Tag Archives: apps

iPad Apps for College Prep

 

iPad apps for college prepCollege prep has certainly changed over the years. Twenty years ago you trudged to the library spending hours foraging through books looking for college facts, test prep, and scholarships. Ten years ago, with the internet explosion, you could do most of your research online and even apply to some colleges. Today, you can do almost everything online: search for scholarships, apply to colleges, study for standardized tests, and get essay help and organization. It certainly is a high-tech world.

The Changing Face of College Prep

I can’t even imagine what it will be like when my grandsons apply to college. If you don’t keep up with the times, you’re going to be left in the dust. With the explosion of apps on portable devices, the face of college prep has changed yet again. Companies are using apps to help students organize, write essays, study for standardized tests, understand financial aid, plan college visits and more.

BestCollegesOnline.com has compiled a list of iPad apps for college prep. I felt it was a good list and want to share it with you.

25 iPad Apps Changing College Prep

You might also like my College Prep App Recap post

 

Test Precision: An App for Standardized Test Prep

 

test precisionTest Precision is a new app for students preparing to take the ACT or the SAT. It helps students prepare for the test where they are: on their smartphones. As we all know, teens are quite addicted to their smartphones and making Test Precision a part of that existing routine and habit just makes perfect sense.

More than ever today’s high school student has increasingly less free time to study for the ACT and SAT in between class work and extracurricular activities.  Being able to access Test Precision on the way to school or in between activities is a major advantage versus physically scheduling and attending a test prep weekend class or hiring a one-on-one tutor. Test Precision also lessens the anxiety associated with cramming for the SAT or ACT by providing an ‘access anytime’ app so the student can chip away at their preparation over time.  This is in stark contrast to attending high intensity classes or lugging around a static, one-size-fits-all book and trying to pour through too much content all at once.

I asked Mohak Rastogione, a student who has tested the app, to tell me about his experience with Test Precision:

Q. Why did you decide to get help preparing for standardized tests?

I decided to get help for standardized testing because I honestly didn’t know what to expect on the SAT/ACT. I figured by having help in preparing I’d be a little more prepared come testing time.

Q. Why did you choose an app to help with test prep?

I was offered the opportunity to help test the app, so I didn’t necessarily look for Test Precision specifically. I ended up taking the offer for two reasons. 1) I wanted to see how preparing for big tests like the ACT/SAT could be done on the go (on my phone), and how effective it would actually be. The second reason was because I was getting ready to take the ACT and I hadn’t had any prior experience with the ACT besides self studying, so I figured this would be a good time to get some practice in while helping test the app.

Q. How has Test Precision helped prepare you for the test?

Test Precision helped guide me to which test I should take. The diagnostic test determined that I was a better fit for the ACT and my chances of a higher score would be found with the ACT.

Q. How long have you used the app and have you taken a test since you started using it?

I tested the app for around 4-6 weeks and I did take the ACT twice since testing the application out.

Q. What is your favorite part of using the app?

My favorite part of using the application was the ability to take practice tests/questions where ever I would go. Instead of lugging around heavy test prep books, my phone was/is always on me so studying/practicing for the ACT was much easier and flexible

Test Precision is available for free download in both Google Play and on iTunes. Individual SAT and ACT tests are available for a one time subscription fee of $39.99 per SAT or ACT package.

Ready to download

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.testprecision 

iTunes Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/test-precision/id872423917?mt=8

Parent Toolkit App

 

 

parent toolkit app

The Parent Toolkit App is designed to help you navigate your child’s growth and development from Pre-K through 12th grade in the classroom and beyond. For each grade, the app offers benchmarks to see what your child will be learning in school, and recommendations for diet, sleep and physical activity. The grade-by-grade tips work into your everyday schedule to support what your child is learning and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Choose whether you want to browse through academic or health and wellness benchmarks and tips. The academic information will help you ensure your child is on the path to success. It also provides helpful advice on homework, parent-teacher conferences and supporting learning at home. In the health and wellness section, you’ll find tips on encouraging physical activity, eating a well-balanced diet, and ways to make sure your child gets enough sleep.

Set priorities for you and your child to come back to using The Parent Toolkit App. A priority is an item that you mark as important to your child’s development. It can be something you want to review later, or a tip you want to remember to try. Use the “+” button to mark items as priorities and create a list for review later. You can then mark items as completed once you’ve accomplished your goals. You can also share helpful information and tips throughout the app with family, friends, and more using social networks or email.

The Parent Toolkit App is produced by NBC News and sponsored by Pearson. It has been accessibility tested and works with VoiceOver. Download The Parent Toolkit App in English or Spanish and get started today — it’s free!

