How to Study Without Dying in the Attempt: basic apps for students.
By: Edu Montoya
Tags: Exam Preparation, Students, Time Management, Exam, Productivity

Today I want to help all those students (especially university students) who will soon be facing exams. I know it’s a difficult, stressful period and time is short, I’ve experienced this myself ! After years of study I have learned that managing the little time we have is essential to get good grades.

Do not forget that we are in a technology era, and even though technology is a very useful tool we usually use it incorrectly and it takes up our time. Let’s be realistic…Instagram, Twitter or any social network is much more interesting than your notes, I know it. But there is no time to be wasted, that’s why I’m going to propose you some basic tools // apps and show you how to use technology to your advantage:

First things first . But what comes first?

Well, the first thing you should do is take good notes. But it’s true that sometimes we’re very lazy or our teachers go too fast, so much that you don’t even have time to copy the title. If this is the case, don’t worry, with Office Lens you can take photos of the blackboard and transfer them to PDF, PowerPoint or Word. And it doesn’t matter the angle or the surface where the notes you are taking photos of are located, it doesn’t matter if they are on a blackboard, paper, a post-it, a slide, etc, the app works the same.

Internxt Drive

Once you have your notes, the next step is key: Get organised. For this I recommend Internxt Drive. In Internxt Drive you can upload all the files and notes you will need. I recommend that you divide them into folders so that it’s easier to find what you need at any given time. You can also share files with your classmates using Teams. And you won’t have to worry about losing any data because it’s a decentralized cloud in which your files are encrypted, divided and sent to different nodes. This means that ,unlike Google Drive or Dropbox, no one can access your data and it cannot be hacked. Never. On top of that, decentralized storage is much better for the environment because it emits less CO2 emissions than any centralised storage, and Internxt plants a tree for every new user!

Now that you have your files in the cloud, don’t worry and use Trello. With Trello you can program day by day what tasks you have to do and you can cross out them each time you do one (such a nice feeling when you cross one out when you finish it!) and also put a label on it to indicate the subject or urgency, but that’s not the best thing! You can also share a Trello with your colleagues, which will allow you to divide up the work and know exactly what each of you have to do and when. With this app you’ll avoid the typical “I don’t even know where to start” situation, and you’ll get straight to work

Forest app

Once you know when you have to study each thing you just have to make sure you are focused enough to carry it out. But let’s be realistic, mobile phones are the great undoing of students and in them we find hundreds of apps that are more interesting than any subject. I don’t judge you because I feel the same way. Deactivating the notifications is very useful but you can also use the Forest app. With this app you decide how long you want to stay without looking at any other application (for example 20 mins). When the time is over a tree will grow, if you don’t comply with your objectives your tree will die. Little by little you will create a forest, if you fulfill your objectives your forest will be beautiful and if you don’t do it your forest will be full of dead trees that will remind you all those times you didn’t study. Maybe this is enough to make you feel bad if you don’t study (poor little virtual trees)

But let’s be honest, there are times that no matter how concentrated you are, you can´t solve an exercise or you don’t find the right word in another language…for these reasons I propose two apps. The first one is called Mathway, with this app you will be able to solve mathematical and chemistry problems and it also allows you to make graphics that will help to better solve the exercises. I wish I had had this app when I was studying, it would have saved me a lot of headaches! The other one is Deepl, a much more accurate translator than the Google one and who will help you with the languages. Something that helped me a lot to improve in any language is watching series or movies in the language I want to learn. First I use subtitles and when I feel more comfortable I remove the subtitles. Even if you don’t like it at first, you’ll find it’s very useful later on.

But believe me, there are apps for everything, any subject you study will surely have thousands of related apps that you can learn in a much more fun and enjoyable way.

Sleep Cycle

And now let’s talk about the rest, the great forgotten at exam time. However, it is one of the most important factors in ensuring that you pass. I understand that you want to take advantage of all the hours possible because I’ve been in your situation too, but believe me, if after studying for many hours you don’t get enough sleep, your knowledge won’t settle down properly and therefore your effort will be worthless. Besides, taking a tired exam is the worst thing you can do because you’ll make the typical “silly mistakes” that won’t let you pass. That’s why I encourage you to take your rest seriously and use Sleep Cycle. This app, apart from monitoring your sleeping hours, is a smart alarm clock that wakes you up at the moment (within the interval you have set) where your sleep is lightest so that you don’t cut off your deep sleep and you wake up as rested as possible. And once you are rested… go study!

And remember! I know you think you can study while watching the game or your favourite programme but you can’t. So study in a quiet place, without noise and where you have everything you need. The lighting should also be adequate so that your eyes don’t get tired after many hours of studying and better if you do it on paper than on a screen. Don’t get overwhelmed, stay calm and make the most of your time.

And finally, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and good luck in your exams.