Watch CBS News

5 Best Educational Apps For High School Students

Take advantage of the smart phone or tablet you purchased for your teenager over the holidays. Instead of just wasting that technology on another thrilling level of Candy Crush, spend some time using the tablet or phone for some valuable study time. There are so many amazing apps available to help your high school student prepare for any subject or exam. Most of these apps are also less than five dollars, but the information and organization they provide is far more valuable. Here are a few of the best must-have apps for your high schooler.

The Princeton Review SAT
For: SAT Practice
Price: $4.99

Princeton Review
Photo Credit: Princeton Review/Learnbat, Inc.

If your high schooler is getting ready to take SATs this is one app that can be a very valuable tool. This app starts with an SAT assessment, which will help pinpoint the student’s strengths and weaknesses. It then offers lots of practice questions to help prepare for the big exam. The Princeton Review SAT app comes with the SAT assessment, including 45 SAT questions in math, writing and critical reading, plus an additional 45 practice SAT questions that come with explanations on how the answers are found. It also has 15 Core Concept lessons to help with SAT strategies and other tips.

Studious
For: Organizing schoolwork
Price: Free

Studious
Photo Credit Studious/Braden Young

Studious is the perfect app for the busy high school life. You can input the dates of all your upcoming tests, when homework assignments are due, add a campus map and even personalize it with your school colors. When you or your student are faced with lots of classes, many different deadlines and tons of different tests coming up, Studious is the best way to keep it all organized. Plus, you can program the app to automatically silence your cell phone when you are in class. So teachers will love this app too.

Graphing Calculator
For: Math class
Price: $1.99

Graphing Calculator
Photo Credit Appcylon LLC

Remember the days of spending lots of money on expensive graphic calculators, only to accidentally drop it, and then be forced to buy a new one? Well those days are gone, as graphic calculators are all available in app form. This app comes complete with all of the same tools from your old graphic calculator including the ability to take screen shots so you can email your graphs to yourself. It can even be displayed on a projector or television with a VGA adapter, making study sessions a lot easier since you can all see the calculator at the same time.

Evernote Peek
For: Studying
Price: Free

Evernote Peek
Photo Credit Evernote

Forget spending hours creating flash cards to study from. Instead pick up Evernote Peek, which will work with your iPad’s Smart Cover to help create e-versions of flash cards. If you don’t have a Smart Cover, it can also work with a virtual cover just as easily. You can add study materials in just about any subject, since you create your own clues and answers, so it truly is just like making flash cards. Then you can use the iPad cover or virtual cover to study for all those big exams coming up.

The Chemical Touch
For: Science class
Price: $.99

The Chemical Touch
Photo Credit Chemical Touch/Christopher Fennell

For less than one dollar you can get an app that provides the full periodic table of elements, along with lots of additional built-in information. This app is very helpful for that upcoming science class. The table is touch sensitive, and a simple tap opens additional information on each item, or if you need more information it will connect to the Wikipedia page for any element, nucleobase or amino acid. Forget carrying around a paper version of this table, this app is far more useful and it won’t rip in your pocket.

Deborah Flomberg is a theater professional, freelance writer and Denver native. Her work can be found at Examiner.com.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.