Hi friends! Today I’ll be sharing with you a list of apps that I’ve found useful in my life as a student. I’m currently in my second week at community college and adjusting to that #collegelife. A lot of these apps are helpful for both high school and college students while some pertain to living on campus/ meeting new people. This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but I hope you find some new apps that may have some purpose for you!
Academic
Forest-
an app a lot of you probably already know about, forest allows you to set a timer for long you want to be productive and stay off your phone. In that time, a tree grows and is placed in your digital forest. If you go into another app during the time, however, the tree will die :(
Duolingo
- a well-known language learning app, duolingo is simple to use and focuses on words and sentence structure in your target language.
Memrise-
similar to duolingo, but has a larger database of words and generally more to it. try both out to see which you like more!
Quizlet-
a classic/ essential! create notecards and use a variety of methods to study them. my favorite part is that you can input your next test date and it will create a study plan for you and remind you to keep revising until you’ve mastered all the concepts.
I would also recommend downloading the app for whatever your school’s online learning platform is (if you use one). It’s so helpful to be able to quickly check what assignments you have due, check grades, and message your instructors right from your phone.
Health
Cronometer- a simple and very comprehensive food tracker that has every food you can think of and shows you every macro and micronutrient you’ve consumed. it is important to make sure you’re consuming the proper amount of nutrients and this is the only app i’ve found that is free and shows you everything. there is also a place to log your weight and other biometrics and see trends over time.
Lifesum- another food tracker that gives tips on how to be healthier. beautiful interface and easy to use, although more in depth features require a membership.
MC- my cycles is a period tracker that allows you to input your flow, symptoms, mood, and any medications to effectively track your period with a simple and beautiful interface.
Foodstand- a great app for tracking nutrition, fitness, and water intake goals. all you have to do is draw a checkmark on the screen every time you’ve taken a step towards your selected goal!
Stop, breathe, and think- a fantastic meditation app! Input how you are feeling mentally and physically and the app will generate a list of guided meditations for you to choose from.
Sworkit- strength, cardio, flexibility, and yoga workouts, many of which don’t require equipment and are dorm friendly. you can even customize your own workout with your favorite moves!
Waterminder- water and liquid tracker, there’s all there is to it!
LaLa Lunchbox- this app is geared towards little kids but it allows you to create a meal plan and put foods from each category into your “lunchbox” to create an easy and healthy meal. depending on what foods you select for the week, the app generates a shopping list as well! this is so important to me since i commute and there is nowhere on campus to buy food.
Sleep
Sleeptown- from the same developers as forest, you input your bedtime and wake up time and leave the app open while you sleep (your phone can be turned off). while you sleep, a building is constructed and added to your town. if you go to bed too late or go on your phone, the building is destroyed. it has an alarm in app and helps to develop a consistent sleep schedule.
Carrot Alarm- this app was KEY for me back when i had trouble waking up in the mornings. basically, the AI robot screams at you and forces you to perform certain tasks in order to turn the alarm off. I wouldn’t recommend if you live in a dorm unless your roommate is on board.
Sleep Time- a sleep tracker that monitors your breathing and movement to determine the best time to wake you up so you don’t feel groggy in the morning.
Social
Heyy- this is such a fun app for when you’re making connections with a ton of new people. Input any contact information and social medias into the app and when you meet someone, you select which information to share with them via airdrop. makes meeting new people so much easier!
Spaceteam- a fun game that requires multiple people to safely guide a spaceship through the galaxy. great for in the dorms when you and your friends want something silly to do, also great for making new friends!
1 Second Everyday- simply film one second of video everyday and the app compiles them into a single video so you can look back on all you did in the year.
Lifestyle
Productive- to do list and habit tracker with a simple and modern interface.
Thinglist- one list for all your tv shows, books, places, and other bucket list items.
Pinterest- find links and photos for studyspo, study tips, life hacks, style ideas, recipes, and sooo much more! you can organize them into “boards” so you can always find what you’re looking for.
Daily Budget- input your weekly income (or how much money you’ll allow yourself to spend in a week) and the app divides it among the days in the week. whenever you spend money the app deducts from that day (and the next if you spend too much) and any money you have left carries over to the next day.