You can download your FREE mobile app here: http://lksn.se/toolkit 

Or text “Toolkit” to 33733

App Tuesday: A New Ethics App

 

I recently received an email from The Big Q (@thebigqethics), an online project of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. She told me about an app they created to help students with decisions using a step-by-step approach to ethical questions. Today’s App Tuesday post is a guest post explaining the ethics app and its uses.

ethics appWhile most universities offer ethics classes, the focus of these courses is often on questions that can seem distant to most students, like euthanasia or capital punishment.  But college students face ethical dilemmas every day: What do I do if I see someone cheating on a test? Should I take a study drug?  What is my responsibility to a roommate who is depressed?

An app created by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University provides a step-by-step approach to ethical questions both big and small: Ethical Decision Making: A Practical Tool for Thinking Through Tough Choices.  The app takes users through a process that begins with getting the facts and identifying the stakeholders in the situation.  Then they’re introduced to five classic ethical approaches—Utility, Rights, Justice, Common Good, and Virtue—posing questions such as “Does this action produce the most good and do the least harm for all who are affected?” and “Does this action treat people equally or proportionally?”

Finally, users weight the different approaches and get a score that indicates whether their thinking is on the right track or whether they should evaluate another option.  The app does not give a “yes” or “no” answer, but the score helps users decide if they wish to move forward with the decision.

Santa Clara is using the app this year with all incoming students during its orientation sessions on academic integrity and cheating.  The app has been downloaded 4,900 from the Apple App store and viewed almost 8,000 times online.

The app draws on the Ethics Center’s popular “Framework for Ethical Decision Making,” which has been online for almost 20 years and viewed over a million times. “The Center has always believed that we need a deliberate method to make good ethical decisions,” said Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson.   “We’ve used the Framework for many years, and we’re delighted to offer it in a new medium that may be particularly attractive to a new generation.”

 

App Tuesday: 8 Writing and Research Apps

 

research appsWhat high school student doesn’t need to know how to properly annotate a reference source, find a synonym for simple words to spice up their essays, or do some research for term papers? Today’s App Tuesday, 8 Writing and Research Apps, should help with these tasks.

Dictionary.com

Apple and Android (free)

We’ve all turned to the dictionary over the course of a marathon paper-writing session. Whether it’s to find the definition of a word in a source, or to find a synonym for a desired word, having a dictionary that is easy to reference would be a tremendous asset. Dictionary.com has made its vast compendium of resources, including its medical, science and rhyming dictionaries. The app is available for easy reference, even in the absence of an Internet connection. (Scroll down the Dictionary.com home page for the app links).

EasyBib

Apple and Android (free)

Imagine Easy Solutions has found one way to simplify the sometimes tedious process of citing the works referenced in your paper. Questions over how to treat a later edition of a book, which authors’ names are needed, or where to place colons and commas are now answered. Their EasyBib allows works to be cited in MLA, APA or Chicago formats by scanning the barcode of a book or typing its name. References or works cited pages come together with ease, though you still will have to make in-text citations on your own. (Scroll down the Easybib.com home page for the app links).

 Wolfram Alpha 
Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Nook ($2.99)

Anyone interested in science should download this app immediately. It’s a math machine, an interactive physics textbook and a science computer all in one. You can convert units and currencies, track unemployment figures, explore DNA or even compare dinosaurs in a flash. It’s arguably the single best reference smartphone app available, and I find some reason to use it almost every day.

Thesaurus Rex
Apple and Android ($2.99)

Loaded with more than half a million synonyms and antonyms, this app insures that you’ll never be stuck for a word again. Its word-recommendation system is clear and surprisingly intelligent, and there are also detailed definitions and explanations of words’ origins and histories. A $1.99 upgrade even provides rhymes.

Google Translate

Apple and Android (free)

The speech recognition feature is very, very impressive. Choose the language you speak and speak what you want it to translate. The translated text appears on the screen. Almost every language is included.

Wikibot

Apple (free)

Wikibot – A Wikipedia Articles Reader is a beautiful app that makes researching a truly pleasurable experience. It has bookmarking features, the ability to look up highlighted words for more details on whatever subject you’re interested in, and more. Wikibot will sync with iCloud, and you can change the font to your liking or put an image in gallery mode to see a larger view. This app is universal, supports 36 different languages, and allows you to share what you are reading via Facebook or Twitter.

Encyclopedia Britannica 
Apple iPhone or iPad ($1.99 per month), Windows ($4.99 per year)

Wikipedia is great for everyday references, but when you need expertly written and thoroughly checked articles, Britannica remains the gold standard. The subscription-based iPad app is particularly attractive, because it offers more real estate to view the photos, graphs and illustrations. The better value, though, is the Windows Phone version, which gives you all 80,000 articles for a low annual fee.

 

8 History Apps for College-Bound Teens

history appsApps make our lives easier: from monitoring spending, to organizing our calendar, to finding the nearest restaurant. One of the best ways to use apps is to encourage and improve our college-bound teen’s education.

