8 Awesome Apps For Students

MarginNote

This app is an extremely powerful tool for taking notes on electronic files. With numerous integrations such as annotations, mind mapping, and index cards, MarginNote can perfectly connect your notes in various ways. You can even link notes you have taken in different books and files. MarginNote also automatically organizes your notes as mind maps and can turn them into index cards. Perfect for reading and learning.

When you are reading in MarginNote, you can see options at the top of the interface. These tools are divided into two kinds: Excerpt and Annotate.

The Select function allows you to choose a wide range of content to add to your notes. Once you have made a selection, you can copy it, use the OCR feature, color-code it, add comments, have it read aloud, and research it. In addition, you can set a tag, add it to a mind map, or add your note to index cards. It can link your notes from any document and use the integration tool to organize the notes well.

There is a writing pen and highlighter for annotations, which means you can annotate the book just as freely as you can in your paperback.

MindMaps and Flashcards are the two main ways to create and manage your notes. When you take notes, you can store them in a MindMap. When you select a note, you will see options at the bottom to expand the MindMap or add notes to the review section. The great thing is that you can have notes automatically sent to a mindmap, and you can copy and paste your mindmaps without having to recreate them by hand. MarginNote makes it easy to tie everything together and build your note system.

Notion

Notion is an app that I talk about a lot. And if you haven't heard, Notion is basically an all-in-one workspace app, which allows you to take notes, manage tasks, and do pretty much anything you want. And at this point, I'm using it fully for taking my class notes, and pretty much all the rest.

Now there are even official iOS widgets for Notion, and in fact, there are a couple that are very useful. The one that I keep right on my home screen here is the Favorites Bar. And a trick that I use is I keep a dashboard page with links to a lot of things I'm working on.

Because I often have more links than will fit on this widgets area (I think it only keeps about nine links at one time), I use this dashboard to create a central place for all the important things in my life, including my tasks, my notes, and ongoing projects. I have a hub page that allows me to easily get to anything I want to get when I want to add something or reference something.

Readwise

Readwise is essentially a highlight manager that helps you recall knowledge gathered from various sources like books, Kindle books, podcasts, and more. It syncs with platforms like Notion and Roam Research, making it an excellent tool for organizing and reviewing your highlights.

I use Readwise to store my highlights from books and other media. It integrates with Notion, allowing me to easily pull in my highlights for research purposes. With the synced blocks feature in Notion, I don't even need to copy and paste—my highlights are automatically updated in the documents I'm working on.

Tide

Tide is my favorite Pomodoro timer for the iPhone. It tracks your focus sessions and offers various nature sounds for background ambiance.

I use it to apply the Pomodoro Technique, which helps break tasks into manageable 25-minute blocks, making large tasks feel less overwhelming. Tide is a simple yet effective tool for maintaining focus and staying productive.

Audible

Audible is an app I've been using for a long time, especially since I now ride an E-bike daily, giving me plenty of time to listen to audiobooks and podcasts.

With Audible's new widget on iPhone, I can quickly resume the last book I was listening to or pick from the four most recent ones. This makes it easier to jump straight into a book without opening the app.

Adobe Scan

Adobe Scan is a free document scanner app that allows you to scan physical documents and convert them into PDFs or images.

I use Adobe Scan to digitize my notes and import them into my knowledge management system, like Notion, for easy access and organization.

Spotify

Spotify is great for podcasts. It offers features like speed controls and sleep timers, and it's fast, making it easy to use.

I also use a companion app called Air for podcasts, which integrates with Readwise. Air allows me to save highlights and notes from podcast episodes directly into Readwise, which is then synced to my Notion or Roam Research accounts.

Sping

Sping is an app based on the Spaced Repetition technique, an evidence-based strategy to learn almost anything. It helps you retain information by recalling it multiple times.

With Sping, you can input your courses and set how many hours a day you can study. The app will automatically plan your study schedule for you, ensuring you stay on track without overwhelming yourself.