them in the lecture recording. For example, 15 minutes into the lecture, you missed what your professor said. You can go back to the recording, start playing at around 14:30, and Notability will highlight each and every word you wrote starting at that time so you know exactly where you’re missing pieces of information. This is especially helpful in classes where the professor talks really fast or races through the slides like their life depends on it.
Have you used any of these tools to help you get through school? Are there any study tools for college students we missed that you think more people should know about? Let us know in the comments.
Leave a Reply