8 online tools for academic success

Between all your studying, group projects, and all-night caffeine binges, you might feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle as a college student. If you are going through this phase, perhaps some online tools can take the pressure off your shoulders.

While these tools can’t give you perfect marks on your documents, they can certainly make the process a little easier. Whether you’re studying for exams, collaborating with classmates, doing research, or trying to keep up with your schedule, online tools can help.

Below I have compiled a list of some powerful online tools for students to help you succeed in your studies. the best part? All of these tools are either free or have an extensive free plan. You can take advantage of them even if you are on a budget as a student.

Grammatical

Grammarly is an essential tool for anyone who needs to write, especially for students because it helps them learn by correcting mistakes. Grammarly automatically scans your entries and helps you correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, tone, and other typing errors.

Even if you have a great sense of grammar and sentence structure, human error is still a problem. Not to mention the ease of automatically correcting spelling mistakes so you don’t have to hit the backspace key all the time.

Best of all, its free version is more than enough to correct key mistakes like punctuation, spelling, and tone. Although, to make your notes sound better, the premium version helps you rewrite sentences, use better words and change the tone.

You can copy/paste the content into the Grammarly web app to fix it. However, using the Grammarly Chrome extension is much better because it will work on any website you write on.

If you want something online, Hemingway Editor is a good alternative to Grammarly.

My student life

True to its name, My Study Life helps you manage your entire academic life in one app. The app lets you create a schedule, track project progress, track upcoming events, and set reminders, all for free.

You can make a schedule for the entire academic year separated by semesters. He will organize all your activities and inform you every day about your daily schedule. You can manually create tracking tasks using the progress bar. There is also a section dedicated to exams where you can see all upcoming and completed exams with their results.

You can track your classes, custom assignments, and exams separately, but there’s also a section that shows you an overview of them all in one place. In addition to the web application, My Study Life also offers Android and iOS applications that allow you to access data from anywhere.

A low hum

Soft Murmur is my favorite online white noise app because it is very easy to use and comes with all the necessary features.

If you have to study with noisy roommates or just want to focus better, a white noise app will change your life.

Includes 10 different sounds for free. Just adjust the volume slider below each to create your own white noise mix. It also has a random mixer to automatically create different types of white noise and save them for later use.

Personally, I think the free version is enough for most users, but if you want to get a little fancier, the $9/year paid version offers 13 additional sounds including bells, waterfall, fan, etc. You can also use A Soft Murmur on your Android device or iOS.

Alternatively, if you want a slightly more advanced white noise app with more drag options, Noises Online is a good option.

Marinara Timer

Another app that will help you stay focused while studying. MarinaraTimer is a Pomodoro app that helps you stay focused by creating work sessions and breaks so you can study without getting overwhelmed. The same Pomodoro principles apply: a 25-minute work session with a 5-minute break and a 15-minute break after every four sessions.

More interesting is the custom timer option that allows you to create custom sessions. You can choose any work and break period that suits you best. If you like to have a longer break in between, a custom timer is perfect.

In addition, there are several notification sounds to play at the end of the session, and the large clock in the middle makes it easy to see at a glance how much time is left in your session.

Alpha Wolfram

Wolfram Alpha is a special search engine that focuses on answering your queries with calculated data. Although it includes descriptions of things where applicable, the main emphasis is on covering things that can be calculated.

For example, the question “What is the capital of China?” will not answer by giving a description of Peking along with its history. Instead, Wolfram Alpha will display just the name of Beijing along with separate columns showing its location, population, local time, elevation, date of discovery, and other numeric data.

In addition, you can also ask math questions and you will get detailed answers with related diagrams. There is a nice step-by-step solution button that allows you to interact and know the exact steps taken to solve the problem with a description of each step.

As a student, the projects require detailed statistics and of course you will need extra help in maths and physics. Wolfram Alpha can handle all of this, just enter a query. Although the Pro version will require step-by-step instructions.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm in recent months and rightfully so. An AI bot that can give customized answers to anything in natural language is definitely a good companion for a learner.

You can ask ChatGPT anything and you will get a precise answer as long as it is not something new because ChatGPT’s knowledge is discontinued in 2021. This also includes step by step math solutions and writing full code.

Best of all, you can further improve the behavior of ChatGPT by using queries. For example, taking quizzes, getting ideas for projects, helping with speeches and getting inspiration for writing. You can further enhance ChatGPT with Chrome extensions.

There are also alternative chatbots like ChatGPT that probably offer even better features. I personally like YouChat because it can also offer the latest information and even links.

Rytr

Based on the same technology as ChatGPT, Rytr focuses exclusively on automated content writing. Emails, blog posts, essays, headlines, cover letters and almost any type of content. As a student, you can use Rytr to get inspiration for writing introductions and even entire essays.

Write a well-researched description with proper formatting, including headings and subheadings. However, you should not take Ryter’s work and pass it off as your own as it is still plagiarism and can be detected.

You can get inspired to remove writer’s block and have all the related information in one place. Rytr’s formatting can give you ideas about what you should talk about in relation to the topic.

Its free version is limited to 10,000 characters per month, which is enough for one project. However, if you want unlimited access, you will need to purchase a paid subscription.

Google Docs Editor Suite

Essays, presentations, spreadsheets, and surveys are common college activities, and Google Docs Editors Suite offers a solution for them all. Google Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Forms are a comprehensive set of online tools that let you create and manage content with powerful features in one place.

I personally write and manage all my posts in Google Docs and then upload them to WordPress. One of the things I like about these tools is the ability to use third-party plugins that allow you to add amazing features. If you don’t find a feature you need in one of these tools, there’s a good chance a plugin can provide it.

Along with all the must-have features in other office suites, you also get amazing collaboration features, extensive format support, extensive revision history, web search, training resources and more.

If you don’t like working online or need to go somewhere without an internet connection, you can also make these tools work offline with a little configuration beforehand.

Bonus 😎

Although not quite an app, TEDEd is a great online resource for learning things that aren’t normally in the curriculum. It is mainly an educational YouTube channel, but its website has a dedicated section for students. Just click the Learners Start Here button on the website and you will see hundreds of interesting videos.

Each video is animated and usually lasts only 4-5 minutes. Movies are created by different authors, so animations and narrators will vary from movie to movie.

Final words

Overall, the tools above will help you write, research, and focus better. Grammarly and Google’s Editors Suite are definitely must-have tools for students because learning requires a lot of typing. I will also recommend that you take the AI ​​train and learn ChatGPT and how to best use it, especially with tips.

You can also explore comprehensive student engagement platforms that offer world-class learning.