7 iPhone Apps to Make You a Better Student

There’s no denying that, for many of us, the iPhone has turned into a highly entertaining and virtually indispensable gadget, especially when taking notes from your private SAT tutor. There are even a number of very useful educational tools designed to help you become a more efficient student. But with hundreds of thousands of applications out there, finding the ones that are right for you can seem overwhelming. Here are a few that I’ve found to be pretty nifty.

Evernote (Free)

Use this app to remember anything and everything that happens in class. Evernote allows you to create text, photo and audio notes, all of which can be synchronized to your computer and accessed later. You can organize, tag, and search through notes—even the text within snapshots is searchable!

Dictionary.com (Free/$3.99 for No-ads version)

There’s no need to lug around a big, heavy dictionary when this app gives you access to nearly one million definitions and over 90 thousand synonyms and antonyms. It also offers audio pronunciation, word origin, example sentences, and—you guessed it—Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day.

myHomework (Free)

This app offers an easy way to track your homework, projects, and tests. Assignments are color-coded by due date in a simple, notebook-like design. Past and upcoming deadlines will be numbered on your application icon, so you’ll be sure not to miss any.

iStudiezPro ($2.99)

This highly-efficient and colorful app helps you organize every aspect of school life. You can input and manage all the details of your classes and activities, including schedule, location, and instructor information. iStudiezPro also enables you to track assignments and tests and can even calculate your GPA for past and current semesters. And you can count on the integrated alarms to remind you of your tasks, classes and events.

The Chemical Touch ($0.99/Lite Edition is free)

This app is a goldmine for chemistry students. The touch-sensitive periodic table gives lets you explore the properties of the elements, such as atomic mass, density, melting and boiling points, etc. It even provides information about standard amino acids and nucleobases. And if you find yourself thirsty for knowledge still, The Chemical Touch’s internet button links directly to the Wikipedia page of the selected element, amino acid, or nucleobase.

FREE Spanish Tutor (Free)

Download this app if you’re looking for a fun way to practice your language skills and pick up new words and phrases. It offers a number of interactive study tools like flash cards, multiple choice and fill-in quizzes, and a puzzle game. FREE Spanish Tutor even has an audio feature so you can learn how to pronounce words like a native speaker! This app is also available in French, Italian and German.

Graphing Calculator ($1.99)

If you ever misplace your TI-83, this app will come in as a handy back-up. It’s a user-friendly scientific calculator that supports most commonly-used functions and allows you to graph multiple equations on the same screen. And one of the advantages of using a graphing calculator on your iPhone is that you can take screenshots and email them to yourself for reference.

Making the Most of Your Winter Break

After the tortures of SAT tutoring, mental exercises, and final exams, many students cannot wait to turn off their brains and “veg out” in front of the television all vacation long. Although a break from the daily routine of school and homework can be extremely necessary, the break does not have to be completely unproductive.
Parenthood.com ran a podcast series, Straight Talk About School, featuring Judy Molland, long time teacher and an award winning educational writer. This particular podcast offers up some tips on how to stay checked in during school vacations. Whether it is the 3 months of summer vacation, or the 3 weeks of the winter break, there are fun ways to make the best out of the time away from school.
Take a couple minutes to listen to this short podcast for fun and constructive ways to fill your days off.
How to Keep Learning Alive During School Vacation

Nailing Your Final Exams

The Christmas songs are playing. Everywhere. It’s that time of year.

While for most people, these songs are the sound of holiday spirit, for us at Launch Education Group, Christmas songs are the sound of upcoming final exams.

Festive, huh?

Now don’t look so sad—even though it’s not quite “the most wonderful time of the year” for students, finals and private SAT tutoring don’t have to be that bad, as long as you approach them with the right mindset and the right strategies. Here are some tips to keep in mind as finals get near:

Pace yourself. Studying for final exams takes a lot of time! It’s a huge mistake to wait until the day before a final to begin studying. Get started as early as two weeks before the exams, and don’t plan on having much of a social life the weekend before exams.

Pay close attention to any final exam review sheet or topic list your teacher gives out. This will help you know exactly what you should and should not spend time studying, and you can use it as your study checklist. You should also absolutely go to any and all review sessions held by your teacher.

Use previous tests, quizzes, and other assignments to your advantage. Especially in math, science, and foreign language classes, if you know how to do every problem on every previous test or quiz, you’re likely to do very well on your final exam. When you go through old tests and quizzes, take special note of any low scores you received, and plan to spend extra time studying those topics.

Get ready to memorize. Memorization is generally a key component of successful final exam studying. Since everyone’s best strategies for memorization are different, think about what has and has not worked for you in the past when memorizing, and pick your techniques accoringly.

Find the right balance of solo versus group studying. Some people actually learn a lot when studying with friends. Others learn much better on their own. Again, think about what has really worked for you in the past. Just because it’s more fun to study with friends does not necessarily mean it’s a smart choice for you.

Remember, final exams count for a lot and they can make or break your report card. You’ve put in countless hours of hard work this semester—don’t let your effort drop now! Rather, this is the time to sprint to the finish. Nothing is better than relaxing at the end of the semester knowing you gave finals your all.