Back to school: iPhone, iPad apps for high school students

High school students have a lot to keep track of throught the day, from academics to extracurriculars to the all-important social life. In this post we’re going to look at hitting the books, staying on top of things and preparing for what’s next. Here is our list of iPhone and iPad apps for high school students.

Numerical (universal, free with in-app purchase) The self-professed “calculator without equal” is literally that: There’s no equals button. “The equals button was invented when calculators were the size of furniture. It’s time to move on,” its developers say. Numerical displays the results of your calculations as they’re entered and maintains a history that’s one swipe away.

Numerical also offers plain-language errors, which is very helpful and different. If you make an error, it’s explained in human-readable English. Nice! With several themes to choose from and a sleek, minimal design, Numerical is nothing like the TI-57 I used back in the day.

iStudiezPro (Universal, Apple Watch support, offers in-app purchases) lets students monitor their schedules, receive helpful notifications, track their academic progress and browse exactly what must be done on a given day. Once students enter the semester’s details, the app does the rest. Notifications remind them of where they need to be, what must be done and what’s scheduled for the future. Students can also track their grades and notice trends. It’s a great app that has been been recognized by Apple as an All-Time Favorite.

There’s a free lite version as well, which limits you to one semester, five courses, 15 classes/exams per course, 15 assignments, five instructors and two holiday periods. For the jr. high student who doesn’t move around as much, the lite version might work fine.

SAT Up (Universal, free with in-app purchase) is a SAT prep app that offers regimented practice sessions, feedback and thousands of practice questions. Now, questions are no good without answers, and SAT Up provides detailed explanations for any questions that students miss.

Back when I was studying, I didn’t always know what areas to focus on. SAT Up takes care of that tendency by noticing where you’re strong and weak, and customizing study sessions that address that.

Note that a pro membership at $4.99 per month is required if you want access to more than 15 questions per day.

RefME (free, universal) lets students gather, sort and and organize sources, and finally export them to a Word document.

It’s really easy, too. You can source a book just by scanning its bar code, and reference websites by simply entering their URL. In fact, RefME supports over 7,000 citation styles, like APA, AMA, Chicago and more. When your research is done, export your properly-formatted bibliography to a Word-ready format.

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There you have several apps to get you (or your student) off to a good start. We hope everyone has a great year, and urge you to check Apple World Today all month for more back-to-school posts.