Starbucks- the Starbucks app is great because it allows you to digitalize your gold card (spend $75 and get a free drink or food item) and gift cards, place mobile orders, and partake in challenges to earn more rewards.
Other
Youtube- pretty self-explanatory, but you can find so many tips for school, life, health, etc. on youtube!
Google Photos- free up phone space by automatically backing up all of your photos online.
Spotify- find and create playlists for any mood, including sleeping or studying. the free version works great but premium membership is only $5/month for students!
Netflix- obviously.
There you have it, the apps I can’t live without! I hope you find them helpful! Study hard!
1. Sometimes you don’t make a solid group of friends straight away, so don’t feel too upset. I’m a second year and I’ve only really now started adding people on Facebook and forming casual friendships. It happens. If you do make good friends - awesome.
2. Pre-readings and online modules prior to lectures and/or tutorials. DO THEM. Skim through readings if you’re short on time, and do the prep work the week before. Trust and save yourself from having to go through everything within days (multiplied by X units) before your exams.
3. Realising once you’re in your new home no, you did not need to pack every belonging you have, because yes, everything DOES. NOT. FIT.
4. Realising how much stuff you have but don’t need.
5. If moving out of home, bills and rent or paying for accommodation can be STRESSFUL.
6. ~Adulting~
7. How sometimes boring general core units are. It sucks but have to be done.
8. Your tutor not haggling you about studying more and stuff, ‘cause that’s all on you. If it’s the tutor’s fault, I would suggest bringing that up with the head of the school/faculty or even your student guild to think of solutions.
9. By approx. week 5 to week 6, class numbers begin to exponentially drop, most significantly within the last three weeks of semester.
10. Yes, older people study at uni too. Most of them are nice, genuine, and nervous. Yes, sometimes they do older people things.
11. There are many, many intelligent and kind people in university.
12. Some people have significantly different work ethics.
13. Going to the wrong class across the year is a-OK. I walked into an upper year math lecture and realised the lecturer wasn’t who mine actually was. Whispered very loudly “OH MY GOD” and walked straight out. We’ve all been there. Just kindly walk out and pretend nothing even happened.
14. University life is more than academics. Take a leap and do things.
15. You’ll have to do more than your degree to get to where you want to be.
16. People party a lot, you can be one of them but if you want to keep up your grades, please balance it with your studies, work and other commitments!
17. University can either be harder or easier than high school. For me? Easier so far. Further units will be difficult. But you’ll learn a lot of useful and enriching knowledge which is worth something more than what you might learn in high school.
18. Seating plans don’t exist, but if you’re gonna change seats every week, you’re most definitely messin’ up the system.
What other things can first years expect? Whether you’re fresh out of first-year like me or a tertiary education veteran, I’ll make sure to update this continuously with all of our input!
By: ProMarvelFanGirl
Pairing: Surfer!Steve x Reader - College AU
Warnings: flufffffff
Summary: You have the summer of your dreams.
A/n: This is the longest one shot I think I have ever written (2k+ words) This is also based extremely loosely on the movie Gidget.
Your summer had been perfect, you were back for the summer after your first year of college. You had almost perfect grades but hadn’t really got to experience any of the parties or boys. You had been determined that this summer that would change. Your first day back you immediately headed to the beach ready to spend the day reading and soaking in some rays.
What you got, however was a new infatuation. The beach had been taken over by a large group of guys, none of them seeming to have normal names. They all called each other by some nick name. All of them buff and good looking, they seemed to always be on the beach or in the water on their surfer boards. You figured they were some sort of beach bums, but they all seem to go home to houses at night.
It took you the entire first week of summer to get up enough nerve to talk to them. You eventually had weaseled your way into their little group. You weren’t arm candy, that was for sure, more like a kid sister or mascot to them. You wished you were arm candy. There were only two other girls in the group, they had commanded the respect of the men and acted as such.
There were two leaders of the group, Iron Man and Captain America. They held the respect of the others and decided who was allowed in the group. After weaseling your way in, you had convinced them to teach you how to surf. Three weeks after the start of the summer holiday, you were just as good at surfing as most of the others.
