As a student, having the right software on your laptop can make a significant difference in your academic life. From note-taking to research and project management, the right software can save you time, increase productivity, and make studying more enjoyable.
In this blog, we’ll explore some of the must-have software every student should have on their laptop. Whether you’re a high school or college student, these tools can help you do better in your studies.
Google Drive
Google Drive is a free cloud-based storage service that permits you to store and access all your documents, and files including photos. It allows you to access all your documents anywhere from any user with an internet connection. It leaves space on the student’s device for important things too.
To begin using Google Drive, the student must create or sign in to a google account. Signing up for an account will additionally let them use other Google services like Gmail and Google docs along with google drive. The user then can type “drive.google.com” into their browser. Next “My Drive” will automatically appear containing uploaded files, Google sheets, slides and docs. Then the user can either upload files or create files in Google Drive.
Creating a file or a folder will make the user as owner by default. By doing so, the owner can control the viewers (To publicly or privately share with particular google accounts) and pass the ownership to another using a Gmail address.
Google Docs, Google Slides and Google sheets create Google driver’s suite. Google docs is a word processor helping students to write essays and assignments, Google slides is a presentation program letting you make presentations and review lecture notes given by your teacher while Google sheets is a spreadsheet useful for data analysis, statistics and math.
The students can complete their work accordingly and store it in Google Drive while sharing it with the teacher. They can give access to teachers to edit and comment on their work too.
EdrawMind
EdrawMind is a mapping software for students. It helps to insert your ideas, plans and information in mind maps and diagrams. There are options to change the mindmap appearance, add symbols, task due and many more. In addition, students can change the different sections of the diagram as slides. The diagrams can be exported as pdf, images and files enabling you to share them with others.
Students struggling with studies will find mind maps more convenient to record and study productively. Using different colours or indicators aids them to learn with interest. This app is an efficient way for students and teachers to arrange, organise and present their thoughts. It is easy for students to read, understand and learn too. You can research the app and the way to use it on youtube to find its reliability. The app has a free trial too so try to find out if the app suits your needs.
iStudiez Pro
The iStudiez study planner app for students on laptops helps them to deal with their homework mess, manage assignments and keep track of all the activities in just one platform. Setting classes in iStudiez may be time-consuming but it’s worth it all along. To begin the schedule, enter all the information from your syllabus with the class details, exam dates and holidays.
Using different colours and icons for different classes will make you read quickly and with ease.
Listing the specific tasks in the to-do list and noting down the assignments with a due date will save the excuse of forgetting. You can set alarms or notifications to remind you of the day’s class or due assignment. Keeping track of your GPA will let you know the subjects you need to concentrate on. All the app’s data can be supported to sync across devices such as phones, tablets or PC. Remember good planning paves the way to better grades and great achievements.
Grammarly
Grammarly is a writing assistant beneficial for students to enhance their writing. It’s a well-known and useful app that identifies spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. It doesn’t check only for mistakes but suggests correct grammar, alternatives for specific words and even sentence structure. Although Grammarly points out the above, the user must make changes or ignore them.
It has a plagiarism checker to point out copied content indicating citation to validate the text along with a synonym checker to replace repetition words. As a bonus, it interprets explanations for recommended changes and a statement on the type of mistake you have made. This is advantageous for students to learn and avoid mistakes in exams.
Students can choose the editing style based on their needs. There are 6 different styles of writing such as business, academic, casual, technical, creative and general.
Grammarly presents different versions with varying features based on usage at multiple prices. Students are allowed to use the app for free but they are to pay and upgrade to Grammarly premium for more features.
Wolfram Alpha
Utilise the wolfram Alpha website for free to check on units, and formulas, balance chemical equations, data analysis, scientific explanations with facts and many more. Questions are uploaded instantly in the wolfram problem generator for students to answer and test their knowledge. Wolfram Alpha is a great tool for calculating triple integrals and has other calculators such as for BMI, mortgage, equation solver counting to more. Wolfram Alpha’s next version is a paid edition to get access to step-by-solution for calculus, algebra, trigonometry, equation solving and so on.
Cold turkey
Students are more likely to get distracted by online games and social media while performing a task on their laptops. Hence you can temporarily block sites and distracting apps by downloading cold turkey apps to focus on your work.
You can use the default distraction list to import existing categories of websites or create your own custom block lists to add an unlimited number of websites to the block lists. A locked block will prevent disabling the block or extension. It is required to restart your laptop to unlock the block. Frozen turkey is the ability to block the entire computer allowing you to take a tech break which is available only in the paid version.
Conclusion
With the appropriate software, students can plan, organise and concentrate on their studies paving to achieve their academic years with joy.
There are certain software accessible for free for a certain period or paid to upgrade features. So apps useful and worth paying for can be bought based on your requirements. Find the desktop app beneficial for you in the list above to start doing your work productively. However, if you come across any issues with your laptop while installing software, don’t hesitate to contact Fixsmart.
