Four weeks of winter break has done away with all of our motivation to be productive. Spring semester is officially in session but what I’ve learned in my first semester at Dickinson is that technology is a saving grace. Here are 4 apps you can download on your phone to manage college and succeed:
1. Google Calendar
If you’re like me and have bought multiple planners over the years only to never use them, then you will love Google Calendar. It might seem a little awkward at first to fill in but after you’ve picked a color scheme and started putting in all your activities, it will be really helpful. The best thing about it is that you can customize the regularity of the events and it will automatically set up the entirety of your semester. You can work on it on your laptop as well and always have it handy on your phone to keep track.
2. Grammarly
The writing center is great and I totally recommend going if you have a paper, but sometimes having technology do a last minute grammar check is a lot more convenient and accessible. Almost all writing apps like Word have built-in grammar or spell check algorithms but Grammarly is by far my favourite. You can install it on your phone as a keyboard and never make a typo again or add it to Google Docs or Chrome while working on your paper. Personally, I like using their online app because it works the best. If you’re interested in all their other features, they do have a plagiarism checker, vocabulary enhancement and sentence suggestions on their premium plan (on which they often have sales and offers, so be on the lookout!)
3. Coursicle
Although Dickinson isn’t notorious for doing this, introductory classes can still be hard to get into in one try, especially if they are new or not offered every semester. Constantly checking your banner account to see if someone dropped a class is probably not feasible on your part. However, the gods of the tech world are on our side: Coursicle is the perfect app for this. The app allows you to register a course after you pick your campus and lets you keep track of its’ status. So now you’ll know exactly when someone has dropped out of the class or when the course is closed.
4. Quizlet
Studying for courses that require memorization of key terms, concepts and theories is often daunting. Particularly courses like Brain and Behavior that are based on anatomy can make it difficult for you to enjoy the class. But, one effective way to tackle this is Quizlet. It has flashcards that people have made on a variety of topics and you also have the option to make your own set of flashcards. The best feature of the app is that you can learn terms and check them off as you master them while also quizzing yourself afterwards by typing out the answers, matching them or taking a mini-test.