As summer draws to a close, students can look forward to escaping the relentless heat wave and settling into air-conditioned classrooms. With the new school year on the horizon, it's time for students to explore a range of mobile apps designed to assist them in their academic journey.
We've compiled a selection of our preferred educational and organizational apps that students should consider trying out this year.
StoryShots
For those students who tend to procrastinate until the last moment to read a book (a common experience for many), we introduce StoryShots, a free learning app that offers book summaries in text, audio, and video formats.
StoryShots simplifies books into easily digestible sections, providing readers with concise paragraphs that capture the essential points. This app proves invaluable for students seeking a quick grasp of specific subjects, especially in preparation for exams or impending deadlines. Moreover, StoryShots caters to visual learners by including infographics, mind maps, presentations, and brief videos.
With a collection of over 400 books spanning various genres such as psychology, productivity, health and fitness, history, politics, marketing, spirituality, religion, and more, StoryShots ensures ample content. Best-sellers like "A Promised Land" by Barack Obama, "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking, and "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela are featured on the app. New additions expand the library by two to four books each month.
While the app is free with ads, a premium version at $3.99 per month grants access to advanced features, including offline reading, complete e-books and audiobooks, note-taking and highlighting options, and multi-language book offerings. StoryShots is available for download on both iOS and Android platforms.
Essayist
True to its name, Essayist emerges as a valuable companion for students grappling with essay composition. The iOS app seamlessly applies citation styles like APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and Harvard, automating formatting for in-text citations, references, page headers/footers, title pages, and more.
Notably, Essayist incorporates a reference manager feature enabling users to incorporate content from books, journals, magazines, websites, and even movies, offering a diverse range of over 25 reference types. Google Scholar integration facilitates reference addition, either via URLs or copy-pasting.
Essayist operates on a subscription model, priced at $4.99 per month or $29.99 annually, with a free trial available for new users.
Photomath
Addressing the complexities of mathematics, Photomath serves as a math-solving app that scans problems and presents step-by-step solutions. By utilizing the camera to capture math problems (whether handwritten or typed), the app processes the image on cloud servers, delivering accurate solutions. Additionally, an in-app calculator permits manual entry of questions.
While Photomath's free version covers the initial few steps, a subscription known as Photomath Plus, priced at $9.99 per month or $69.99 annually, unlocks the complete solution. This subscription includes solutions from numerous textbooks, animated tutorials, voice-over explanations, and an option to search for specific questions.
Photomath offers a practical means for students to cross-reference their homework and practice problems before submission, although its potential misuse as a shortcut or cheating tool should be acknowledged.
The app is accessible on both the App Store and Google Play Store.
Bookly
Bookly takes charge as a tracking and management app geared toward assisting users in meeting their reading goals. Users define their monthly/yearly reading objectives and daily reading time. Additionally, end date goals for individual books can be established, aiding students in adhering to deadlines and coursework.
The app allows books to be added through ISBN scanning, online search, or manual input (title, author, page count). A built-in timer facilitates tracking of daily reading time, with notifications to indicate when the allocated time has elapsed. Furthermore, Bookly generates comprehensive reading statistics, encompassing total reading time, page count, reading speed, consecutive reading days, streaks, and more. Downloadable reading reports and infographics can be produced for submission to educators.
The app presents potential value for educators enforcing weekly reading prerequisites and offers a means of friendly competition among students. While the free version supports up to 10 titles, Bookly Pro, a paid alternative, features unlimited book addition and expanded features. Bookly Pro costs $4.99 per month, $19.99 for six months, or $39.99 for 12 months.
Peech
Peech introduces itself as a text-to-speech reader, enabling the transformation of text files, PDFs, books, and online articles into audio content. Beyond its multitasking appeal, the app is of particular interest to students who wish to engage with assigned reading during commutes or walks. Moreover, Peech addresses the needs of individuals with dyslexia, low vision, and similar challenges hindering traditional reading.
Peech offers multiple means of accessing content, including text pasting, file uploading, URL insertion, and textbook scanning through a phone camera. The app supports 50 languages, accommodating foreign language learning.
Apart from its free version, Peech presents a $4.99 weekly subscription allowing unlimited document uploads, PDF imports, and link integration. The app is exclusively available on iOS devices.
Evernote
Functioning as a comprehensive note-taking and task-management solution, Evernote proves invaluable to students seeking continuous organization.
A standout feature of Evernote is its range of templates catering to diverse needs, encompassing class notes, essay outlines, to-do lists, reading lists, and weekly planners. Users can categorize notes into virtual "notebooks," simplifying organization by subject or semester. Evernote supports multimedia integration, including images, tables, audio, and web content.
Furthermore, the app offers integrations with Google Drive, Slack, Outlook, MS Teams, and Gmail, promoting seamless collaboration on group projects. Currently testing an AI feature named "AI Note Cleanup," Evernote streamlines cluttered notes into more coherent versions.
Evernote offers a free tier with basic features, alongside premium options—Personal and Professional. The Personal plan, priced at $7.99 per month, includes expanded storage and a customized dashboard. The Professional plan, at $9.99 per month, offers up to 20GB monthly uploads.
Evernote is accessible via the App Store and Google Play Store.
Saturn
Saturn emerges as a calendar-centric social networking app tailored to high school students. Currently available only on iOS devices, the free app caters to students in grades 9 to 12, providing a platform for sharing class schedules, coordinating club meetings, sports practices, parties, and exploring local events.
Saturn's planned expansion targets a broader user base beyond high school students.
Users opting for notifications receive daily schedule reminders and alerts for lunchtime, breaks, and upcoming classes. A personal countdown accompanies each class period.
To join Saturn, students must input their respective high schools. Profiles of fellow attendees from the same school are visible, fostering a sense of community. The app includes profiles from around 16,000 schools, ensuring wide accessibility.
Overall, Saturn is poised to assist students in effective time management and community engagement.
Comments