Category Archives: App Tuesday

10 Study Apps for Students

 

study appsInstead of study apps, let’s call these “10 apps to help you get merit-aid scholarships”. Improving your GPA is the best way to qualify for merit aid, and the best way to improve your GPA is to study.

Here are 10 study apps that should help your student win merit-aid scholarships:

1. Quizlet

Offering a wide array of subjects, different study modes and a variety of test prep resources, Quizlet allows students to sign up and utilize its study tools free of charge. Students rave about the ease of using the app and the site, along with the awesome tools that Quizlet offers on them.

2. Study Buddy

Do you have a personal study coach? Now you can with the Study Buddy app. Improve your study habits by keeping track of your study time versus distraction time, get efficiency reports, plus use timers and warnings to get you back on track from those breaks that just linger. The app even notes any phone call interruptions, so you can’t sneak in a quick chat on the clock. The cherry on top? Inspirational quotes to keep you motivated at the beginning of each session.

3. Simplemind+

Sometimes it’s hard to make sense of all the thoughts in your head. Luckily, Simplemind+ is a tool which allows you to create mind maps, collect your ideas in one place and improve your brainstorm productivity. Instead of mundane text versions, the mind maps allow you to visualize and connect your thoughts, plus you can hyperlink, share and export them as needed.

4. iStudiez Pro

Easily navigate the overwhelming aspects of student life like tracking your schedule, daily tasks and keep track of upcoming assignments and deadlines. You can also track your grades and calculate your projected GPA for current and past semesters using a variety of grading scales. In addition, you can back up any data you enter by sending it directly to your email or by syncing to your other iOS devices.

5. Open Study

Free tutoring? Who doesn’t love that? Open Study launched a mobile app in May 2012 that gives students access to study assistance, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,gratis. Students can work together or get the help of a volunteer “hero” to solve challenging homework problems and complete assignments.

6. Study Blue

What happens when you’ve memorized every flashcard and definition, backwards and forward? You can use this app to create a review sheet, to have all the information readily available at your fingertips. But, you don’t have a practice exam in front of you…or do you? With this app, students can quiz themselves on the go, so it’s perfect for studying on the way to class, or for getting that last-minute review in before the exam in handed out.

7. Evernote Peek

Sometimes, when we study, we often give ourselves margins of error, and tend to peek at the answers (even if it’s just a tiny bit!) and tell ourselves that we will know the answer when it comes time for the exam. In order to cater to this tendency, and make it useful, Evernote has produced an app that gives students the opportunity to learn by using the cover to their tablet. By lifting the cover, the answers are slowly revealed, thus providing a more useful and helpful study experience.

8. Flashcards

Bringing an ancient learning method bang into the 21st century, Flashcard+ is perhaps the best flashcards app you can find at the moment. You can create your own flashcard decks consisting of as many cards as you want, free of charge. There are also a number of default decks which test you on things like state capitals and math facts. And if you’re in a study group, you can share these decks with your peers. Check if your college or university already uses this app.

9. iHomework

Before school even begins, you will want to start by getting yourself organized. Keep your courses, school work, grades, to-dos, teacher information, and more right at your fingertips with iHomework. The app is integrated with Questia (www.questia.com), a library that provides you with a wealth of material for researching purposes. Sync information between your iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac with this useful app. In addition, iCloud support is available for those using iOS 6.

10. Study Habits

Study Habits offers more than 30 strategies for developing effective study skills, including memory techniques such as using acronyms, creating charts and diagrams, and teaching others what one has learned. It also tracks your grades and GPA, helps manage your time, and reminds you of classes and assignments.

 

It’s an App-Stravaganza!

 

appToday, I’m sharing a collection of posts about apps for students–an app-stravaganza! There are some great ones on the list—some I haven’t listed before and some I have. After all, can you have too many apps?

Amazing Student Apps

http://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/3963-15-amazing-student-apps

15 Best Apps for Students

http://blog.laptopmag.com/best-student-apps

12 Apps for Students You Don’t Want to Miss

https://www.examtime.com/blog/apps-for-students/

10 Helpful Apps for Students

https://news.yahoo.com/10-helpful-apps-students-153700671.html

18 Apps Every Student Should Download Now

http://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/apps-every-college-student-should-download-right-now

21 Best Apps for College Students

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/08/bet-apps-college-students/index.htm

6 Safety Apps for Students

 

safety appsIt’s sad that we live in a time when we don’t feel safe at school. Schools used to be the safest place for kids, protected by teachers and staff and away from predators. Not anymore. As evidenced by the recent school shootings in Oregon and Washington, and the frightening Virginia Tech massacre, parents are naturally concerned about sending their kids off to college. And it’s not just college, the Newton shootings and the Columbine shootings make it clear that kids of all ages are at risk.

