Looking to boost your grades at university? Listen up – it doesn’t get any better than these 5 essential apps.

Getting ahead at uni is, of course, down to how much hard work you put in. But you can make your life that bit easier by getting clued up on which tools can help you stay organised, learn more effectively, avoid time-consuming processes and ace your exams.

In this list, we’ll be looking at our favourite apps for students, designed to help you stay on top of your workload, organise yourself and manage your time wisely. With all these apps at your disposal, you’re well on track to reach your full potential at uni.

So what are you waiting for? Read on and get downloading! 

1.     Forest: to stay focused

This app is one of the best to get you unstuck from your mobile phone and get down to some serious study.

How does it work? You set a timer from anywhere between five minutes to two hours, during which time you cannot look at your phone. You can set the timer to the Pomodoro technique or decide for yourself how much time you want to dedicate to study sessions.

As you continue studying, the app plants trees in your digital forest, giving you the satisfaction of seeing your forest expanding with every hour of productivity that passes.

We all know how easy it is to get lost in social media (the temptation is strong!) But the Forest app knows when you’re not studying, and if you exit the app to look at your phone, your tree dies!

2.   StudySmarter: for study plans and tools

Next up on our list of apps to improve your grades at university is StudySmarter – a hub that combines a plethora of collaborative learning tools into one place.

Think digital flashcards (you can make your own or use pre-made ones created by other students), ready-made quizzes and study notes.

What’s more, you can take advantage of premade study plans and set goals for yourself. You can set the number of hours you wish to study that week and plan it all out in terms of how to create flashcards and quizzes, adding a bit of extra structure to your study routine.

You can even connect and collaborate with other students. All the resources have been put together by experts in each subject. The study materials are designed to be attractive and easy on the eye, so as not to bore you to death – so you really have no excuse not to get started!

The app is free to download from the Apple and Android stores.

3.   Evernote: to organise your lecture notes

This is undoubtedly one of the most useful apps to improve your grades at university just in terms of sheer time-saving and organisation. If you’ve ever spent ages looking for hastily scribbled notes on reams of paper in disorganised folders, or in random files on your laptop, then this app is for you.

It helps to keep all of your notes coordinated into lists and categories, for example: lecture notes, to-do lists, essay research, and monthly goals.

What’s even cooler is the audio recording feature, which allows you to listen to the lecture again and take the time to edit your notes so you don’t miss anything. Definitely useful when you’ve got a lecturer that talks a mile a minute!

You can attach files to your notes and even insert images or links to keep everything in one place. There’s also an option to share your notes with your coursemates via a link or invitation, which you’ll find really useful when it comes to group projects!

4.  Grammarly: for sharp writing skills

Once you’ve got into the swing of things and are already well into a project, you want to make sure that the writing quality is up to scratch.

One great way to do that is by downloading Grammarly. It’s definitely up there with the best apps to improve your grades at university, as a percentage of your academic marks is determined by how well you use grammar, punctuation and expression.

So if you want to elevate your writing and your overall grades this writing assistant tool can help do just that. It’s easy to use and offers suggestions for sentence structure, vocabulary, and tone. In general, it gives pretty accurate feedback for proofreading.

It’s flexible too, and can be downloaded as a desktop app, integrated with your browser, or even added as a plugin into your Microsoft Office programmes – so suggestions for edits just pop up as you write.

One less thing to worry about!

5.   MindMeister: for inspiration and revision skills

Last but not least, one of our favourite apps to improve your grades at university: MindMeister!

We don’t know about you, but mindmaps always take us back to being at school, and they really are a fun and effective way to find inspiration in the learning process!

This app takes that simple yet versatile concept of mind-mapping and puts it into digital form.

If you’re not sure how mind maps work, you basically jot down the main concept in the middle of the page and then branch out towards associated ideas and subconcepts. It looks a little bit like a tree or a hub and spokes on a wheel.

This method is particularly useful for revision sessions where you need to memorise and break down information into visual bite-sized chunks.

MindMeister takes that method and converts it into a digital format, giving you options to organise and annotate the maps, and best of all, you can carry your maps with you wherever you are. So revising on the bus to uni from your Novel student accommodation in Glasgow is as easy as whipping your phone out.

Bonus App: SleepCycle

OK, so you might not have thought about this one but we have good reason to include it in our list of apps to improve your grades at university.

Getting a good night’s sleep and feeling refreshed and awake goes a long way to boosting your grades. A rested brain is way more capable of retaining information than a groggy, sleep-deprived one.

This app records your sleep patterns and helps you to track when you get the deepest sleep. It’s not all about going to bed early and getting eight hours in bed – the app records the quality as well as the quantity of sleep you’re getting!

Not only that, it wakes you up within a 30-minute time frame of your choosing, based on when your sleep is the lightest. It can predict, with great accuracy, when you’re likely to be most awake based on the movements you make in your sleep.

Don’t get creeped out by this – it’s super useful to learn more about your body and your sleep needs. You can recap your full week’s sleep pattern, and take notice of when you’re truly resting and what’s impeding your rest (cough, cough TikTok scrolling anyone?)

Knowledge is power – and knowing yourself and how your body works goes a long way to productivity and success at uni!

Apply yourself with apps

So now you’ve learned a little more about our top 5 apps to improve your grades at university. Hopefully, our list has inspired you to get downloading for a more organised and inspired university experience.

Don’t worry – you can thank us later.