Put your phone to work
Feeling tempted to pick up your phone every five minutes, when you're supposed to be revising?
Get some of these study and productivity apps and you can swap the doomscrolling for some actual exam prep. It's the easiest revision win ever.
Below, we've selected some top apps as recommended by members of The Student Room. Each will help you max out your study time, so give them a try – and don't forget to visit our study help forums to get even more advice from other students.
More like this: ace your exams with our guide to free revision resources
Exam Countdown Lite
Rather than focusing on what you need to do, this app lets you know how long you have left to do it – so you can balance your revision across subjects.
You can set countdowns for all your exams down to the last minute and see it all in one place, so you know exactly how much time you have left.
“Get the Exam Countdown app and plug in all the dates of your exams/deadlines so that you can prioritise different subjects over others,” says The Student Room member Tombre.
“For me, having tangible proof that my exams were getting nearer and nearer really helped motivate me,” says Troubletracking.
Free
More like this: the revision timetable you'll actually stick to
Forest
Forest is designed to stop you being distracted by your phone and keep you focused on your work.
“I recommend trying this app called Forest. It's essentially a custom timer that knows whenever you exit the app during the timer,” says Lucy, a student at Sheffield Hallam University.
"While the timer is going, a virtual tree is planted, and at the end of the timer the tree is fully grown and added to your virtual forest (hence the name).
“If you exit the app during the timer then the virtual tree dies. I personally found this helped me become way more productive, kept me off my phone when I was meant to be working and was a pleasant visual representation of it too."
The app costs £3.99 to download on iOS, with a free 'lite' version available on Android. There also similar free apps out there, such as Flora.
£3.99
Quizlet
Flashcards can be a really effective way to revise. If you don’t fancy lugging them around with you for on-the-go study, Quizlet makes it easy to create them on your phone instead.
The app also has a library of millions of ready-made sets across a huge range of subjects, as well as games to help you improve.
“Quizlet is really useful for helping to memorise the content,” says SB1234567890.
Free
Obsidian
No more fishing scrunched-up pieces of paper out from the bottom of your bag – this app will keep your revision notes organised and synced across all your devices.
You can format your notes however you like and add bullet lists, charts, images and voice notes.
Free
More like this: 10 ways to kickstart your revision
Headspace
When revision and exam stress start to bite, the Headspace app can help with meditation and mindfulness to aid focus, sleep or rest.
Even just a few minutes of slow breathing can help ease feelings of tension, and don't underestimate how important sleep is to revision.
"I use the Calm and Headspace apps for meditation and relaxing music. If I feel anxious or that my mind is busy, I'll take even just five minutes to meditate and relax," says Nerol.
The app is subscription-based, but there is a student deal that works out at £7.99 for a year.
Free to download
More like this: your guide to handling revision and exam stress
Todoist
You can manage dates, tasks and events using Todoist, an app that allows you to schedule and organise reminders and notes.
You can place your tasks into ‘projects’ in the app – so you could, for example, break up parts of an essay into sections and give yourself chunks of time to complete each part.
You can also organise your weeks into tasks, to help you keep track of what you need to do next.
"I tend to make a revision timetable [and then] use the app Todoist to write up any tasks I need to do (school related or not) and it helps me prioritise them. It also motivates me as it gives you points for adding and completing tasks," says bunnisuh.
Free
Oh...and did we mention The Student Room's own app?
Download our free chat app and get instant access to every discussion on The Student Room, including all of our study help forums and individual exam discussions.
You can personalise your home feed with your favourite chats and get notifications when someone mentions, tags, replies, likes or sends you a message.
Free
