Work Smarter Not Harder With Our Uni Hacks

Spilling the tea on the university tools that no one told you about.

If you’re starting out at uni for the first time, or if a lot has changed since you last studied, you might be a little overwhelmed with the amount of time and effort that goes into studying, assignments and referencing.

Fortunately, there is an abundance of free resources available to you thanks to the development of tech and the internet that will help you get a lot of your work done smarter and faster.

If you’re wanting to up your studying game, here are our resources and tips:

Referencing resources

One of the handiest tools you can access when studying is a referencing generator or assistant.

There are a lot of options out there but they all work in a very similar way in which you choose a referencing style, use the article/book/website DOI, ISSN, ISBN or URL to find the source's information and let the tool generate a reference and in-text citation for you.

A popular tool for this is Cite This for Me, but if you prefer to work on your tablet or phone you can also download the RefMe app.

You can also easily generate a bibliography or references depending on which academic library and writing platform you are using.

If you are using libraries like Google Scholar you will be able to access pre-generated refences in any style that you need just by clicking on the quotation mark button.

And if Word is your preferred document writer there is a References tab that will help you build a quick and easy bibliography.

If you’re wanting to check the accuracy of your bibliography and make sure you haven’t accidently plagiarised someone else’s work, Turnitin is a great resource.

Most universities will already have this tool in use at your assessment submission point but if you want to double check before you submit, it can be really helpful.

If you need to know more about how to reference for university, you can learn more about it here.

Student websites

The holy grail of the student experience are student websites and membership platforms (get ready for the shameless plug).

Of course, Student Edge has to make this list with all the awesome benefits that we offer to all of our members.

A membership with Student Edge will get you access to countless awesome discounts from some of your favorite brands, competitions galore and heaps of helpful advice and news that will keep you informed while you study.

If you haven’t yet signed up to a member-based student platform, you’re definitely missing out.

Another great resource is the Lost on Campus app and StudentVIP.

If you’re looking for cheap textbooks, subject notes, and helpful tutors, StudentVIP is a great platform for finding these resources.

The Lost on Campus app is great if you’re just starting out or have moved to a new campus.

With this tool you can search for individual classrooms, buildings and cafes so you’re never go missing in the campus maze again.

Spelling and grammar

If you’re more of a maths person and grammar isn’t your strongest skill, you may be worried about losing marks on your assignments if you misspell something or use the wrong punctuation.

Fear no more because your tech has your back.

I’m sure we all know about Word’s spelling and grammar feature but make sure you’re taking full advantage of it to ensure you’re writing is correct.

A common mistake that is made when using Word is not using the correct country of origin, as Word automatically sets itself to English (United States).

There are a lot of interpretations of English globally and your preferred language may not even be English so make sure you select the option relevant to your region in the left-hand corner of your Word doc.

If you would like an extra boost of spelling confidence you can also use Grammarly.

This service is an awesome all-rounder tool for spelling, grammar, tone and style that you can add to your Google Chrome or use in conjunction with heaps of mailing, social media and document apps.

Dictation tools

If you’re more of a speaker and hate using a keyboard there are some awesome dictation tools that can help you write your assignments faster.

If you’re on a Mac all you need to do is head to your settings and turn on dictation.

When you select this, you will also be prompted to select a button to start dictation; the automatic setting is to press the function button twice.

If you’re instead on a PC, when you open a Word document all you need to do is click on the 'Dictate' button on the far-right corner of the 'Home' tab and start speaking.

Both tools will allow you to write out your notes or assignments simply by using your voice and can be a great tool for recording lectures if you are able to have them open on another device.

If you’re a student that needs to record phone conversations for your assessments, an excellent tool is the TapeACall app.

Unfortunately, this service isn’t free, but it allows you to record full conversations between you and another person if you need to accurately quote them and any statements they may make rather than rushing to take notes as they speak.

If you have used the TapeACall app or have recorded a video that needs transcribing, instead of spending hours manually typing out the conversation, you can use a transcribing service to save you time.

A popular transcription service is Trint, and like TapeACall it is also a paid service, however Trint and most other transcription services allow for a free trial period before you commit to spending any money.

Creative tools

If your studies involve you having to create content quickly and you don’t have the time to learn Adobe Creative Cloud, there are a few free tools that can help you out.

Canva is an awesome graphic design platform that allows uses to choose from thousands of templates to create graphics, flyers, posters, invites and more.

If you need to build a website but don’t know how to code or can’t afford a domain, there are heaps of website builders available online.

Most website builders are either free or have a free level that you can upgrade from for better features or a full domain by paying a subscription.

Some popular website builders are Wix, WordPress, SquareSpace and GoDaddy.

Website builders often collaborate with social media influencers, so if you’re wanting to build with SquareSpace, do a quick search on YouTube or Instagram to score a discount code.

If you’ve got a URL that you’re wanting to feature on a page or document but you want to hide its exact details because it contains private information or it’s just a bit too long, you can use Bitly to shorten or customise your URL.

Organisation

If you struggle with organisation and remembering important dates, and haven’t found anything that works for you, search no more.

If you’re looking for an all-rounder, Evernote is a popular organisational app that is designed for note taking, task management and archiving.

The app allows users to generate notes, which can be as text, photographs, drawings or saved web content.

If you just struggle with remembering dates and events and your smartphone's calendar app just doesn’t do the job, you need TimeTree.

This app is great as it allows users to create a customisable shared calendar.

Whether you need to share dates with your roommates, parents, workmates or a study buddy, with TimeTree you can keep on top of all your events, colour code and set reminders.

Language and vocab

Much like spelling and grammar, it is really important to make sure you’re using the right language in your assessments to convey the right tone or style.

Expanding your vocabulary is a great way to make sure your written work is top notch and there are several tools to help you develop these skills.

The most common and well known tools are your classic online Thesaurus and the 'synonym' feature in Word.

Both tools will give you a list of words with similar meaning so you can appropriately convey what you are trying to write without repeating yourself too much.

If you haven’t used it before, the synonym feature on Word can be accessed by right clicking on the word you are trying to replace and scrolling down to the suggestions.

If synonyms aren’t enough for you and you’re looking to add a little more flair to your work, academic phrase banks are really useful at helping you structure sentences to a professional academic standard.

A popular academic phrase bank, Manchester 1824, contains tabs that will help direct you to the right kind of essay structure you’re looking to write.

Now you have all the tools necessary to conquer your campus, its time to start studying!

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