Luckily, in this digital age, everybody can turn to their computer for help. There are many applications dedicated to improve your study skills, as well as the overall school experience.

And for those Mac-user students out there, here are five free tools to help you survive, and win.

1. Schoolhouse

The first thing to do to achieve a better academic grades is to organize everything into one easy-to-observe placeholder. Schoolhouse, which dubs itself as “The Homework Manager for The Mac“, is built to do just that. Developed by a student who still lives the life, you can expect this application to be as useful as it should be.

You start the application by creating a new term; give name to it and set the time range of the term.

Then you gradually add your assignments, tasks and notes to it. You could choose to view all the items by list, week or month, iCal style.

Schoolhouse also has the ability to link documents and media to the assignments for quick reference, preview all your grades during the term to help you monitor your performance, and automatically publish the assignments to the web so that anyone can subscribe to them.

If it sounds confusing, don’t worry — to help users getting started, this app come with a short PDF manual.

Schoolhouse is like a GTD tool for students, but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be useful for non-student users. I find that this app is very useful to manage my writing projects.

2. Genius

One of the biggest traumas of school that still carved in my memory was studying for tests. I was always a “math kind of guy”, so memorizing too many facts and dates always scared me.

I wish I’ve encountered Genius back then. This small app will help anybody with their study skills, particularly how to memorize things easier.

You start with a new blank window. Then, by clicking the ‘+’ button, you can add a question. Insert the answer next to the question.

After all of the questions and answers have been inserted into the Genius window, you can save the window and start the learning process. Click the green “Study” button, and Genius will pop up a window with a question and the answer while dimming out the other parts of the screen. It will ask you to memorize them.

Genius then will ask the question again and you have to write the answer. It will alternate between new facts and questions. Genius organizes your information and carefully chooses questions using an intelligent “spaced repetition” method that’s based on your past performance.

You can use Genius to study foreign language phrases, vocabulary words, historical events, legal definitions, formal speeches, marketing points, religious texts, or anything else you need to memorize.

3. ProVoc

It’s always nice to learn a new language. But there’s one obstacle that usually stops almost everybody from learning any language: memorizing the vocabularies.

ProVoc is a free vocabulary trainer that makes learning a language easy. Just download the application and the vocabulary pack(s), and you are ready to go. There is a mountain of vocabulary packs available ranging from German to Dutch to Polish to Russian to Arabic.

ProVoc has the ability to export to an iPod, so you can learn while on the road. You can also print flash cards, use the free Dashboard Widget, and listen to the audio pronunciation of the words.

4. Buddi

The word “student” is often being related to “starving”. This might be an indication that most students are not good in managing their finance.

To help with the monetary side, students (and everybody else) can rely on Buddi, a simple and free, open-source money management application. Buddi is Java-based so it can run on any operating system with Java environment installed.

With the financial problem tackled with the help of Buddi, students can focus more on the study.

5. Carbon Copy Cloner

“The dog ate my paper” is a classic excuse for not turning in your assignment. Of course, no teacher will buy it anymore. The modern alternative is “My hard drive crashed and ate everything inside, including my assignment.” But that is also not selling well anymore because we have backup utilities.

Carbon Copy Cloner is one free and powerful alternatives. You can “clone” everything to an external hard drive.

6. Bonus tool: G.ho.st

G.ho.st is one of the online alternatives for backing up your files. You will get 15 Gigabytes of free online storage on the system (and another additional 5GB for every friend who signs up from your invitation).

But G.ho.st is not just about file backup. It is a complete virtual, online operating system. So you will also get an office suite, games, browser and everything that you can expect from an operating system. Why will you need this? Simple — you can access your work and files from any place on earth with just a computer and an internet connection.

One of the new features that I like most is the ability to “side-load” files from web location directly to G.ho.st online storage, and the ability to share them with your friends.

The above link will direct you to the G.ho.st page with me as the referrer. If you don’t feel like donating an additional 5 Gigabytes to me, you can go directly to their site.

7. Everything else

There is still so many more applications that can help students to improve study skills and work better. MakeUseOf Directory profiled over 100 tools, covering everything from online dictionaries, chart makers and flash cards to sites for ordering food from take-aways located near the campus.

Don’t forget to check out articles about online tools for students such as:

- 10 Online Learning Tools
- 10 Web Tools To Save Your Butt In School
- Collaboration Suite For Teachers and Students

We’ve also discussed other free file hosts for free online storage services that can be used by students to keep and share their files.