“Hey Doll why don’t you get us some hotdogs huh?” You roll your eyes as White Wolf or Bucky, called out to you. You knew the other people on the beach thought him calling you doll was some sort of endearment, but it was your nickname. Cap had told you when you were sworn in (with a coconut on your head and the guys dancing like idiots around you), that you had no name you’d be forever known as Doll. You were annoyed at the nickname you received but, Falcon had assured you it came from a place of love.
Alternatively titled: How to Use Your Planner or How Organization and Discipline Will Get You Better Grades
This is my full guide on how to use your planner effectively and make sure that you are never missing deadlines or falling behind in classwork and homework. This is definitely more about the university level and works best with a dated planner, rather than a bullet journal. Let’s get started!
- Get all of your syllabi together and write down dates. Go through one class at a time and mark down all of your major tests and assignment due dates. I recommend putting these dates into the monthly and weekly views, and perhaps coming up with a symbol or other indicator that tells you they are of utmost importance.
- Make a weekly schedule of when to complete readings and do a weekly review of notes. Instead of trying to randomly decide when to do these things, assign a date for each task for each class. If you have a tutorial on Tuesday, do the assigned readings for it every Wednesday. I recommend scheduling one to two weekly tasks per day, and to leave a few days open, whether it be weekends or days when you have a lot of classes.
- Make a master list of assignments. I find that sometimes, even having due dates in the calendar view isn’t enough, and they can still sneak up on you. The master list will be a good place to double check if you have any deadlines approaching easily.
- In the week or so before a due date, create a checklist of smaller tasks needed to complete the assignment. Set individual due dates for each smaller task by working backwards from the due date. Smaller tasks may include finding sources, making an outline, writing a rough draft, and editing and adding references to create a final copy. Write the smaller tasks into your daily to-do list.
- You can also do this with studying for tests, but the checklist would look slightly different. You could either sort by study method (first do flashcards, then do essay outlines, etc.) or sort by the topics you need to study.
- Stick to the schedule you have made. Obviously, if something comes up and you need to move your to-do list around, do so! But if you aren’t doing anything and you see readings on your list of daily tasks.. do them. Having the plan set out like this makes it easier for you to remain disciplined.
Why use this method?
- By creating a schedule for repeated weekly tasks like completing readings, you make sure that you can’t repeatedly push off smaller tasks until you are weeks behind. I don’t think it is very reliable to just will yourself to do readings, or to keep up with them without tracking it.
- By writing down all of your due dates, you will never be shocked to find out something is due the night before. You will know and you will be prepared.
- By creating smaller checklists of tasks to complete before a major test or assignment, you will never find yourself in a situation where you have an essay due in a few days and haven’t even started. You will be following a timeline and making sure you don’t have to rush.
I know this system may seem rigorous, but planning is the only way you can keep on top of your workload in university! Falling behind is a lot harder if you are organized and disciplined, and being on top of your workload will help you a lot when it comes to exam times… no cramming and all-nighters if you have been consistent all semester!
During High school I was one of those students who never really had to work for my marks, I had the uncanny ability to leave my assignment till the night before and still manage full marks that is ..till I got to university, my first year was a disaster I was barely passing my units I was stressed and depressed, what got me through high school was clearly not working in university. So to stop my second year in university from being a disaster as well and to save my gpa I decided to learn how to study from scratch! spoiler: It worked and my marks have tripled since I adopted these habits. So here are the things I started doing!
- I invested in school supplies that I NEEDED and not just for aesthetic, example I bought tons and tons of basic cheap notebooks because I knew I was going to do a lot of writing and things like flashcards. My rule of thumb was if its functional its perfect.
- I attended every lecture and every class no matter what the time was! This is essential as it saves time later when you are rushing around trying to catch up.
- I tried to stay up to date no matter what! Before I would let lecture after lecture pile up but ever since doing this, my study life has been much easier to cope with.
