Google this post title and you get a LOT of crap. I finally realized that I had to be more specific to avoid lists full of games and Wikipedia apps, and started searching for “best note taking apps ipad.” The results were varied, and deciding on a single app didn’t seem possible.
An inherent flaw of the iTunes store, and apps in particular, is that your only indication of how good or bad an app might be is the reviews left by users – who are mostly lazy, and likely won’t leave one unless they have a problem. So I bought way too many of them, and can now provide you with the dirt on several really good iPad note-taking apps, including the good, the meh and the “WTF?!”
This week I’ll be posting in-depth reviews of SoundNote, CourseNotes, LiveNote and a couple other iPad apps that a college student may want to consider. I can already tell you that which app you want depends on the type of class you’re in, as well as how important “prettyness” and exportability are to you.
One last note – these posts are from the perspective of and iPad-only student. I have no iPhone or sexy Mac to sync, so the ability to get notes into an XP machine definitely matters.
In this lovely modern age a lot of my studying is done online. I have to use Blackboard for several of my courses, watch missed lectures on a professor’s website and, of course, use Wikipedia to do “research” for papers.
Recently I noticed that when I sit down at the computer to do those things I keep finding myself on Twitter, Facebook, Lifehacker or CNN.
I briefly toyed with the idea of banning those sites on my computer (they make software for it, I’m sure) and more old-fashioned methods, like snapping myself with a rubberband when I visited them.
My new solution is simple, practical and totally easy to implement.
None of these things actually stop you from “being bad” – but they all make you pause a few seconds longer and have actually made a huge difference in how focused I am. The third one has been especially helpful, as it’s saved me from doing pointless research – what was so pressing while I was studying cell biology is of no interest several hours later when I could be going out for a bike ride instead.
Image Credit: CarrotCreative / CC BY 2.0
If you’re keeping up, we spent time on Monday putting our base schedule together.
This next step is something you should probably do weekly. For the rest of this week you’re going to plan 1-3 hours of studying per evening. On your “weekend” days you can schedule up to 6 hours of studying, but don’t make it all one block. In fact, schedule a big block later that night or right in the middle of the afternoon to go out with friends or play video games until you pass out.
What order should you do things? I’ll discuss this in-depth in future posts, but I prefer to split studying into 1.5 hour blocks. It’s enough time to get really into a topic, but not enough to make you start mumbling gibberish. It’s also important to separate similar topics – don’t study Dev Bio and then move on to studying for it’s accompanying lab. That doesn’t count as switching topics. Read the rest of this entry »
The slump is burnout. It’s when your fun-self is having a fantastic tantrum due to your courseload/workload avalanche. Meanwhile, your responsible half is lecturing you for fantasizing about running away, increasing the tantrum. You spin your wheels on useless stuff, you’re not having fun and you’re crazy tired.
Sound unproductive? Oh yeah.
You need to do several things over the next week to cure this madness. Let’s get started!
Wednesday we’ll figure out how to sanely fill up that time, and let you have a semblance of a life, too!
I am suspicious that Google is the precursor for Skynet. Despite this, I love Google Calendar like I love my real-life BFF. I’ve tried everything from the Hipster PDA, single sheet calendars and mini-planners. None is so simple and flexible as Google Calendar.
But the best part? It allows you to create multiple calendars, and change their colors. I have a calendar for Classes, Assignments Due, Upcoming Exams and Study Time. I share my husband’s calendar, so I know when he’ll be home and can juggle homework time to be able to have dinner with him most nights.
Google Calendar, you are my pal.
I made it through mid-terms only slightly brain-damaged and reveled in a week with no exams looming ahead of me. Then I survived the second lab practical with confidence, using the At Home Practical Mayhem technique (TM totally pending).
Now it’s nearly midnight on Tuesday, and I have an OCHEM exam on Monday. I also have not even started payroll at work, which is usually done by the time I leave Tuesday evenings, and promised to have scripts for tutorial videos ready and waiting for the “film” crew by 10AM tomorrow.
Long story short? I am feeling major burnout and have hit the mid-semester slump.
The mid-semester slump is like a tiny mid-life crisis that occurs only to college students, twice to three times per year. That point when you start to fantasize about signing on to teach English abroad or becoming a yoga instructor on a cruise line. Until you remember you suck at languages and don’t know more than 2 yoga poses. Crap. You don’t want to study, but you can’t rationalize having proper fun… so you stay longer at work or clean the kitchen or lay on the couch and watch 80s movies instead.
It is the worst part of the semester, exponentially worse than finals, which at least give you a shiny beacon of “Oh thank God, it’s almost over!”.
And it has grabbed me by the face like a zombie about to nom my brains.
Last Friday I slept through my morning alarm. This hasn’t happened in a very long time, but as a result I missed my early morning class. I wasn’t too concerned about it, because the professor happens to record his lectures on a tablet PC, so you see what everyone in lecture does and hear it fairly well. Yet I’m upset that it happened.
Why? Because once I skip a class it becomes easy to skip again. And again. Ad nasueum.
On a related note, if you are given a limited number of allowable absences (ie: such as in lab courses or mathematics) hold onto them like precious gems. You are almost guaranteed to get sick when all your friends get back from Thanksgiving break, and you will need every sick day you have to keep from bringing swine flu to your classes.
In closing… no matter how lenient your professor, I advise you resist the urge to skip your class. Else you may find yourself missing an entire week and wondering what you did with your time.
It’s the first day back on campus, or for some of you your first day of college. Welcome to school everyone.
Well, Chegg shipped quickly and I got my books a few days earlier than expected. They. came in 3 boxes, 2 from Chegg directly and one from Amazon – I assume they ran out of that one, so I have on fancy brand new rental book
They’re all in good condition, with only one looking obviously used, like a typical used bookat this university. Each has a bright orange sticker on it, so no worries about accidentally selling a rental book back to your school. In fact, Chegg won over the campus bookstore, as I am *stillI* waiting on a book that I need tomorrow from the school.
They included a pre-paid return label, and directions to just return the books in the same box at the end of the semester. Convenient! And all the books were the correct editions, as I ordered them.
Will update everyone again at the end of the semester!
Chegg’s slogan? “Don’t buy it.”
As I mentioned yesterday, I have seven books to buy for fall semester – which would total $515 to purchase new from the bookstore, or $419 used. Instead, I only bought one book from the school, because it wasn’t available used anywhere.
The other six were rented from Chegg.com, a textbook rental service. The premise is simple – you find the books you need for class and choose a rental period (I chose the full semester, so I don’t have to return them until December 21st) and then select a shipping method. All your books come to you, you use them all semester and send them back. The advantage is that a rental costs less than buying used. In some cases it is only $10 less, but for two I saved over $30 each on the used price.
There are disadvantages:
In the end, the total for the six books rented from Chegg and one book purchased from ASU, as well as shipping for both orders, I paid $320.
Total savings compared to buying all used from ASU: $99 Total savings compared to buying all new from ASU: $195