Today’s App Tuesday post addresses the need for safety apps. A pay phone or flagging down a police officer used to be our only defense against dangerous criminals and psychotic shooters like the gunman on the University of Texas campus years ago. But today, students are armed with a valuable weapon: their smartphone with safety apps—giving them instant access to authorities, parents and other students.

Following are six safety apps you should arm your students with during high school and college:

1. Guardly

Students can instantaneously connect with friends and family in emergencies with Guardly. With a few taps, users can dial for help or send out an alert. Triggering an alert enables real-time location tracking. Students can also capture and send photos to mobile contacts or authorities in non-threatening emergencies. On the app’s map, users can see which friends and family members are nearby. Another in-app defense lets students sound off a blaring siren to “deter would-be attackers” and “signal for help.”

Price: Free iOS, Android and Blackberry app with $1.99 monthly subscription or $19.99 one-year subscription. App comes with a few free features.

2. Circle of 6

The Circle of 6 app is designed to help college students out of potentially dangerous situations. On the app, users should connect the phone numbers of up to six close friends. These should be classmates, roommates or trusted individuals in the area. In uncomfortable situations, users can safely and discreetly send a mass message for help. By pressing the car icon, users send out a text complete with your current GPS location. Your safety network will get your message and pick you up. Tapping the phone icon will send out a message that says, “Call and pretend you need me. I need an interruption,” to the six preset numbers. For true emergencies, students can call 911 from within the app. The app’s chat icon links users to information online about healthy relationships.

Price: Free iPhone and Android app

3. MyForce

When you’re walking home at night or crossing a desolate part of campus by yourself, just pull out the MyForce app in case of emergencies. By hitting the app’s bright red button, you’ll trigger a discreet alarm. Once the alert is triggered, MyForce will start recording your call and pinpoint your present location. The monitoring operator who you connect with will determine it’s an emergency and call 911. Your emergency contacts will also be alerted.

Price: Free iPhone, Android and Blackberry smartphone app (with monthly subscription)

4. OnWatch

This personal safety app lets college students alert friends and authorities immediately in emergencies. There are six app functions: calling 911 and friends, calling 911 only, calling campus police, the “Watch my Back” setting (timed alert that must be disabled with passcode), contacting friends, and the “I’m here” setting. When you walk home and want to let friends or family know you’ve arrived safely, the “I’m here” setting does just that. The “I’m Here” text, call 911 only and call campus police functions are free with the app. The emergency friends, flashlight and alarm functions are available for a $2.99 fee. The complete package is available for $4.99 a month.

Price: Free iPhone and Android

5. Watch Over Me

Watch Over Me is a personal safety app designed to help look out for you when you need it the most. The app automatically turns your iPhone into a powerful personal safety device for daily use. If you’ve ever called a friend while feeling unsafe, this is the app for you. Whether you’re going for a run, walking to your car, walking home, taking a cab, or meeting someone for the first time, all you have to do is let Watch Over Me know and it’ll watch over you via GPS throughout your journey. If you fail to check-in safely once you’re done, Watch Over Me will alert your emergency contact list immediately and provide them with your location on a map. Subscriptions are available to enhance the app.

Price: Free iPhone and Android

6. OnCall Defender

Advanced Mobile Protection (AMP) cares about safety and prevention. The app delivers 24-hour personal security and medical assistance coverage at your finger tips. You can download the app for free and choose the subscription plan that’s best for you. The subscription is $19.99 a month. However, a special promotional offer is available to save over 40% on the year subscription if you choose to pay in advance.

Price: iPhone with subscription

 

SAT Prep to your Smartphone

 

prepcube

 

Say what? Yep. SAT prep to your smartphone via text message. What could possibly be easier. And here’s even better news–it’s affordable. Just $9 a month for the bronze plan and $19 a month for the silver plan. Why not reach kids where they are–on their smartphones?

What is Prepcube.com?