Today’s App Tuesday post is about history apps. Whether you need to reference an article of the Constitution, find out what happened today 100 years ago, or look up some famous speeches, here are some apps that have got you covered.

Documents

Sometimes it would be easier if historical documents and your classroom textbook were pocket sized. Luckily, through a few iPhone apps, some are virtually so.

  • Constitution (Free) – Mix-up no amendment or article again with a complete copy of the U.S. Constitution at your fingertips.
  • Declaration of Independence (Free) – And if you have the Constitution, why not get the Declaration of Independence app as well?
  • U.S. Historical Documents (99 cents) — U.S. Historical Documents contains over 200 of the most influential documents in U.S. history and they will be stored directly on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Quickly and easily find any text from any document with the fastest and most powerful search engine available on the iPhone. Have the documents automatically scroll for you in both portrait and landscape modes while reading. Create notes for each paragraph which can be displayed inline. You can even assign bookmarks to any paragraph in any document for future reference. Highlight important words or phrases using the absolute best highlighting system available.

 Reference

Browse historical maps, quote famous speeches, and find out what happened today in history with a number of reference apps.

Learning

  • History App (Free) —Watch your favorite HISTORY shows and content on your iPad, iPhone or Android device with the HISTORY app. Get free access to full episodes, clips and topical videos, all available whenever and wherever you want. New video is added every day so you’ll always have something to watch! Hundreds of videos on historic topics, including the original web series. And a great feature—History: Deconstructed and Bet You Didn’t Know. Available for iPad, iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile
  • Historia World (Free) —Think you know everything about the world history? Try Historia World! Historia is a quizz which will test your general knowledge in History. Historia is very easy to play: try to find the date of the historic events of the selected category. The closer you are, the bigger your score! If you can gain enough points you will be rewarded with a book in your library.

10 Math Apps for Students

 

math appsDoes math homework make you quake in your shoes? It did me. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the widespread availability of apps that today’s high school students have. To begin, if you need a Windows desktop app or file sharing, then try Cloud Desktops at https://www.clouddesktoponline.com and SharePoint at https://www.cloudappsportal.com,

Here are 10 math apps you can download to help with those ever-present math questions:

1. Graphing Calculator by MathLab (Android) / Free Graphing Calculator (iOS)

Graphing calculators used to be expensive, complex and pretty fun if you could program games on them. However, those studying advanced mathematics can download these apps. These free apps provide users with advanced operations, functions, an intuitive user interface and beautifully laid out graphs featuring slopes, roots and intersections — just to name a few.

2. Convert Units for Free (iOS) / Unit Converter (Android)

Allowing you to convert nearly anything — be it currency, data, energy, power or temperature. For world travelers, they are also able to convert currency in real time using up to date exchange rates. These free apps let you create your own unit conversions for anything you want, quickly and easily.

3. MathRef (iOS, Android)

MathRef is a solid app for quickly finding formulas across multiple disciplines. This app does not cover as many disciplines as WolframAlpha, but that is perhaps a strength as is it more focused on traditional math fields such as Algebra, Geometry and Calculus. MathRef also has an excellent user interface, allowing users to add notes to equations, save favorite equations and copy text from within the app to e-mails or text editor.

4. Wolfram Alpha (Android, iOS)

Wolfram Alpha, available for both offers up detailed answers to any math-related or number-centric question you could ever have. This computational knowledge engine can compute almost anything across 29 disciplines. You can get formula details, graphic representations and brief explanations to help you understand how the app arrived at a given solution. It will even tell you the meaning of life, if you ask it.

5. Digits (iOS)

After making standard calculations, Digits saves your work in an onscreen tape akin to the old accounting calculators with the paper ribbon. If you made a mistake anywhere in the ribbon, “check the tape” to locate the error and correct the calculation on the spot. Once you’ve made all the calculations needed, you can save and share your ribbon for printing or further manipulation in Apple’s Numbers or Microsoft Excel.

6. My Script Calculator (iOS, Android)

Some of us have very nice handwriting, others have chicken scratch. When using a stylus or our finger on a screen, however, most of us just have chicken scratch. This makes the functionality of MyScript Calculator even more impressive. By writing the equation you are looking to solve onto your phone or tablet’s screen, the app deciphers your writing, converts it to digital text, then solves the problem for you. So if you’re someone who doesn’t want to hunt for a specific operator on your phones keyboard, this is the app for you.

7. Math Solver (iOS, Android)

Math Solver helps you solve mathematical equations. It shows you the answer to the problem as well as the steps used in the solution. The app solves linear equations and quadratic equations. Math Solver also simplifies expressions, solves literal and radical equations, factors, and graphs equations.

