The invention of tablet computers has revolutionised the world of education. In 2014 more than 70% of schools had tablets in the classroom and this number has grown since then. One of the biggest advantages of using a tablet device over a computer is the fact that tablets give you access to their operating systems app store.
One of the primary roles of an educational app is to make your life as a student easier. There are apps that help you keep track of time and dates, apps that help you revise, apps for taking notes and creating flash cards, apps with questions and quizzes and there are notable apps full of free educational videos. To help you revise for your upcoming summer exams here are the 10 best apps for students that we’ve selected.
To view the store page for the app just click the appropriate version in the title (iOS or Android)
Wordflex Touch Dictionary (iOS)
We’ve started our list of the best apps for students with one of our favourites: Wordflex. This powerful app allows users to explore complex word trees to learn about our complex language. It was developed specifically for the iPad (sorry Android users!) using content from the prestigious Oxford University Press. This free to use (basic package) app simplifies the complicated origins and definitions of words into easy to follow trees.
If you aren’t already convinced to ditch your old paper dictionaries then this app also comes with a share feature which allows you to share your word tree creations on social media. It also provides the latest definitions for words with images. The app also comes with voice pronunciations (for both US and UK English) for those words you’ve never seen before.
While this is easily one of the best apps for students on the market it’s also a great application for teachers, word lovers, scrabble fanatics and even artists. Oh and did we mention that it also works offline?
Maps of our World (iOS)
Did you know that only a third of cars in Britain now carry a traditional road map?
Technology has made the maps of old outdated and we are becoming a nation reliant on our sat navs and phones. Geography is a skill that’s not only useful to know but also incredibly interesting. Thankfully this iOS app quizzes users with the location of certain countries, capital cities and even natural landmarks. There’s lots of content across a wide range of geographical topics to quiz you on.
It’s one of the best apps for students of geography who need to learn the world map fast. It’s simple to use, great fun and highly educational. We recommend this to any geography students as well as people who are interested in learning more about our planets borders.
goREACT (iOS / Android)
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago had their boffins create an app that makes chemistry fun. goREACT is a free to install app on iOS and Android and it’s easily one of the best apps for students of chemistry or sciences. You can click on the periodic table to learn facts and view images of each element but this isn’t the main purpose of this app.
Users can drag elements together to cause chemical reactions. This helps you learn how certain groups or rows in the periodic table react with other elements. It teaches students about famous reactions and you’ll quickly learn the structure of the periodic table. The best part is that it also provides videos and images to illustrate the reactions giving a detailed look into the explosive world of chemistry.
Exam Countdown (iOS / Android)
With all the revision around exam time it can become easy to get lost and mix up the exam dates. Exam Countdown is a free and simple app which keeps track of exam/test dates in one simple place. It’s easy to manage and great for students of all ages. This is certainly one of the best apps for students close to exam periods.
What excels this app above other timekeeping apps is that it allows you to colour code your entries as well as place custom icons. If you’ve got any updates you can add notes to your exams and you can share the exam dates/times on social media with your friends.
This app helps you keep on top of your study timetable and it will ensure you never accidently spend all night at the library only to get the exam date wrong.
Photomath (iOS / Android)
It wouldn’t be a list of the best apps for students without including one of the most prestigious apps ever invented. Photomath holds the title of the best rated education app in over 100 countries worldwide and it’s no wonder why. This app uses your phone/tablet camera to solve equations in real time. What makes this app so great is that it shows a detailed step by step solution which is a fantastic way to learn.
The developers regularly update this app allowing it to solve more complicated equations. They also offer great customer support and will accept any feedback you email at them, which they might even add into the app. It’s simple to use and has a great UI and it’s certainly one of the best apps for students as well as an awesome example of how complex technology has become.
Duolingo (iOS / Android)
Duolingo has revolutionised the way we learn languages. It’s a completely free app which relies on advertising alone to make its money. It uses gamification to make learning a language easy as well as fun.
This app blows every other language learning application out of the water and users can add notes to ask questions or help others. They regularly update the languages to ensure that the grammar and structure is correct and they also add new languages including ones as unique as Esperanto.
This is easily the best app for students that want to learn a language and we highly recommend it for everyone.
Gojimo (iOS / Android)
Gojimo is the best app for students studying at compulsory education in the UK. It’s the leading revision app in the UK and it was created by students for students. The app quizzes users from a bank of over 150,000 up to date questions across GCSE, AS and A2. You can tailor the questions to your specific exam board and the app covers all major subjects.
This app can even be used offline, but if you happen to be online you can share your scores to social media which can be a fun competition against your friends. In case you do get a question wrong the app will give a detailed answer and explain your mistake which helps you get the question right in the real exam. If you needed any other reasons to download this app (and you really shouldn’t) then here’s one: it’s completely free.
Evernote (iOS / Android)
When you get to university you’ll get to face the exciting prospect of taking your own notes without a book provided to you by your school. Evernote is note taking software that saves paper and gives you all the benefits of technology. You can make to-do lists, checklists, attach files and keep your workspace nice and tidy. For reading back the app comes with a search function which gives it a huge advantage over paper note taking.
The app is also very social and allows users to work together as a team. The ability to share notes makes this one of the best apps for students working in groups at both school and university. If typing isn’t your thing you can even write using pressure ink. This app is free to use but offers a premium service which adds features such as more space and offline usage.
Remember the Milk (iOS / Android)
Filling your brain with information for an exam can often mean you forget the important tasks; like buying milk. This to-do list app makes organization easy for the busiest of people and who could possibly be busier than students around exam periods? The app offers many different ways to remind you to complete tasks including email, text, phone notifications and even social media.
This app made it into our list of the best apps for students because you can use it within a team. This means you can easily share out the work during a group project or group revision session and it integrates with Gmail, Outlook, calendar and Evernote which gives no one an excuse to miss the deadlines. Sorting tasks is easy as you can colour code tasks with custom made tags and you can even add subtasks to break up the more complicated tasks.
iMind Map (iOS / Android)
Mind maps are one of the best learning techniques because they engage the whole brain and show you the bigger picture. Just like Evernote this app is a great way to create mind maps on your tablet instead of on paper. You can use templates or create your own with unique colour schemes and custom images. This simple to use app makes mind map creation easy and we highly recommend it to anyone who prefers a visual style of learning.
Bonus: Ted/Khan Academy Talks
While we were writing our list of the best apps for students we felt that these apps are just too good to omit. TED and Khan Academy both provide fantastic educational videos to their users for completely free.
The videos are entertaining and great for learning about topics that interest you as well as learning some valuable life skills. These apps aren’t exclusively for students and we recommend that everyone watches them no matter what age or career.
With so many videos to choose from there are bound to be hundreds to satisfy your hunger for knowledge and you’ll lose hours in these two apps. Just remember that, as your arms start to ache after the third consecutive hour of these addictive videos, you could always get an iBeani tablet stand and give your arms a break.