The last few months have been a very strange time. A lot of people have had their lives put on hold. We’ve seen students missing their exams, children no longer going to school and a a lot of uncertainty about university and college courses in September.
However, with government advice now stating that education should return to normal in the Autumn, colleges and universities are gearing up for a new term with new students.
It’s something that many students are looking forward to – especially after the questions, uncertainty and worries of the last few months. At last, the course you wanted can be restarted and you can get your teeth into something you’ve wanted to do. Something you enjoy and something you want to succeed in.
There’s also, of course, the fun aspect to all this. Going to parties, traveling on weekends and enjoying “freshers week” are also appealing aspects of your new life, but it’s also about studying hard, attending lectures, conferences, events and constant management of your assignments. Many young people look for extra help asking, Who can I pay to do my homework? which obviously shows, especially in some subjects, how heavy the workload is.
However, we now live in a smartphone world. Gone are the days when you’d be hunched over a dusty book in a library. Now we live in an era where we can use all benefits of the Internet and technologies to make our lives easier.
It’s not just Google though. There’s lots of apps that can help your education during the start of next term.
The secrets of college survival
Every modern college student knows that they will have to cope with a large workload every day. You can get assistance with an accounting homework helper or another service that can assist with your disciplines. There’s several helpful apps that should make your student life a little easier.
Here we’ve prepared a list of smartphone apps that will hopefully improve your skills, enhance your time management skills, learn new tricks and control those all-important expenses.
- Bench Prep
This is your personal digital library where you can find information about exams. This will help you prepare for them easily. You can use flashcards, practical questions, or choose among over 600 lessons to study. It’s a great way to boost your knowledge and point you in the right direction.
- Audext
Our podcast, back in the days before the coronavirus, used to be recorded in the car. It was the only real “downtime” I had so, with the help of a microphone and a smartphone, I recorded the podcast as I drove to and from work. It worked quite well and I tried to move things further by dictating Coolsmartphone news and features with the Google transcription tools.
This perhaps worked a little less well and, although words were mostly recognised, it could trip up over more technical details and sentence structure. I’d end up having to edit the text output quite heavily and it would arguably take me longer to do that and the recording. Writing the thing on a keyboard seemed to be the only real answer.
However, there’s alternatives to the computer-driven Google transcription. New AI-driven transcribing services will convert audio to text in a much more natural way. Solutions such as Audext will recognise voices, and will even detects additional noises before transcribing live.
You can upload your audio online via MP3, M4A, WAV or other formats and then sit back while the machine learning converter transcribes your text automatically. It takes just minutes and you can then check and edit the text. If you’re conducting an interview or submitting a recording with multiple speakers, it’ll cleverly identify people and you can then easily download in DOC or TXT formats.
The price? $30 per month or you can pay a one-off charge if you just need something done quickly. They’ll also give you 30 minutes free. Cancel any time or get online 24/7 support. It’ll also auto-save all your changes too.
One thing I’ve found in the past is that you usually end up with Google producing an “attempt” at your audio-to-text translation or you pay a fortune for an actual real person to listen to your recording and type it all out. At least now, with AI-driven services such as this, there’s another option. It’s fast, it’s a lot more accurate, it’s smart and it’s well priced.
- iStudiez
The app is irreplaceable when it comes to dates. It will track all the deadlines for your assignments, exams, papers and so on. With an easy-to-follow schedule you can ensure that you’re on track. You’ll receive a push notification in advance so you won’t forget a single event (unless you forget to put it in!)
- Evernote
This one is widely known, and is an absolute must-have. It’s a brilliant and convenient note-taking app and will synchronise across all your devices. No worrying about a notepad full of your scribbles. Instead, the notes are stored in the cloud and you won’t have the chance to lose your homework or valuable stuff. It can store audio, video, pictures and educational information.
- Real Calc
The app is valuable for those who study Maths, Physics and other scientific disciplines where you need to calculate big numbers and resolve tasks. Come on, you’ve got to have a calculator on your phone. This one, if you get the Scientific version, adds a whole host of extra functionality which are far more advanced than the standard calculator which is pre-installed on your phone.
- Engineering
This software is also perfect for STEM subjects. It contains all possible chemical, mechanical and electrical formulas updated all the time. You can use it anytime you need help and find everything quickly;
- EasyBib
The mobile app is the number one choice for those who have to deal with writing assignments all the time (and who doesn’t?). It can generate any citations in the required for your style. All you have to do is to scan the barcode of the book or tap in the title. Within the app you can send emails and export all information too.
- Babylon
Learning foreign languages? Then this app is for you. It contains dictionaries and translations in more than 75 languages so you can be sure to enter accurate information to your projects and presentations and sound smart;
- Dragon Dictation
If you need to learn how to type fast, this app will fit perfectly. The app uses voice recognition, so when you speak, you see the words in the text at once. If you prefer speaking over writing, choose the app, and never bother with typing essays or statuses in social networks.
I’m sure there’s plenty more that we may not have covered here, so do let us know if there’s an essential app on your phone that should be added to this list.