Prepcube.com is a learning management system that allows students to study for the SAT via SMS and our proprietary instant messenger platform. Prepcube has the ability to administer questions and video based solutions for real time feedback via sms and instant messenger. Our system allows students, parents and teachers to track all of their student’s results through our dashboard.  Our data shows that students will engage our platform because they are more engaged when they interact with content via sms or instant messenger, which are their preferred mediums of communication.

How does it work?

As the system currently stands, students are pushed one question and solution via text message and have the option for mobile and web based private tutoring. After the initial question they are given the option to study unlimited amounts of questions via a web based instant messenger system. While on this web-based system they are also given the option for mobile and web based private tutoring.

Who is running the show?

All content was developed by the Co-Founder of Bell Curves, a leading standardized test preparation company. He oversees all aspects of the development of programs and materials, as well as the training of tutors. He has spent the last 18 years working as a standardized test prep trainer and materials developer at three different test prep companies.

Score! A developer who knows how to reach teens, has a background in SAT tutoring, and knows how to use the medium to help them learn.

8 Vocabulary Apps

 

vocabulary appsSummer is upon us and it’s the perfect time to bone up on vocabulary for the standardized tests. And since your teens are never without their smartphones, here are seven vocabulary apps they will always have available to work on their vocabulary.

1. Vocabador

Vocabador is an inexpensive ($1.99) all purpose vocabulary app that allows users to study 400+ vocabulary words by using digital flashcards. The words are categorized by difficulty so that you can start with the easier material and work your way up. The flashcards include audio pronunciations, the part of speech, the definition, antonyms, synonyms and a sentence that puts the word in context.

2. MindSnacks

MindSnacks is a free app that is a game based design offering 9 games to help users practice their vocabulary. Geared mainly towards SAT-takers, but the app-makers also label it as appropriate for PSAT and GRE as well. Offers 500+ words and phrases, and even includes games that focus on antonyms. The app has a learning algorithm that tracks your progress and adjusts to help maximize your learning. A fun, easy to use, and effective app.

3. SAT Vocab

SAT Vocab app uses a technique that they call “confidence based repetition”, which is essentially a repetition method at particular time intervals. Users can rate how well they knew an answer (did it come to you easily or did you struggle/guess?) and then repeats the concepts you need to learn more. Offers 1400+ flashcards with 300+ word elements (prefixes/suffixes, etc), and the ability to browse and search for certain words.

Read More from edudemic.com about these apps

4. Vocabulary.com

The Vocabulary.com app, a perfect tool to access at any time, is your personalized adaptive learning game. The dictionary was written for humans, by humans. Look up a word, and you’ll read a friendly explanation that you’ll actually remember. It’s as if your favorite teacher were explaining it to you. They include clever usage tips and thousands of real-world example sentences that’ll show you how words live in the wild and will make you more confident about using them yourself.

Read More

5. VocabAhead

VocabAhead combines words and their meanings with visual cues and contextual sentences to deliver a media-rich and highly memorable experience.  Each word is supplemented with pictures, sounds and stories. This makes it easy to learn and fun to remember. With over 1000 words in the application, students get a wide choice of high-frequency SAT words with which to enhance their language skills.The application also has a built-in self-testing feature whereby students may quiz themselves as and when ready. Students can learn and remember new words on the go in small manageable time chunks instead of being tied down to academic paraphernalia.

Get the app

6. IntelliVocab

If you’re a logophile or want to boost your vocabulary for a competitive exam like the SAT, IntelliVocab is a fun, almost addictive way to do so. The app quizzes you with multiple choice questions on word definitions, synonyms, and usage. When you answer questions incorrectly, the AI makes a note of it and then asks you about those words again later, in different contexts (e.g., instead of asking you to choose the straight definition, it’ll offer a fill-in-the-blank test).

Read More from Lifehacker

7. VocabularyHD

Want to boost your vocabulary fast? Get Vocabulary HD – Fully Loaded. The finest tool anywhere for improving your vocabulary. This is an amazing way to learn new words. This App is the perfect answer to spice up your English vocabulary, study for exams or just have a bit of fun. Features include: 500 words over 5 levels of difficulty. Pronunciation tool The app speaks the word to help you perfect the pronunciation of each syllable. Bookmarking Save off your favorite words or the challenging ones to revisit later. Synonyms All the other ways you can express the same word. Sentence Examples How you can use the word in a sentence. Accelerated learning Never read the same word twice, unless you bookmark the word, the app marks it as read so you don’t have to revisit the words that you already know or have learned. Quiz Test your proficiency. Have fun learning.

