Study Apps & Tools for Final Exam Season

Congratulations, you’re almost near the end of the term! As you are working your way through exam season I would like to share some apps that my peers and I use, which may enhance your study sessions. This blog post was inspired by a previous post by a fellow CLCA in 2018.

I would like to acknowledge that these are opinions and recommendations of myself and my peers, UBC students, and do not reflect the university’s views.

Flashcards

Anki

Recommended by Rosemary

Useful for: Memorization-heavy courses (e.g., CLST 301, The Technical Terms of Medicine and Biological Science)
Helped me practice the vocabulary that I needed more work on and feel better going into the exam!

Pros:

• Can categorize flashcards into 4 categories (Again, Hard, Good, Easy)
• Can change the frequency of when you can see the card again
• Ability to see stats about my learning progress
• Does not need internet connection

Cons:

• Needed to watch a few YouTube videos to gain familiarity with the application
• Free version of the app is only available on laptops, not phones

Tip: When you “Add” a card, you can change the “Type” to “Basic (and reversed card)” to save time inputting the front and back sides.

Availability on Platforms: PCs, Mac, Linux, iPhone/Android
Pricing: Free/$24.99*
*iPhone app costs $24.99

PowerPoint

Recommended by Rosemary
Useful for: Memorization-heavy courses (e.g., PATH 375, Introduction to Pathology) or courses with important terms and concepts (e.g., PSYC 314, Health Psychology)

Pros:

• App is mainly used for presentations but can also be used as a study tool to create fill-in-the-blank sheets
• Available on OneDrive (can access across multiple devices)
• Creating worksheets directly on the instructor’s shared PowerPoint slides (if provided) helps save study time when your exam schedule is tight
• Can work with or without internet connection

Cons:

• If you would like to practice writing out the responses, it could be more useful on a tablet rather than a computer
• Supplemental tool in addition to practice exams provided since most exams require critical thinking over memorization

Tip: If you prefer having a physical copy of these worksheets, I like to print 4-6 pages per sheet rather than 1 slide per page

Available on: PCs, Macs, tablets, and phones
Pricing: Free for UBC students (Microsoft 365 Office for Students)
 
 

Quizlet

Recommended by Rosemary
Useful for: Memorization-heavy courses (e.g., CLST 301) or courses with important terms and concepts

Pros:

• Ability to sync across your devices
• Has different fun mini-games (Match and Gravity)
• Can create tests (Written, Matching, Multiple Choice, True/False) which can help you practice in an exam setting

Cons:

• Advertisements can get distracting while you are studying
• Need to manually star entries if you would like to practice them more often
• Requires internet connection

Tip: Some courses mention in the syllabus not to use Quizlet since other students outside of the class may be able to access it. So, it is crucial to change the settings to viewable and editable by “Only Me.”

Availability on Platforms: PCs & Macs (through website), tablets & phones (app)
Pricing: Free, but Quizlet Plus= $44.99/year (to access features such as ad-free studying and offline access)

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Organization & Time Management

OneNote

Recommended by Rosemary
Useful for: Creating mind maps or tables to summarize information
Pros:

• Easy to move around text
• Available on OneDrive (can access across multiple devices)
• Size of the document is infinite, rather than just being A4 sized (can zoom in or out)
• Can use with or without internet connection

Cons:

• Search tool is a bit of a challenge since it sometimes misses text
• When saving the notes as a PDF, it becomes one long page (not cut into multiple pages), and if you zoomed out too much, some text could get cut off

Availability on Platforms: PCs, Macs, tablets, and phones
Pricing: Free for UBC students (Microsoft 365 Office for Students)
 

Google Docs

Recommended by a fellow Chapman Learning Commons Assistant (CLCA)
Useful for: Collaboration
Pro:

• Available on Google Drive (can access across multiple devices)

Con:

• Requires internet access

Tip: “Involve one or two of your friends and create a collaborative to-do list through google docs. That way, you hold each other accountable. You can create a to-do list, using ctrl + shift + 9.”

Availability on Platforms: PCs & Macs (website), tablets & phones (app)
Pricing: Free
 

Forest

Recommended by Jessie, a fellow CLCA
Useful for: Time management & Motivation
How it works: During the time you set to focus, you grow a virtual tree. If you leave the app during this focus time, your tree will not survive. The more you use the app, the more trees you have and thus create a forest. You can also help plant real trees with this app through its tree-planting partners.
“Along with forest, I also like to use Pomodoro timers.”
Availability on Platforms: iPhone & Android
Pricing: $5.49 (+in-app purchases)
 

Tweek Calendar

Recommended by a fellow CLCA
Useful for: Time Management (Organizing schedules)
Pros:

• App is straightforward, with no fancy features or anything
• Minimal design, but you can colour-code your entries for even more organization
• Can view all my tasks and organize them based on their urgency
• Something so satisfying about crossing off a finished task

Cons:

• App only lets you see things week-by-week since it is a weekly to-do list
• No option to view things on a bi-weekly or monthly basis (drawback if you want to plan for something more long-term or in the future)

Availability on Platforms: PCs & Macs (website), tablets & phones (app)
Pricing: Free
 

Paper Planners and Organizers

Recommended by Jessie, a fellow CLCA
Useful for: Making larger assignments less intimidating and ensuring that I am consistent in the amount of work I do a day.
Pros:

• Personal preference for taking paper notes
• Ability to compare work completed on certain days useful for setting goals

Con:

• Only helpful in recording the amount of work done but does not do much in terms of encouraging productivity by itself

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Computer Science Courses

Rapid Tables

Recommended by Madeleine, a fellow CLCA
Useful for: Computer Science classes

• Translating hex/binary/decimal
• ASCII conversion
• Operating systems work

Website accessible on all platforms
Pricing: Free
 

Overleaf

Recommended by Madeleine, a fellow CLCA
Useful for: Courses that use Application Programming Interface (API) for using Latex (e.g., computer science classes)
Pros:

• More user friendly than some other hosts
• Makes your homework look organized
• Useful for math, discrete mathematics, logic, and proofs
• Easily include lots of different symbols etc.

Cons:

• Ability to collaborate, but you can only add one person for free
• Hard to use, but so is Latex in any other host

Website accessible on all platforms
Pricing: Free ($9 if collaborating with more than 1 person)

 

We hope this comprehensive list of study apps/tools will be helpful in your preparation for final exams. Do you want to share an app/tool not listed here? Feel free to comment below! We wish you all the best on your final exams!

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References:
Feyannie. (2018, November 14). Apps That Will Help You Study More Efficiently.