These days, over 85% of people in the US own a smartphone. We use this kind of technology to stay connected. At the same time, thanks to the huge number of different apps, we also use it for many other purposes, including studying.
As a student, you must know that there is a suitable app for nearly every task. There are apps to take notes and organize your schedule. Also, there are tools to solve math or physics problems with ease. And there are even apps that allow you to pay for research paper and get it done by professional writers to boost your grades and save time. In other words, there is nothing you can’t do without your smartphone and a good application.
Yet, while we all know and love famous, well-marketed apps, there are many of those that are still underestimated. For example, if you are an iPhone owner, did you know that your phone’s native apps can also help you study effectively? If not, continue reading, and we will tell you how to prepare for exams using solely native Apple apps.
Get on the Right Track With Calendar
There is no secret that exam prep is a high-stack task. How well you handle it will determine your final grade, so there is no right for a mistake. Seemingly, this should motivate students to do it well. But, in reality, surveys show that managing such high-stakes tasks often terrifies young people, kills their motivation, and makes them postpone the task. Needless to say, this doesn’t help achieve success. So if you want to study for tests effectively, the first thing you have to do is get on schedule.
Of course, there are dozens of schedule-managing apps on the App Store, but the pre-installed Calendar app can do you no worse. This native application is incredibly useful for scheduling study sessions and keeping track of exam dates. You can mark upcoming exams in your calendar and fit specific study times into your schedule of other commitments. This will help you make test prep less stressful and much more effective.
Boost Your Organization With Reminders
Once you’ve created a perfect schedule, it’s crucial to ensure that you actually stick to it. Unless you peep into your Calendar regularly, it can be hard to keep in mind everything that you have there. And that’s when the next Apple native app will come in handy.
Use Reminders to keep the most important tasks on top of your mind. Also, you can use it to create to-do lists for studying, such as reading assignments, review sessions, and practice quizzes. You can even set deadlines for each task and receive notifications when they are due.
Organize Your In-Classroom Materials Using Notes
Taking notes during classes and lectures is crucial due to many reasons. First and foremost, note-taking has been linked to better information processing and retention. That is, simply noting down what you hear during classes can help you study by itself. And secondly, your notes are great ready-made materials for exam prep.
While most students prefer to handle this task using well-known tools like Evernote, iPhone’s built-in Notes is also pretty helpful. It offers you a great way to keep track of important information and organize your thoughts. You can use it to create study guides, make lists of key concepts and terms, and jot down ideas for essays. Try using this app, and you will see how convenient and effective it can be.
Store All Textbooks in Your Pocket With iBooks
Just like notes, your textbooks are ready-made study materials. They are excellent for test prep. However, print books are heavy and hard to carry around everywhere. Thus, they are not always the best option for outside-of-home study sessions.
Luckily, Apple has a solution to this problem. If you want to have all your textbooks at hand wherever you go, all you need is the brand’s native tool – iBooks. You can use this tool to keep different books right on your smartphone and read them on your device anytime. This can be especially helpful if you need to study on the go.
Expand Your Study Materials With iTunes
Need more materials to prepare for an exam well? Although the Internet is full of information, finding reliable resources and data can be hard. Needless to say, you can’t let yourself prepare for tests using invalid information. Otherwise, you risk failing it. But the good news is that there is a native application for this matter too.
Not many users know this, but their iPhones store the Open University on them. iTunes U is a part of the gadgets’ standard iTunes. It provides access to a vast range of free educational content from leading universities and institutions around the world. You can use it to supplement your course materials and deepen your understanding of key concepts. If you are still not using it, it’s time to change this. This tool can be incredibly helpful not only for test prep but on many other occasions too.
Generate Ideas and Train Your Memory Using Freeform
There are numerous benefits of brainstorming for students. Science confirms that this process helps generate creative ideas faster. At the same time, it helps structure acquired knowledge and create visual connections between different data sets. Simply put, it can also help you retain the information better.
Apple’s most recent innovation – Freeform – is meant just for that. It’s a new native application meant for brainstorming. It’s basically an endless board where you can feature different types of content, from text notes to web links, documents, and photos. Using it, you can craft effective data sets for preparing for exams even more effectively.
The Bottom Line
Without any doubt, Apple is a leader and innovator in the tech world. Millions of people across the globe love their gadgets for many reasons. But why don’t we use our devices to the fullest extent, then?
After reading this article, you will know how many great native apps are already available on your iPhone and how handy they can be for getting ready for exams. Start using them now to ensure success!