Read More from cnet.com and download the app

8. SAT Word Slam

This is the cream of the crop among SAT study apps. By using humor, rhyming poems and clever mnemonic clues, this app makes learning 400 of the most used SAT words a breeze. Instead of being faced with static flashcards that run together in your mind, this app makes learning new words exciting. After learning a set of words, kids can choose to be tested on what they learned. The test questions take the form of presenting a sentence with a blank word missing and then providing a list to choose from.

Read More

App Tuesday: 7 Essay Apps for College Prep

 

essay appsOne of the most dreaded tasks of the college prep process is writing the essay. Students have problems with essay prompts, being creative, and using proper grammar. As luck would have it, however, there are even essay apps to help with this task:

1. Essay Czar

Essay Czar is the most comprehensive essay writing handbook ever written for college and high school students. Over 40 types of essays (including the all important SAT essay) are explained and described in detail, using easy-to-read, step-by-step instructions. Students are smoothly guided through the often difficult writing process. Written in a conversational voice with concise instructions and relevant examples of what is expected, students quickly learn to think logically and write appropriately for each essay type.

2. EssayEdge

EssayEdge offers a range of essay editing options for applicants pursing higher education. Services range from simple proofreading to 2.5 weeks of phone and email consultation. The App helps you create outstanding essays based on your own ideas and life experiences.

3. Essay Starter

Be inspired! Writing is easy when you have easy access and control of your sources. Automatic footnotes let you stop worrying about references and just write. Split screen mode lets you open and read multiple PDF files, and take notes at the same time.

4. Essay Writing Guide

Essay Writing Guide is written to be concise and easy to use. The information students need is not buried within pages of irrelevant text or lost in a myriad of fruitless internet searches. By seeing the elements of writing displayed graphically, teachers and students are better able to visualize how those elements work together to develop style, coherence, and meaning. Each page is written in clear, effective prose with no fluff and no nonsense included. Educators can even project Essay Writing Guide in the classroom in order to reduce the need to write notes and examples on the board by hand.

Essay Writing Guide was developed by a college English professor with extensive secondary experience and is appropriate for all levels from secondary through graduate-level university academics. Essay Writing Guide has been featured in numerous print and online publications. Check us out on YouTube to see the app in action.

5. iAWriter

When it comes to writing papers, sometimes full-blown word processors are too distracting and will draw you away from the actual goal of writing your paper. With iA Writer, the distractions are gone and you’re in a perfect writing environment. With the mono-spaced font that looks great on the plain background, writing your paper has never been easier. iA Writer also comes with minimal features, so that the focus is on actually getting the words out. There’s Dropbox and iCloud syncing support, so that your document will be there on your computer and other devices when you need to fix it up before turning it in. Any student should be able to make use of having iA Writer on their iPad.

6. Paper Helper

Writing essays just got simpler! PaperHelper will allow you to do research on the web WHILE WRITING YOUR ESSAY. No more burdens of switching through applications; the innovative user interface of the application will make writing essays A BREEZE. More specifically, PaperHelper uniquely splits your iPad screen in half, providing you with an Internet Browser and Document writer, side by side.

7. Essay Planner

Some of us plan and some of us cram. This app gives the planners among us a new tool to better organize our essays, and the crammers among us a better chance to create quality written work, even if it’s the night before the essay is due.

With The Night Before Essay Planner app, you assume control of your essay. You’ll no longer flounder about, wondering what to do next or where to start. With this app you will generate a personalized “Plan of Attack” based on an interactive self‐assessment. Then, you can follow the specific, targeted strategies to get a quality essay done stress‐free and on time.

And lastly . . .

Here’s an application (not an app) that will help you locate and organize essay prompts for numerous colleges: College Essay Organizer. The creators describe how the application works>

College Essay Organizer created the Essay RoadMap®, a groundbreaking algorithm that shows how your questions overlap so you can write the fewest essays possible and work smarter. Even if you are receiving help from a counselor, teacher, or parent, your Essay RoadMap® will further enhance that support, making the process even more efficient and successful. This classic tale highlights the perks of the RoadMap (if nothing else, it’ll make you smile).

