Finals
Check out these apps that help you stay focused and organised during finals season. Source: Shutterstock

Thanksgiving is over and finals are fast approaching! It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed at this time of the year with assignments piling up and exam dates looming, but there are resources that can help you get ahead of it all.

Technology can be extremely useful when used properly. While certain apps can distract you from finals (ahem, Netflix), there are others that could be just what you need to get organised, focused and ultimately ace your finals!

Here is our top pick of apps that will serve as your best friends during the hectic finals season:

Quizlet

If you don’t have Quizlet downloaded on your phone already, now’s the time. A great tool for both school and university students, this app will help you train for tests and exams via flashcards, practice questions, quizzes and games in a fun and engaging manner.

The extensive app includes millions of study sets, or you can also create your own personalised ones to share with your classmates.  According to the website, “Over 90 percent of students who use Quizlet report higher grades.”

There’s also a ‘Premium Content’ option where you can access expertly-created study guides and detailed study sets.

Exam Countdown


One of the reasons why finals season is so stressful is because of all the impending due dates. Not all students are naturally organised, and it can be easy to lose control of the different dates.

This is where technology comes in useful; use the Exam Countdown app to keep track of all your exam dates, so you can focus on your studies instead of checking and re-checking the exam schedule out of fear you’re going to miss something.

Along with a daily countdown, you can colour code your exams based on subjects so it’s easy to see at a glance, as well as receive notifications to remind you when a test is approaching.

Evernote


Every good student should master the art of note-taking. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come easy to all of us. Bad handwriting or just lack of organisational skills can leave you with messy notes you can’t decipher, no matter how good your intentions were when you were diligently writing them in class.

For those who need some help with note-taking, the Evernote app is a handy tool that organises your notes in a searchable format so you can easily find the topic you need to study later instead of wading through them in a Microsoft Word jumble.

You can type directly into the app (which has a desktop version, too), attach files and hyperlink within the text to keep your notes organised.

It even makes your handwriting searchable – which is useful when you need to actually use pen and paper to jot down notes (like for math classes). All you need to do is take a photo of your handwritten notes and you can search for it later in Evernote.

According to the website, “Track due dates, type notes, or scan your handwriting and keep these with related handouts, web pages, and whiteboard pictures—all in one place.”

Forest


There are many apps that help you focus on a task – but this one is certainly unique. When you use Forest to help you concentrate, you plant a “seed” which gradually grows into a big tree in thirty minutes.

But if you resist temptation and exit the app to check Instagram or Whatsapp, your tree dies. Over time, if you’re able to successfully concentrate for a full thirty minutes, you will have grown your own lush forest full of trees that represent your ability to focus on a task for a full thirty minutes!

You also get to do your part for the environment. According to the website, “Forest team partners with a real-tree-planting organisation, Trees for the Future, to plant real trees on the earth. When our users spend virtual coins they earn in Forest on planting real trees, Forest team donates [to] our partner and create orders of planting.”

Many students know the struggle of trying to stay focused on studying with all the distractions caused by our phones. Try this app if you need some help concentrating, as it also promotes mindfulness!

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