8. The MathPage (iOS, Android)

Ever have your student ask you how to solve a math problem and you immediately panic. Stop struggling with complex, confusing math concepts…. if you can’t solve a problem TheMathPage will show you how, with clear explanations, easy examples and interactive questions (just tap to reveal the answers). It’s like having your own personal tutor!

9. Equations All-in-One (iOS)

Equations All-In-One solves 130 plus of the most common Math, Chemistry, and Physics formulas used in universities and high schools throughout the world. Each formula allows you to solve for any variable in the given equation. This App is essential for any student! Ideal for Math, Physics or Chemistry Classes. Includes unit converter with capability to convert all major units for physics and chemistry.

10. iMathematics Pro (iOS, Android)

iMathematics is the best app for the study of math! With more than 120 topics, over 1000 formulas, attractive interface, with 7 solvers and calculators, it’s the complete package for your study of math.

10 Budgeting Apps for College-Bound Teens

 

budgeting appsManaging money while attending college can be a constant struggle. You may have limited income due to devoting your time to classroom responsibilities, or maybe you’re living off of student loans and want to keep your expenses in track.

A good budgeting app can help college students keep track of their finances and help them find areas where they can cut back. Most budgeting apps can cover the basics—this article will provide you with five budgeting apps that stand out from the crowd and explain how they can help keep a college student’s budget in order.

Here are 10 budgeting apps for your college-bound teens:

1. Mint.com (iOS, Android)

It’s no secret that college students live on a strict budget. Since they will be managing their own finances and budget for expenses, they need some help. Mint.com automatically pulls all your financial information into one place, so you can have an overall picture of your finances. It manages your checking, savings, loans, and investment accounts (if you have any). It also helps you set budgets and create and track your goals, alerting you when you approach your limit.

2. Toshl Finance (iOS, Android)

Toshi Finance has a simple, good looking interface that is very easy to pick up on. That simplicity makes setting up a monthly budget for college students a breeze—all you need is to input your income and your expenses with reusable tags to get a clear picture of where your money goes.

3. Left to Spend (iOS)

Left to Spend keeps it simple—really, incredibly simple. You set a spending allowance and then subtract from there. No bells, no whistles, just straightforward budget tracking. If you’ve ever tried the “$20 in an envelope every day” budgeting method, this is essentially the digital equivalent.

4. Debt Payoff Planner (Android)

Debt Payoff Planner allows you to find the most effective way to pay back debt, whether it’s student loans or your balance on the emergency credit card. Users can prioritize debt by categories such as highest to lowest balance or highest to lowest interest rate.  It also allows users to see the projected debt payoff date based on payment amounts.

5. Spending Tracker (iOS, Android)

If you simply want to Track whether you have spent more than you have earned then there is nothing else to set up. However you have the option to operate in Budget Mode instead. This will allow you, for example, to set a Spending limit of 500 per Month. You can turn on Budget Mode in the Settings screen. By simply logging all your Expense and Income Transactions you will be able to gain better control over your Spending. You can either enter your Transactions from the Summary screen, or from the Transactions screen. Flexible ‘Recurring’ transactions greatly reduce the amount of work required.

6. Slice (iOS, Android)

This keeps all the details from online purchases in one place, from receipts to shipping information. It even sends a notification when your package ships so you can keep an eye out for the delivery truck if you live off-campus. It also keeps your entire purchase history so you can upload it to a budgeting app all at once.

7. Check (iOS, Android)

Check (formerly Pageonce) is more of a payment and bill tracker than a budgeting app, but keeping track of bill payment for the first time can be tough to get used to, especially with everything else on a college student’s plate. You can pay bills directly from the app, so you’ll never pay a late fee, and even track investments, if you’re particularly ambitious!

8. CheckPlease Lite (iOS, Android)

This straightforward app seems like it was built with college students in mind. If you’re out in a large group and need to split the bill many ways, CheckPlease Lite handles it. It can calculate tips and split the bill up to 100 ways. Dorm pizza or ice cream fund, anyone?

9. Receipts Magic Pro (iOS)

The app has integrated powerful OCR and image processing technologies to keep your data where it belongs – on your own phone! Because of this they don’t need to sell you a subscription plan or charge per receipt. And they don’t need to offer a “free” app that makes money by sharing your purchase history. Receipts Magic Pro saves your money as well your identity. The app allows you to save up to ten receipts, then upgrade to unlimited receipts for .99. We want you to try it out and like it before having to part with a buck.

10. Debt Payoff Planner (Android)

Debt Payoff Planner allows you to find the most effective way to pay back debt, whether it’s student loans or your balance on the emergency credit card. Users can prioritize debt by categories such as highest to lowest balance or highest to lowest interest rate.  It also allows users to see the projected debt payoff date based on payment amounts.

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.

 

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.

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