Since we have been so successful at helping students with their essays, we have now expanded our scope to encompass the broader college admissions experience. Students and parents can now join our live, interactive, weekly webcasts that grant access to the leading authorities in a variety of college admissions-related fields.

Check it out and add it to your college prep arsenal.

App Tuesday: 7 College Savings Apps

 

college savings appsSaving for college is difficult, especially in today’s world. Add the rising college costs to the mix and your family finds it hard to save enough money to pay for college. It can be done, but it requires a commitment and the tools to make it happen.

First, there’s the question of “How much do you need to save for college?” SavingforCollege.com provides an informative infographic walking your through the planning stage step-by-step. It might be shocking for some parents, but knowing what you need can help you plan.

Following are 7 college savings apps that can help you plan for the future:

1. College Save

If you have a smartphone or tablet, you now have a unique way to reach and teach your kids about the basics of saving for college. Small Steps, Big Dreams is a series of fun, interactive games and financial lessons designed to engage your kids and inspire them to be money-smart. The Small Steps, Big Dreams program is made up of three mobile applications for specific age rangers and is designed to make the overwhelming concept of saving for higher education manageable.

2. UPromise

Over a decade ago, Upromise was launched based on the philosophy that everyone should be able to afford a college education. Today, with millions of members, Upromise is helping make that a reality for many Americans. Memberscreate a college savings service that harnesses the purchasing power of parents, extended family, family, and students to make it easier to pay for college. They direct their spending to Upromise partners—including more than 950 online stores, 10,000+ restaurants, grocery and drugstore items—and earn money for college. Thus far, members have earned $850,000,000 and counting for college with their everyday spending

3. College Savings App

With the TIAA-CREF College Savings Planner, you can keep track of your college savings goals wherever you are. Use the College Savings Planner to model your college funding goals and how you plan to help meet them. With the College Savings Planner you can explore: where you are now with college savings; your projected college savings; how much college could cost in your timeframe; what you’ll probably need to invest to meet college costs; and setting a realistic, achievable action plan

4. collegeFund

Planning college savings is not an easy job. Many factors come into play: such as the cost of college education (tuition, room and board, other mandatory fees, books and computers), the award of scholarships, the financial aid, and so on. CollegeFund app is trying to help the parents (sometimes grandparents, and/or other family members if they are willing to chip in) to plan their kids’ college savings account. Given a set of input: current annual college cost, current savings, how much you plan to save annually, your kid’s current age, the age starting college, the age of graduating, the calculator will return how much the annual income you can expect from the college saving account vs. the future annual college cost (Coverage Ratio), and how much you have saved toward achieving the goal (Saving progress).

5. CollegeSavings

College Savings is an innovative App, which visually shows the projected cost of college in the future. College Savings illustrated the future value of savings using the current lump sum and monthly savings plan. College Savings shows the potential shortfall amount needed to cover the total cost of college. In addition it also illustrates any surplus amount remaining after covering the future cost of college. By adjusting the input, you can estimate the amount of lump sum and regular monthly savings that is required to cover the costs of your desired college.

6. College Saving Wiz

The COLLEGE SAVING WIZ app will help you with SETTING GOALS for college attendance; CALCULATING the estimated costs with inflation; CALCULATING monthly/yearly savings needs; and TIPS on ways to save and cut costs! Don’t worry if you don’t know the actual tuition costs or even the college your child may attend. Our app provides convenient average costs for you to use based on the College Board annual survey of college pricing for tuition/fees, room/board, books/supplies, transportation and expenses for Public in-state, Public out-of-state and Private Colleges. You just input some basic information and COLLEGE SAVING WIZ will calculate the goal amount you must save each period, adjusting for inflation.

7. Saving4College

With the TIAA-CREF Saving4College Savings Planner, you can keep track of your college savings goals wherever you are. Use the Saving4College Savings Planner to model your college funding goals and how you plan to help meet them.With the Saving4College Savings Planner you can explore: where you are now with college savings; your projected college ; how much college could cost in your timeframe; what you’ll probably need to invest to meet college costs; and setting a realistic, achievable action plan.

