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By now, some of you should have resumed school and are already wishing for some holiday to come fast. You are not alone, we’re with you on this, but don’t worry, we’ll keep you posted on all the latest news in between assignments, tests and projects. We’re also going to give you tips to help keep you productive. Last year, we had a similar list of iPhone and Android apps – most of which still stand so check those out. Between last year and now, I’ve found and used some more apps that helped me out in school. Hopefully they’ll help you as well, whether you’re in school or not, some of these can be of great use to you.

DocScan

If I could describe this app in one word, it’d be “lifesaver.” This app turns your iPhone into a scanner, literally. Just take a picture of a document and it auto-detects it for you or you can do that yourself; select if you want it in black and white or keep it that way and save as a PDF, JPEG or ZIP file. Simple as that, you can scan multiple pages into one document as well which makes sharing easier. It supports sharing to DropBox, iBooks, Google Drive and a bunch of other services.

Comes in handy when you haven’t gotten your textbooks yet and your professor already gave you 20 pages of reading to do. I’ll give you a tip, if your document isn’t too bulky, send it to Google Drive and you can extract the text instead of having to copy it down word for word. You can get the app here.

ImageToText

This app kind of supplements DocScan, which could explain why I came across them both at the same time. Take a picture of a document with text and email it to yourself. Voila! You have the text in an email to do what you want with it. No, this will not work with your handwriting as it already gets minor errors with regular text.

Comes in handy when you really don’t feel like retyping the long question you have to answer. You can get this app here.

iProcrastinate

What better name for a time management app, no? This app is for those of us who are guilty of procrastination. You can sort tasks by subject and it does everything a calendar does, You can add priority to tasks, star the super important ones and add a repeat schedule to those that need one. Another interesting feature is you can add steps to tasks. That way it keeps you on track with what you need to be doing as you check off the steps of a huge task. It’s available for Mac primarily for free but comes with one for the iPhone for 99 cents. That way, you can add and sync tasks on-the-go.

Grades 2

Last semester, I got a little panicky about what my grades would be. You know when you’re just so unsure how good you did and you have no idea? I especially hate those classes that have like a 30 percent participation grade, You’ve done good on your tests but you don’t know how much participation gets you an A grade. This is where this app comes in. You know when you get your syllabus and it has a breakdown of what weight each test, assignment and exam carries? You put that information in this app, put in your desired grade, and it tells you what you need to get in each one to get that grade. As you update it with what you’re getting, it will as well. Not that it’s good to fail, but that way, you know if you can afford to not study for something at no risk or if you can’t. It helps A LOT. It also helps you keep track of your GPA, as it tells you what it could be if you got your target grade for every class. Get it here.

Dropbox

I can’t stress how essential Dropbox is. This is what I wrote last year:

“Dropbox is basically the cloud drive for the everyday person. It’s like having a 2GB flash drive wherever you go. Ever had one of those days where you type up something and have to email it to yourself? Dropbox eliminates all that stress. You install it on your computer where it’s its own folder synced online, so if you’re in a rush just drag and drop to the folder and you can access it from your iPhone and any other computer. You can even create a link to the file from your iPhone to make it even more accessible. You can also upgrade if you need more space. Perfect for the procrastinator!

You can get the app on your iPhone and it’s also available for Android.”

That all still stands. I would have said Google Drive for iOS, but they got it completely wrong by denying iPhone users the ability to create and edit documents which makes the app pointless. They’re both really good services, I don’t think one outdoes the other.

That’s my list of apps to get you super productive this school year. Let us know if you know of any apps you think should have made this list, someone might need it. Happy school year!

Faridah Demola-Seriki

Faridah Seriki has been interested in technology since she got her hands on a desktop when she was eight. She founded Technesstivity after releasing a successful blog she made for class combining her passion for both journalism and technology. Faridah graduated from Vivian Fowler in 2009 and lives in New York where she graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelors degree in Broadcast Journalism

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