- UNDERSTANDING EVERYTHING YOU LEARN FROM THAT WEEK, I cannot stress how much this has helped me. If I am learning about a topic in week 5, I have to understand it fully in week 5, not when I am in finals week and stressing out. I use resources such as textbooks and the internet to help me understand or I will ask my teacher. The important thing is I understand it fully.
- Be organised! Know when you have an assignment due, there are so many ways to do this. Handheld planner, wall planner, phone reminders, there is apps such as my study life. Anything that will remind you to get started on the thing before it is too late.
- Review your notes weekly or fortnightly!!! Memory works by relearning, instead of cramming the night before exams, review weeks before.
- Break down your essays weeks before its due, you don’t have to start writing them right away but at least start thinking about them.
- Utilise any free time, for example instead of listening to music on my 45 min bus ride to uni I started listening to a psych podcast or doing my readings for that day.
- Have mental health days, I found out how difficult it is to study and how necessary it is to take breaks. Studying is stressful, have days/half days where you relax and look after yourself.
-Cut down on caffeine, I was a serial coffee addict, Im talking 4 shots a cup three times a day. Cutting down reduced my anxiety and got me sleeping more, which improved my mood and energy.
- Have a study buddy/group, find someone who is serious about their study and have study sessions with them, you get to study and have a social life.
- Find a study schedule that suits you, don’t feel pressure to get up at 5 am if you find it easier to study at 6pm.
- Have a study place, that you know you will study in! It can be your local library, your desk, your bed. Anything that you find will work for you!
things i learned my first semester of college
| 1. Don't lose ID |
| 2. Drink lots of water. It makes you feel better about yourself. Buy a nice water bottle to encourage this. |
| 3. You're only a dorky freshman if you act like one. |
| 4. Make your bed and do laundry. It will make you feel better about your living space. |
| 5. Celebrate the little victories. |
| 6. I mean really celebrate, like get cake or something |
| 7. Take naps, but don't miss out on quality time |
| 8. You do not have to be friends with people you don't like. Seriously. Surround yourself with uplifting people who make you happy. |
| 9. Go home and appreciate your mother |
| 10. Text your family at least on a weekly basis so they know how you are |
| 11. Life gets hard. Surround yourself with people who make it easier, not more complicated. |
| 12. Do not look for happiness in the same place you lost it. |
| 13. You cannot give someone your whole heart if you are using pieces of it to hate someone else. |
| 14. You can never love enough for two people. You're not supposed to. |
| 15. The show must go on. Everything always goes wrong, and that's okay. Learn to deal with it, dust yourself off, and keep going |
| 16. Don't check up on people who have decided you're no longer a part of their life. |
5 Tips for First Year
1. don’t buy a bunch of binders and notebooks before lectures begin. In my first year of university 90% of all my assignments, readings, and even quizzes and tests were online. By the end of the term my binders only had the syllabus in them. Wait until the first few classes to get a feel for how your professor is going to run the class and if it looks like there’s going to be a bunch of handouts go get materials then!! But rushing before lectures begin may just leave you wasting money on supplies you don’t need.
2. Write down your deadlines as soon as you get your syllabus. Classes can be tough to juggle, and most of the time your profs won’t remind you about due dates. Remembering you have an essay due at 11:59pm when it’s 9:30pm is the worst. I keep a big whiteboard calendar in my room with all my due dates color coated so I never lose track of deadlines!
3. Easy marks are easily lost. If 10% of your grade is attendance, get your butt to class every week. If you have weekly quizzes that add up to 15%, do them every week. All these marks, though they seem small but they start to add up! You’ll be thanking yourself at the end of the term when these easy marks boost you to another letter grade!
4. Always always always go to class. I don’t care if your hungover, sick, or just plain tired, go to class!!! Sure your always allowed to take the day off if you need it, but if you get one thing out of the 15 topics your prof covers, it’s worth it to go! You’re prof may lecture on topics not included in your readings!! Go to class as much as you can.
5. Readings are just as important as assignments. Assignments are important, but readings are so so vital to doing well in a class! The last thing you want is to be cramming for a test with 200+ pages of readings to do because you’ve neglected them for weeks. Schedule them just like you would other deadlines and get them done!!