 

App Tuesday: 10 Textbook Apps

 

textbook appsAny college kid or soon-to-be college kid needs an arsenal of textbook apps to help them shop for the best bargains, find the free ebooks and textbooks, and sell and trade when the semester ends. These apps should fit the ticket. But don’t wait until the fall of freshman year to download them. There’s no time like the present to create a folder and start adding these 10 textbook apps to your mobile devices.

1. BigWords

Nobody likes shopping for textbooks at the college bookstore.BigWords operates by the premise that students prefer to shop for textbooks on smaller and smaller computers in the palms of their hands and like to shop using their smartphone or tablets. They claim to help students about $1,000 annually on average.

2. Chegg

Chegg brings you millions of textbooks and solutions packed into one glorious app! Rent textbooks, get instant access (when available), and read eTextbooks on your iPhone, iPad or iPod and Android devices. The app allows students to easily search for textbooks by title, author, ISBN or by scanning a barcode. Rent or buy physical textbooks and while the book is on the way, get 7-day FREE instant access to the eTextbook to get started on classwork immediately.

3. Kno

Experience your same books, only smarter. The Kno™ app, now a part of Intel® Education, enhances the learning experience by bringing content, from one of the largest eTextbook catalogs in the industry, to life with interactive features that drive student engagement, and learning success in the classroom. The added features allow students to synchronize all content and notes across all devices. With over 70 features, Kno allows students to create flashcards, search for answers within the books instantly, watch videos and bring external content into the books.

4. CourseSmart

The CourseSmart eTextbooks app is a perfect complement to a CourseSmart eTextbook subscription. Students can benefit from the advantages of mobile learning–leaving their backpacks and laptops behind. The key features include: access to eTextbooks for quick reference, a keyword search to help locate information, synchronized notes and highlights along with a true digital equifalent of your textbook.

5. BuyBackTextbooks

This app makes selling back your old books & textbooks both fun & profitable. How it works is this; simply install the app and then grab some books you want to sell. With the app you can easily scan the barcode on the back on the book, once it beeps their system goes to work. In a matter of seconds you’ll see how much each store will pay for the book.

6. Cash4Books

Sell used books and college textbooks with the Cash4Books.net app. Scan book barcodes and get instant Cash4Books price quotes from anywhere. Have your books shipped to them for free and get fast cash back. Get a free quote on any book or textbook.

7. Half.com

eBay’s app helps students quickly find great deals on textbooks (and more fun stuff of course) heading into the school year. It’s the second eBay app to integrate barcode scanning technology and allows users to scan the barcodes on items to find the best deals on textbooks, DVDs, video games and more. The app provides Half.com buyers access to over 80 million active listings from more than 700,000 sellers. Half.com also uses the “Buying Wizard”. Based on the user’s criteria for item condition and seller feedback, the Buying Wizard identifies the lowest cost items and shipping discounts (if applicable) to help shoppers get the best deals on Half.com.

8. CampusBooks

With the free CampusBooks apps, everything you love about CampusBooks.com’s powerful money-saving search engine and price-comparison tool is now with you on the go! Wherever you are, you’re just a few touches away from finding the best deals when buying and selling textbooks. The app finds the cheapest books when buying, gets the highest prices when selling, in-app barcode scanning, and uses GPS tracking technology to display local results.

9. Yuzu

Yuzu™ by Barnes & Noble lets you organize, read, and annotate your textbooks right in the palm of your hand—making the experience of learning simple, gratifying, and much easier on your back. Go to the Yuzu store to find your textbooks and download them to your iPad®. You can also access them using an internet-connected Mac or Windows PC. That way, you’ll be able to follow along in class on your iPad and pick up where you left off on your home computer or even in the campus computer lab.

10. Kindle

The Kindle app is optimized for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, giving users the ability to read Kindle books, newspapers, magazines, textbooks and PDFs on a beautiful, easy-to-use interface. You’ll have access to over 1,000,000 books in the Kindle Store plus hundreds of newspapers and magazines. Skip the campus bookstore and search for the best book bargains on Amazon.

 

Vocabulary.com and the App

 

vocabulary.comSince this is App Tuesday and I’ve been focusing on apps that help students with college prep, I came across a website and an accompanying app that make learning vocabulary not only productive, but fun. Vocabulary.com uses the following methodology

  • 1. Answer a few questions

    They created more than 120,000 questions designed to help you learn words

  • 2. We build a model of your knowledge

    Their magical technology models your brain. The more you play, the more they know about your vocabulary knowledge.

