Apps of the week:
Whe n y o u ’ r e n o t d i s - tracted playing Pokémon Go, your smartphone can be a great study buddy with apps that help you meet deadlines, do homework and take notes — especially now that it is back-to-school season.
Flashcard apps are helpful tools for memorizing facts. StudyBlue offers flashcards, and it’s free for Android and iOS users. It works like this: You create a set of flashcards for a topic you want to learn by typing the relevant information on each card. You can add a photo to help visualize the data, or add audio. Then the app lets you quiz yourself using them.
The real power of StudyBlue is that you can share flashcards with classmates or teachers. Better yet, the app lets you search flashcard sets uploaded by students and teachers around the world, so you can prob- ably find a premade set that is relevant to you by looking up keywords or searching by school.
The StudyBlue app has many features, so it may take some time to master it — and it requires setting up a free account and an internet connection to make the most of its offerings.
If you pay $19 a month or $80 a year, you can upgrade to “pro” level, which unlocks extra features, including additional options for for- matting cards.
If StudyBlue doesn’t suit you, t r y Cram.com flash cards, available on iOS and Android. The app works similarly to StudyBlue in that it offers access to numerous prebuilt flashcards uploaded to the app and the website. Cram.com’s menus and interface are slightly more clunky, but it is free.
For solving tough math problems, the Symbolab app may be what you seek. This app, available on iOS and Android, promises to help you understand a variet y of math problems by showing the solutions and, most important, the steps to solving the problem.
Symbolab can understand and solve algebra, trigonometry, calculus and matrix problems. Users put in problems using an intuitive, mathfriendly keyboard, before pressing “go.” The app takes just a few seconds to display the answer in the form of an equation that is sometimes accompanied by a graph. There’s one sticking point, though: To use this tool (and turn off advertisements), the cost is $7.
S t ay i ng o r g a ni z e d i s a critical part of being a disciplined student, and the My Study Life app is an excellent organizer. Free for both iOS and Android, this app is a smart calendar that can keep track of class and assignment schedules. It also lets users share their calendars with classmates or teachers.