Hello Medhatters!
I figured I’d give a break from my normal types of posts today. Instead I’ll list/discuss the apps that I like to use that I have on my different electronics that I’ve found helpful in medical school. Enjoy!
Just a quick disclaimer: None of these are affiliate links or me promoting them for monetary gain. The reality is 1) I have no clue how to do that and it takes too much brain power and time to figure that out and 2) I'm too small of a blog for anyone to care for that. So really this is just a for your information on what I've found helps me!
Phone Apps:
– Mail app. This comes on my iPhone and I’ve added BOTH my school email and my gmail on it. My school sends out several emails a day; some of them not very important, some that I can wait till later to deal with, and some that are very much a RIGHT NOW kind of vibe that need to be answered or looked at. It helps to have this active on both my phone and iPad so I can see any important emails right away.
–Calendar. This one also comes on my iPhone. The school’s calendar is constantly updated (as long as you put in the right calendar for your class). Since things can change last minute, and really I’m always looking at this to see when I need to be on campus or what lectures I need to make a list of; it is important to have it in a spot you will be able to get at easily.
–Forest. I believe I’ve mentioned this one before, but both Forest or Flora do the same thing. The Forest app locks your phone for a designated amount of time. During that time it will grow a tree. The longer the timer you set, the bigger/more intricate looking-ish the tree! Flora does something similar but with a flower. Plus, after so many trees that you “make” via not using your phone, the app will plant a tree. (Limit of 3 real trees planted per person though; they have lives too people).
–Minimalist List. I recently started using this. But I needed a list that I could easily cross off or add/modify on my phone. I found that the notes sections/task app that comes with my iPhone just isn’t cutting it. Let’s be honest: I keep hitting ignore on those reminders. It also cuts down the amount of random papers I have of making to-do lists for my study tasks. Plus, I like how sleek and minimal the app is!
–Headspace. I’ve most definitely tried this app and I know a lot of students on campus use this. If anything, they use the quick 3-10 minute courses. They also have sleep sounds: great to help you relax enough to fall asleep when stressed. Apparently at the beginning of the year when I wasn’t paying attention KCU was able to get you at least the sleepcasts they have for free. Otherwise, you do need to pay for access for this.
–Reef Iclicker. I need this for class. This is how they take attendance in labs and for some lectures, and how we answer in class polls. I have it on my iPad but my phone fits in my pocket easier and is always on me. If you were in the COB this is the same exact program you used for in class questions/quizzes.
–Groupme. My class uses this one to talk to each other. And without the school being able to access the account. Its more or less a giant group text of all the people in my class with the ability to have an open outlet if frustrated, want to give friendly reminders, etc.
–Pandora. This is on all of my electronics. I turn on the Lindsey Stirling playlist and study to this. Its mostly instrumental (on my set one anyways) but not just piano, which means I won’t be tempted to potentially fall asleep. Sidenote: I use the spa channel or classical music to fall asleep at night which is why I can’t really listen to it while studying. And since I also have it preset to have some Irish jig on this channel, I get a happy dance break in-between!
Ipad:
I also have calendar, mail app, and pandora on here. I DO NOT allow text messages or phone calls to reach my iPad. It is a nightmare if you forget to turn it off during exam time. You will automatically fail if it goes off and makes noise, or causes the exemplify app to think you are exiting out to cheat. Really, you can leave it on your phone or computer. You don’t also need it on your iPad and risk your future in medial school.
–OneNote. I’ve posted this before somewhere on this blog. But personally I like using OneNote to take class notes in. Other people use notability. To each their own. I like the ability to have an enormous amount of room to draw/type/import other documents into the same page when I’m taking notes. Again, the downside is if it is a file over 50 MB or something like that it doesn’t import and you have to split it.
–Inkling. This is an ebook platform. We use a fair amount of Mosby series books that go through here. E will usually buy the book itself, and give me the e-code so I can sue it on my iPad. There are a few other similar apps like this depending on which publisher is responsible for the book we are using (such as Kindle, iBooks, etc). Otherwise, I use the PDF version on my computer.
–Examplify. Again, I’ve discussed this somewhere on my blog. We need this to take quizzes and exams through the school. Call it a necessary evil if you will. The recently changed how it looks and boy does it mess me up at times during the reviews.
–Blackboard. Okay. So, I actually hate the blackboard app. I prefer to just login from the webpage. But I do know some people who prefer the app. I’m only putting it on here because blackboard is usually always open on my iPad or computer to watch lectures, download notes, look at grades, etc.
Computer:
I wouldn’t necessarily call these apps. More of what I usually have open on here!
–Blackboard. Always. I can stream lectures better on my laptop because I can fast forward and my computer handles the larger files better.
–Word or a google doc. This is how I sometimes like to fill out objectives. Some classes I find it helpful to go through objectives and see what they want. Others I don’t. Otherwise, everything is just on OneNote.
–Pandora is open in one of these tabs. When I’m not listening to a lecture, I have pandora on playing Lindsey Stirling!
–OneNote. This app uses the internet to save and sync your notes. If I feel like I will be typing more than using the pens, I will use my computer version. Otherwise, I don’t have a computer touch screen, and I will use my iPad.
–Some sort of additional learning tool such as: Teach me anatomy/physiology, youtube, etc., is usually open in a tab if I have and questions and need to source something else. Especially if I forget a book or am still not getting the concept from the book itself. I know I’ve put a lot of different types of websites on here throughout my medical school and COB year(s). For the first part of neuro, I really liked Teach me anatomy. Right now in my second test, I’m really feeling youtube. There are loads of resources to try or see what works.
-Any PDF book that I need that isn’t through one of the many apps on my iPad to view. I also have some books in iBooks as well that I might be able to pull up on my laptop.
And that’s about it. Hopefully this is helpful for some of you deciding on which apps/study materials to use!
