Five must-have apps for students

Graphics: TBS

It is no secret that student life is often hectic. Between lectures, deadlines, part-time jobs, and social commitments, many young people feel overwhelmed by the pressure to keep everything on track. But in today's world, help is just a tap away. The right apps can simplify life, sharpen focus, and help students make the most of their time.

There are thousands of options available, and it can be difficult to know which ones are truly worth your storage space. Some promise productivity, others organisation, and many do a bit of both. This article highlights five outstanding apps that many students have found useful – apps that are practical, easy to use, and genuinely helpful for surviving and thriving at school, college, or university.

NotebookLM – AI-powered clarity

NotebookLM by Google is an assistant for students buried under readings. Unlike general chatbots, it works only with the files you upload, offering focused answers grounded only in your materials. Upload a paper or textbook chapter, and it becomes a sharp study partner – summarising key ideas, answering questions, and even generating study guides with quiz questions and glossaries.

The interface is clean and intuitive. You can organise notebooks by course, and store up to 50 documents in one project. One standout feature is audio overviews – podcast-style summaries of your documents, available in English and Bangla.

It is not perfect – nuanced arguments can sometimes get flattened – but for essays, exams, or dense theory classes, NotebookLM reduces friction. Free and surprisingly capable, it is the rare AI tool that actually saves time and strengthens understanding.

Notion – the digital brain for organised minds

Although mostly known as a note-taking app, Notion is more than that. It is a workspace that allows you to write, plan, manage tasks, and organise your studies – all in one place. Whether you want to take class notes, track deadlines, or build a study timetable, Notion helps keep everything together.

One of the app's greatest strengths is its flexibility. You can create custom templates for assignments, keep a reading list, or even build a personal knowledge base for revision. It also supports collaborative work, which is useful for group projects. The interface takes a little time to get used to, but once you do, it becomes an essential tool in your academic life.

Forest – grow trees, not distractions

For students who struggle to stay away from their phones while studying, Forest offers a clever solution. The app encourages you to put your phone down by planting a virtual tree that grows while you work. If you leave the app before the time is up, the tree dies.

This simple yet powerful concept helps many students stay focused for longer periods. Forest also allows you to track your focus habits over time, which can be motivating. For those who care about the environment, the app also partners with tree-planting organisations to plant real trees based on user activity. Staying focused has never felt this rewarding.

Microsoft Lens – turn paper into digital notes

Students often come across whiteboards, printed handouts, or textbooks that they want to keep for later. Microsoft Lens makes it easy. This app turns your phone into a smart scanner. You can take a photo of a document, and the app automatically crops, enhances, and saves it as a PDF, Word file, or image.

What makes Microsoft Lens stand out is its accuracy and simplicity. It is especially useful for students who want to keep tidy digital copies of handwritten notes, lecture slides, or pages from borrowed books. The scanned files can be saved to OneDrive, shared via email, or inserted directly into documents. It is a quiet game-changer for organised students.

Anki – smarter revision through spaced repetition

If you have ever crammed for an exam only to forget everything a week later, you are not alone. Anki uses a study technique called spaced repetition to help you remember information for the long term. You create digital flashcards, and the app tests you just before you are likely to forget the content.

This method has been shown to work well for memorising facts, definitions, foreign vocabulary, and formulas. Medical and language students in particular swear by Anki. While the design is not flashy, its effectiveness is hard to ignore. You can also download card decks shared by others, which saves time.

In the end, no app can do your studying for you, but the right tools can make a big difference in how you manage your time, retain information, and stay motivated. These five apps have been chosen not because they are trendy, but because they genuinely help students deal with the challenges of academic life.

Technology should support learning – not distract from it. Whether you are a higher secondary student or studying at university, these apps offer a thoughtful balance between discipline and care. After all, successful studying is not just about working harder – it is about working smarter, with tools that understand your needs.