Android Apps That Help Students Study and Organize

The rush of deadlines, lost items, and changing schedules are things college students have become accustomed to during their time in college. To compound this issue, many students do not know how to manage their time, which creates complications.

Some may argue that college students have become more disciplined and motivated over the years; however, what has changed to help them become more productive is technology. Because of the accessibility and advancements in mobile technology, students are now able to use their phones (most likely an Android) as something more than just a distraction. When used with the right applications, these devices can assist with a variety of tasks, including being an assignment planner, flashcard deck, digital whiteboard, timer, and mind map.

The question is not whether there are study applications for Android devices, rather, which applications are worth having on the device?

Universities from the University of Michigan to the University of Warsaw are using mobile productivity tools to help them improve their academic workflow by incorporating technology into their daily processes in their academics. This shift in the way students use technology has been accelerated due to pandemic-related closures and virtual learning. Many students were forced into creating systems that allow them to perform academically; therefore, many of these systems will be kept as students return to school. A 2022 survey conducted by Educause showed that over 70% of students have reported that their smartphones have become their main devices for completing academic work. Android devices have a huge market within the student population, specifically in Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

With students having become more proficient at using digital organizations tools introduced during the pandemic, sites like Essay Pay are being frequented by students looking for more efficient ways of completing academic assignments while maintaining their current academic workload.

Where Students Will Tend to Experience Problems with Time

Understanding where the points of friction are will provide insight into the types of apps to consider for a student. For most students, it’s the incremental accumulation of small mistakes. For example, a student may forget to read their textbook, miss a submission deadline by an hour, or wait until the day of an exam to review their notes. These mistakes are not based on intelligence; they are based on the system.

Apps can help address these problems by removing the mental burden of keeping track of everything manually, as well as making tasks easier to manage by providing a visual representation of all tasks.

The Android apps worth considering for students are:

Notion – Notion is one of the most powerful Android productivity apps available for college students who are willing to invest a few hours setting it up. It is part notebook, part database, and part project management tool. Students at MIT and Stanford have been able to turn Notion into a fully functioning semester dashboard that allows them to monitor upcoming assignments, track assigned reading lists, and keep research notes in one place. Although the mobile version of Notion is not ideal for long-form written documents, it is very useful for reviewing, organizing, and cross-referencing.

Anki – Although it is not very visually appealing, Anki is significantly more powerful than almost any other memorization tool available. Anki is a spaced repetition (i.e., you will see an item repeatedly before you forget it) tool for memorizing facts, formulas, etc. (There are hundreds of studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of spaced repetition for memorization.) Medical students have been using Anki for years, and it is now commonly used by students learning other languages. If you need to memorize a large amount of information for class, Anki is an essential tool with a free Android app that syncs across devices.

Google Keep – Because Google Keep is pre-installed and appears simple, it tends to be underestimated as a note-taking tool. Its simplicity is the main reason students use it instead of more complicated alternatives. A student can easily capture an idea, quote, or task in under five seconds using Google Keep; therefore, it has become more widely used than more complex note-taking tools. Google Keep also integrates well with Google Docs and Google Calendar, which is important for students already using the Google ecosystem.

Forest – Forest provides a solution to a different problem than the other apps; it does not help organize information. Instead, it helps prevent the urge to check Instagram or watch YouTube during study time by gamifying focus. Your virtual forest grows if you do not unlock your phone during a study session. Shallow? Somewhat. But students involved in productivity studies at the University of California consistently report higher completion rates when using a focus timer compared to working without structure.

Microsoft OneNote – Microsoft OneNote is one of the most popular note-taking tools among college students and one of the best apps available. Most students take notes using a combination of handwritten input, printed materials, audio recordings, and typed text. Microsoft OneNote allows students to integrate multiple forms of media into a single notebook and organize that content across multiple classes and semesters.

A Quick Comparison

Overloading

There is a serious danger in downloading 12 apps and not utilizing all of them consistently. For instance, many students use productivity apps as a collection rather than as a toolkit and become so overwhelmed with setup and configuration that they revert to not using them at all. Research on habit formation, including the work of BJ Fogg of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab, shows that pairing a new behavior with an existing routine leads to higher success rates than relying on willpower alone.

For a student, this may mean starting Anki every morning while waiting for their coffee to be made or entering tasks for the next day into Notion before placing their phone on the charger. The app does not create a new habit; repetition does. The app simply makes repetition easier.

When students are looking for productivity apps to help with time management or organization, they should be selected based on a specific gap rather than a general desire to be more organized. For example, if a student often forgets deadlines, they need an app with calendar integration. If a student struggles to retain information presented in class, they need an app that provides effective review options. If a student spends up to three hours of their evening on their phone, they need an application that helps them focus. Each of these problems has many unique solutions, and by treating them as interchangeable, students often find themselves with five productivity apps open and no system in place to use them effectively.

What Data Reveals

According to a report by the Higher Education Research Institute (2023), students utilizing structured digital tools for academic organization tend to achieve higher GPAs (on average) than students who do not. However, it must be noted that students utilizing organizational tools tend to be more intrinsically motivated than those who do not. Therefore, it cannot be inferred or assumed that organizational tools cause students to earn higher GPAs. However, the relationship between digital organizational tools and higher GPAs has consistently been observed and should be taken seriously.

While an organizational app can help students stay organized, they cannot replace their understanding of the material taught. Organizational apps provide scaffolding to help sustain a student’s effort throughout an entire semester. Students who get the most benefit from organizational apps understand that having to keep track of everything in their head is already using energy that could otherwise be use to do the actual work required.

Making It Stick

Honestly, there is no application that will teach you how to learn independently or at a faster rate than you did in high school. A well-chosen group of study apps for Android minimizes the cognitive burden associated with aspects of academia unrelated to learning, such as scheduling assignments, reviewing course material, recording information, and blocking distractions.

Where that freed-up time and greatly reduced cognitive load go is up to the student. One student may use it for reading; another for problem sets; still another for writing papers. Over the course of a semester, this compounds into a non-trivial amount of time and has a meaningful impact on both academic performance and information retention after final exams.