As you get older, back to school time changes. When you’re real young it’s exciting because you get to see all those people you missed all summer. As you move on through the years it starts to become a hassle, because you start to hate school that much more. But by the time you’re in college it’s a joy again, because, well, college rocks. But whether you’re headed back to high school or college, your BlackBerry can help you succeed. It won’t replace study and hard work — your dad was right about something — but it can certainly make that study and hard work a bit less tedious.
StudentDocket
Every year in high school they used to issue us planner books so we could keep up to date with our assignments. In other words, they left us no excuse for forgetting things, because they gave us the means. Of course, hardly anyone actually used it. But what if you had a planner on your BlackBerry? Would that make you more apt to use it?
If so, StudentDocket might be your answer. It lets you create classes, add projects, and make tasks so you know exactly what’s going on and when it’s due. My favorite part of the app is the timeline view. It’s a flowing display of what you have going on. Checking it once a day will do wonders for any student.
Even better: the app is half the price it was when we reviewed it. You can get StudentDocket for just $9.99. As a free, but less feature-rich, alternative, check out Student Diary.
gCalcPro Graphing Calculator
Graphing calculators are expensive. They probably shouldn’t be — most technologies come down in price, but graphing calculators have stayed at the same performance level and price since I can remember. Don’t pay more than you need. Your BlackBerry can act as a calculator, and with the right software it can even be the graphing calculator required for your pre-calc or calc classes.
From gWhiz comes gCalcPro, a university-level graphing calculator that you can load right onto your BlackBerry. It takes care of everything that your TI 84 can and more. You can even email graphs and equations. Of course, don’t expect your teacher or professor to let you use this during a test. In fact, he or she might not even allow it in class. But for basic work it will work just fine. Then you can borrow one for tests and quizzes.
You can get gCalcPro Graphing Calculator for $6.99. That works with BlackBerry devices running OS 4.3 and above. If you’re running a touchscreen device you can pay an extra $3 to upgrade to the gWhizPro Bundle, which includes flash cards and a pocket reference guide.
Dictionary.com
When you’re reading for pleasure, you don’t have to look up all the words you don’t know. But when you’re reading for a literature class and face class discussions, essays, and tests, you might want to be prepared. Breaking out the dictionary itself might be a pain, but if you use the Dictionary.com app you can have a quick lookup method right by your side.
The app basically puts Dictionary.com right on your BlackBerry. You can look up words to find pronunciation, part of speech, and multiple definitions. It even includes a thesaurus, so you can avoid repeating the same term over and over again. It’s free, and you can get the Dictionary.com app at App World.
