In this day and age, there is an app for everything. Now, when we did our last Back To School issue in 2016, there was one app that stood out in a handful of offerings. However, over the last few years, in the world of apps, we have developed a problem of plenty. There are so many offerings in the market right now it takes a lot of time to single out one app that will help you get things done with ease. So, to save you all the time you’d spend going through app categories, we have compiled a list of apps and services, some free and some paid, that will help you level up your academic game, the geek style!
Office Lens
With schools and colleges shifting to hybrid mode after the dreadful pandemic, PDFs and other digital publications made their way into schools and colleges like water though the open gates of a dam. That was when Office Lens rose to prominence. As someone who recently graduated from college, more often than not, I found myself using Office Lens to search through scores of PDFs stored on my PC/phone, and make digital copies of my notes to send to friends. There are four basic functionalities that Office Lens comes with – Image to PDF conversion, Text to handwriting conversion, Image to Tables, and PDF editing. Obviously, it does not come packing with all the bells and whistles of a full-scale PDF tool on your PC. But, its seamless integration with Office 365 and ease of use makes it the perfect choice for us, the digital nomads.
Grafiati
End-of-course research papers and dissertations are some of the most gruesome assignments to complete. Back in the day, RefMe used to be one of the best citation management apps. But, after Chegg acquired it in March 2017, we were left looking for alternatives, and that was when Grafiati came in. For those who don’t know, and kids in school, do take note you will have to do it at some point as well – Grafiati is an online tool using which you can generate citations in a variety of formats, including APA, Harvard, MLA, Chicago, etc. While there is a replacement for RefMe created by Chegg, as per the claims made by the creators of Grafiati, their tool is superior because – “We never use the faulty open-source citation generation code used by Zotero, Mendeley, or Citethisforme, and write every piece of algorithm on ore own, based on a deep analysis of the publication manuals of each citation style; we also adapt all references to the language of each particular country with the involvement of professional linguists.” While the claims made by the creators of Grafiati cannot be verified, in my experience, the service is solid and can be a good starting point for most students working on their academic writeups. They offer three tiers, which you can look into on their website and choose as per what you need.
Trello
Either in school or college, missing out on submission deadlines is something that happens to all of us. Not only that, in the plethora of things that are happening around us, make it difficult to keep our daily schedules together at times. That is where Trello comes in. Trello is a basic yet very useful tool that helps you manage projects and daily tasks in a single place. You can brainstorm with your team while working on projects, share images and mockups, and maintain deadlines and POAs, all in one place with Trello. While the basic tier, “For individuals or teams looking to organise any project,” is free and comes with a fair selection of features, if you are looking for additional features, such as unlimited storage on the platform, you can go for their paid plans as well. There are different tiers that are available and come with different functionalities depending on what features you want.
Wolfram Alpha
For every academic assignment, research is one of the most important and tedious parts. And, if you are someone like us who goes into rabbit holes only to land up reading about capybaras and their rise in the meme culture when you wanted to research coal, then you should consider looking at Wolfram Alpha. It is a search engine dedicated to academic research. You can choose between giving in a natural language input or a math input, and if that is too much, it has been integrated into ChatGPT Plus. When you will use it, you will realise how much ahead of time it was. It was like ChatGPT before anyone had thought of it. Still not convinced? Here’s one example of us feeding a simple phrase into the engine and Wolfram Alpha instantly generating an answer. And, for the ones who like to read in and find out more, every search also has a list of related searches. Off into the world of capybaras in memes we go…
Another classic app that we could not leave off this list. Pocket makes for a very handy tool for students who want to save web pages for comfortable reading on the go. Pocket offers cross-platform synchronisation. Not only that, if you save an article on Pocket, you can change basic settings like font sizes, styles, and viewing modes to suit your needs. Also, it offers a handful selection of organisation tools so that you do not lose track of whatever articles you save. If you want, then the app will also read out the article for you as well. Pocket also has a premium subscription, which comes with perks like permanent saves of webpages even if they are taken down, amongst many others. However, it is not available in the country right now. The base tier offers almost all the functionality that you will need as a student, so you shouldn’t have to worry about it all that much.
MindMeister
If you are a fan of making mindmaps for your projects or for studying, then MindMeister makes for a very tempting install. For many, mindmaps are a great way for visualisation, even I use them. But, being old school, I prefer pen and paper, but when checking out MindMeister for writing this article, it was the closest thing to my old school preference. Not changing sides this easily though
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Satvik Pandey
Satvik Pandey, is a self-professed Steve Jobs (not Apple) fanboy, a science & tech writer, and a sports addict. At Digit, he works as a Deputy Features Editor, and manages the daily functioning of the magazine. He also reviews audio-products (speakers, headphones, soundbars, etc.), smartwatches, projectors, and everything else that he can get his hands on. A media and communications graduate, Satvik is also an avid shutterbug, and when he's not working or gaming, he can be found fiddling with any camera he can get his hands on and helping produce videos – which means he spends an awful amount of time in our studio. His game of choice is Counter-Strike, and he's still attempting to turn pro. He can talk your ear off about the game, and we'd strongly advise you to steer clear of the topic unless you too are a CS junkie. View Full Profile
