If you’re reading this article, you’re thinking about going to college or already taking courses. Regardless, as a college student in the 21st century, you don’t have to go it alone. There are dozens of resources at your fingertips designed to make it easier for you as you pursue higher learning, whether you attend a brick-and-mortar university or if you’re taking all your courses online. In any case, if you’re a college student or just thinking about enrolling in college courses, here are some study resources for college students that you just can’t miss.
Grammarly
You’ll spend a great deal of your college life honing your writing skills, so you’ll want an app that helps you spot errors and weak writing. Grammarly picks up on errors like punctuation, wordiness, incorrect grammar, and much more, offering suggestions for you to correct your work. There is a free version that picks up on basic errors while the premium subscription is available for a price to tackle more complex errors and corrections. In addition, to make sure that your content’s word order and your work, in general, is uniquely yours, you can use the Grammarly plagiarism checker or another app like Copyscape. These applications verify whether or not your paper or parts of your paper appear somewhere else on the web.
Hemingway
The Hemingway editor is another app that can help you write your best. Some folks who write for a living, like copywriters, use both the Hemingway and the Grammarly apps, as they both can be used in different ways. This review finds that Hemingway is better for honing your writing style in smaller pieces rather than in longer works such as a term paper. The Hemingway editor highlights complicated sentences and offers suggestions for writing them with clarity and brevity. It also corrects basic errors and provides a readability score based on the level of education a person needs to have to read your content.
Evernote
For all those course assignments where you need to gather materials from the web, Evernote is a helpful organizational tool. It’s a note-taking system that is supported by Mac, Android, Microsoft, and iOS operating systems. There’s also a great feature called the note tag that acts like a hashtag. After you collect and organize items such as PDFs, audio, images, and scans, you use the note tags to search through your notes and call up categories from wherever the information is in your files. There are also steps you can take to sync Evernote with Google Calendar or Yahoo Calendar.
Google Drive
Google Drive is one of the major components of Google Workspace. It allows you to compose documents while collaborating with partners, store files in the cloud, and synchronize your files across your different devices. It’s a valuable tool for when you have to co-create a presentation with a group for class because you can grant multiple people access to the document and allow them to make their edits.
Headspace
Nothing is more stressful than being a college student and juggling work, home, and classwork. Headspace is designed for people with hectic lifestyles and is a science-based meditation tool that clears your head and gets you ready to focus on your tasks. It teaches you how to meditate and walks you through simple meditation steps that take only minutes to complete each day. Using the app daily for just a couple of weeks may visibly reduce your stress. There are several subscription levels available, but there is also an opportunity to try the meditation app out for free.
Brain.fm
Another science-based app called brain.fm helps reduce stress and focus. This app, however, accomplishes the job by providing specially crafted music. The music you hear through brain.fm will sound different to your ear because it is scientifically designed to work on your brain and get you focused while you study. Scientists have worked with academicians to create music that works on different parts of your brain to make you more productive in your studies.
Google Keep
If you are new to the 21st-century college scene, you may not be aware that there are plenty of apps available to help with note-taking. Google Keep, for example, is a free service offered by Google that lets you make digital sticky notes as you view your online material. Among other functions, Google Keep allows you to make plain text notes, create voice notes, and connect your notes to Google Calendar and other apps in Google Workspace.
Brainscape: Making digital flashcards
Whether you use it on your phone or the web, Brainscape is a scientifically-based app that you can use to make and adapt digital flashcards to help you study for your courses. It is based on the results of cognitive science and uses the technique of spaced repetition to increase your learning rate. Originally designed by its creator to help with his own experience of foreign language learning, the Brainscape app can be adapted for several courses and disciplines.
Thesaurus.com
Whether you’re writing an email to your professor or writing an academic essay, sometimes that perfect word just escapes you. With the thesaurus.com app, you can look up antonyms or synonyms with just one click. It’s helpful because it can provide synonyms for overused words or words that appear in other sources you are using, offering you alternatives that allow you to make your content as unique as possible. The app also has intriguing features like the “word of the day ” — as well as a variety of word games to stretch your vocabulary and get you on the way to communicating like a boss.
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