  • 3. They predict which vocabulary words you don’t know and teach them to you

    Get a question wrong? They will schedule Review and Progress questions so that you’ll learn the word, and won’t forget it in the future.

  • 4. You learn useful words and improve your vocabulary

    Track your progress as you quickly master the words that are essential to success in an academic or business environment.

It’s that simple. You can also access vocabulary lists from great literary works, historical documents, speeches, the news and vocabulary lists for test prep.

It’s Like a Personal Trainer for Your Brain

They use their own adaptive learning system to ensure that you get the right question at the right time. They build a model of your vocabulary and abilities as you answer each question, and then serve you up with questions that are not too hard and not too easy. From the results of these questions, they determine what words to focus on in your personalized learning program.

A Personalized List of Words Just for You

As you answer questions, they begin to compile a list of words to learn. If you get a question wrong or choose to use a hint, the word is added to the list. Once they add a word to this list, they keep working with you until you’ve mastered that word. You can see your list by clicking on the My Progress tab on the top of the screen.

Vocabulary.com-The Appvocabulary.com

The Vocabulary.com app, a perfect tool to access at any time, is your personalized adaptive learning game. The dictionary was written for humans, by humans. Look up a word, and you’ll read a friendly explanation that you’ll actually remember. It’s as if your favorite teacher were explaining it to you. They include clever usage tips and thousands of real-world example sentences that’ll show you how words live in the wild and will make you more confident about using them yourself.

If that’s not enough, vocabulary learning becomes an addictive game. Accumulate points, achievements, and badges while competing against your Facebook friends, your classmates, or other members of the Vocabulary.com community.

Check out their website AND the app for iOs or Android devices. For just $2.99 it’s a bargain and an investment for the future. Use both the website and the app to build a strong vocabulary for not only test prep, but to prepare for the rigorous reading and writing in college.

 

6 Test Prep Apps

 

test prep appsToday’s apps of choice are test prep apps. Some are free, others are free to test, and some are paid apps. Knowing how important test prep is, use them to help prep for standardized tests.

1. EduPath SAT Prep

EduPath’s adaptive platform picks up on a student’s weaknesses and exercises them until they’re strong. It’s optimized for in-between moments like waiting for the bus, between classes, or before bed. Their world-class instructors are trained in the same proven methodologies that power their technology, providing constant, seamless instruction between the App and live sessions. There is also an industry-first dashboard for parents that lets them see the student’s progress in real-time—and provides an easy starting point for positive conversations about the college admissions process.

2. SAT Question of the Day

Created by the College Board, the SAT Question of the Day App provides real SAT questions and SAT preparation materials from the test maker. With the question of the day Application you can answer a real SAT question each day.

3. ACT Student

ACT Student helps users anticipate and manage the ACT Test experience. Using the “Practice” feature, students can attempt answers to practice items and gain feedback from their attempts. “Account” allows users to log in for limited, read-only access to their own registration and score information. Accessing the link to ACT’s mobile site, users can find straightforward answers to typical questions test takers have about events leading up to the test and the test day itself.

4. eTextPrep

Though it’s not an app designed for a smartphone or tablet, this new mobile service is simple and targets the activity woven into nearly every high school student’s life—text messaging. Students receive three vocabulary words a day via text to help them prepare for the SAT, ACT, or an array of Advanced Placement tests. The eTextPrep premise is simple – students receive 2 to 3 SAT, ACT, AP, Middle School Challenge or  word-of-the-day text messages (SMS) that contain essential vocabulary words, their definitions and parts of speech. Students simply click, look and learn. It’s mobile. It works. It’s that easy.

5. BenchPrep

This comprehensive product for SAT and ACT is intended to help students prepare stress-free, giving them everything they need in one place; hundreds of practice questions, detailed explanations, and high-quality reading content from the world’s most respected publishers. With study plans to guide students along, and material that syncs across all devices, they will be ready for test day.

6. AllenPrep

Allen Prep has published multiple test prep iPad/iPhone apps for multiple exams.  The ACT and SAT apps are free to download and include a substantial number of test questions for each section of each exam.  Once the apps are downloaded, you can access the question bank by entering a valid email address.  An email with an activation code will be sent to this email address.  Each mock exam includes a free sample test, covering all subjects, and includes hundreds of questions.  You can also make an in-app purchase of different test banks to target a specific area.