17 may 2023
If it’s beginning to look a lot like finals everywhere you go, we’ve put together a list of dead-useful apps that can help you prepare and do your best. Some of them are brand-new AI-powered tools that will make last-year graduates wish they were facing finals too. Others have been around for quite a while but are known to improve performance during exams. Without further ado, here are seven apps to help you ace finals.
Skimming through the course materials is a great way to prepare for finals. However, it won’t do you much good if you’re still struggling with some topics. These AI apps can help you fill in the gaps in your knowledge faster than ever before!
Reading academic texts can be challenging, especially if you’re tired and stressed (which is often the case during exams). They are densely packed with information and terminology, and complex sentence structure only adds to the problem. Explainpaper can be a game-changer if you find yourself rereading a page for the sixth time and still finding it hard to understand. It’s a ChatGPT-powered app that can help you make sense of any piece of material you’re struggling with. Simply upload a PDF and highlight the phrasings or paragraphs that seem confusing, and the app will explain them!
Humata is another great tool that allows you to upload course materials. But with this one, you can ask direct questions to help you break down complex ideas into easy-to-understand chunks. Not everyone feels comfortable asking questions during class, but with Humata, you can ask all the questions you want without having to worry that you’ll annoy your professor or make a fool of yourself.
TeachAnything is similar to Humata except you don’t need to upload any PDFs to it. Simply ask the app questions on any topic you need help with. A great thing about this tool is that it speaks several languages and allows you to choose the level of complexity of the answers it gives you.
Now, if you’re wondering what a mobile scanning app is doing on the list of AI tools that help you understand study materials, consider the fact that to upload a PDF, you need to have that PDF on hand. So what if you only have a hard-copy or borrowed notes you need to return in half an hour?
iScanner is an AI-powered app that allows you to scan and upload anything without having to leave your dorm. It detects the page boundaries and clears the background, making the text more readable. It can even fix the geometry of the page and remove curves and creases.
Plus, you can digitize and organize your notes into folders and use search. Might be nice not to have to carry all the course materials around with you. The cherry on top is that it comes with a free cloud sync feature which means that everything will be available on all your devices.
Anki is a nifty piece of software that hardly needs an introduction. In case you’re new to the app, it uses flashcards and spaced repetition technique to improve memory retention. First, you create flashcards or choose one of the pre-made decks. Next, the app presents the flashcards to you to recognize. The cool part is that the app’s algorithms determine how often to show you each flashcard based on your performance. Those that you struggle to remember will be shown more often. This streamlines the transition of information from short-term to long-term memory and ensures that you memorize the parts you’re struggling with the most.
This tool can be immensely helpful with subjects that require you to memorize tons of factual information, like anatomy, history, or law. Although it’s not a novelty, this particular old hat can improve recall accuracy by over 40% and exam scores by about ten. Anki is a free app that works on both iOS and Android as well as desktops.
If we could say only one thing about RemNote, we’d say that it’s a must-try tool for anyone who takes studies seriously. A good way of thinking about this app is as a love child of Notion and Anki that took the best from both parents. Like Notion, the app allows you to make well-organized and easy-to-navigate notes. Like Anki, it uses spaced repetition and allows you to create flashcards. What’s really great about RemNote is that you can automatically create flashcards based on your notes and link them to specific topics. This way you know exactly where each of the flashcards fits into the bigger picture, and you save time because you don’t have to add them manually.
If you use the app consistently over a long period of time, it can become your personal Wikipedia. It’s integrated with Google Docs and other note-taking apps too, so you can copy and paste rather than type everything every time. You can also create links between related topics, which makes it much easier to review a year’s worth of materials.
This app is a treasure trove that can instantly take the quality of your writing up a notch and make writing itself easier along the way! Academic Phrasebank is a massive database of excellent transition words and phrases often used in academic writing. For easy navigation, they are arranged into categories and subcategories, such as introduction, examples, limitations, implications, conclusions, and many more.
Whenever you feel stuck with your writing or find it difficult to string your ideas together, this tool will get your creative juices flowing and instantly make the text more coherent and professional. If academic essays are a part of your finals, this tool is a must-try for you! It’s the easiest way to elevate your writing and get a better score.
There you have it—seven apps to help you ace finals. On a final note, it’s worth keeping in mind that your academic performance also depends on your physical wellbeing, so remember to eat and sleep well, exercise regularly, and take breaks. Don’t forget to take advantage of the amazing study aids we’ve spoken about, and good luck with your finals! We’re sure you’ll ace them.