If you could add more ideas to this short list, be sure to write it down using the comment below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Then, why do you keep repeating the same words over and over again?

Well, lets put an end to that! Maybe we can help you improve your writing skills or at the very least show you a great new tool. A new website called www.VocabGrabber.com is a great tool to help you see the errors of your ways in writing. This fresh, new service allows you to enter a block of text into a box and hit a button that says Grab Vocabulary.

VocabGrabber analyzes your text and spits back a word cloud of terms used. From there, you can click on words and see synonyms as well as how many times you used a certain word.

You can click on words to see their relationship to other words. It is a great tool for any writer – even if you are a seasoned paid writer!

Check out the interface and we will walk you through how it can help you.

I grabbed the latest post from my personal website and pasted it into the box.

I hit the big green button and VocabGrabber instantly analyzed my text. It instantly (or at least it felt instant) spat back this word cloud.

The words that appear the most frequent have the largest font. From here, I changed the view into a list. This is easier for me to use. Below, you can see the button I clicked to show the list view – It is circled obnoxiously in red.

Ah now, I can see that the word backup was used 36 whopping times in that article. Maybe I should find another word to replace it with? VocabGrabber doesn’t tell you that but it will help you if that is what you decide. On the right hand side of the screen, you will see a chart with your word and other similar words around it. You will see a few definitions for your word as well as have the ability to click on a word and have it open in a seperate mini-java Visual Theasaurus. This is not a free product but they do let you try it out.

In this instance, the only relevant synonym is Computer Backup and well, that just doesn’t sound so much better. Let’s try another word. I decided to pick “label” as you can see below:

So in this case, it suggested several words that can replace the word “label” – mark, tag or description. This is very handy and I would have killed for this in high school! Do you have some type of free writing tool that you would like to share with us? Then do so in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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The free downloadable software from EclipseCrossword offers a fast and neat way to design your own crossword puzzle with words of your choice.

Why would I want to design my own crossword Puzzles?

Yes, most of the fun is in solving one rather than in the tedium of designing one. But if every fifth person can speak Chinese, I daresay every fourth person probably is a crossword buff. The site itself gives us a lot of ideas to play around regarding the possibilities of the crossword. From adding value to your website to a tool of teaching, from adding it to a draggy newsletter to using it as a time killer, the uses are limited by creativity alone. I picked it up and am now using it to polish my niece’s science facts.

So, how do I make my first crossword puzzle?

The free EclipseCrossword software is a Windows only download. The interface is clean without any ad-ware to blotch it up. On the first run, the software offers a tutorial but you can skip that and head straight into the software itself, because the interface isn’t a puzzle at all.

As a first time user, select I would like to start a new crossword in the first screen.

Step 1 – Create or select a word list

A word list is the building block of your crossword. These are the answers we pencil down (the more confident pen it down!) in the little white squares. You can select the option to start from scratch or used a predefined word list saved in the proprietary EWL format.

Step 2 & 3 – Create or Modify a word list

A bit of scratching the head is required as we populate our word list and also assign the clues to solve them. A minimum two words are required.

Step 4 – Name this crossword

An optional step, but it just makes the final appearance a bit neater with the name of our created work at the top along with the copyright information.

Step 5 – Define the crossword size

We can play with anything between a 5 by 5 grid to a 120 by 120 one. The ‘suggested’ values are usually the ones to go by.

Step 6 – Finished crossword

Here we get a look at our wordplay. Preview it, move it around with the mouse or create another one in the same pattern.

Step 7 – Save or Print this crossword

The final dress-up. We get four alternatives in four tabs to do the job.

Save the crossword or the word list.

Print the crossword with the options given.

Save as webpage. Save it as an interactive webpage that uses JavaScript or Java applet to render it in almost all the popular browsers. The crosswords can also be saved as non-interactive printable webpages that users can download, print and solve.

Publish the crossword in supported formats like RTF (Rich Text Format) for the clues, WMF (Windows Meta file) and/or EPS (Postscript) for the crossword grid. We can also export the puzzle in Across Lite format, which can be read by a variety of crossword software.

That’s it! With a click on the Close button, wordplay begins.

What’s the final score on EclipseCrossword?

EclipseCrossword is as straightforward as software can come. The wizard style step by step interface is a breeze and the start to finish takes mere minutes (creating the word list is the only step where we break a bit of sweat).

The finished crossword is printable and presentable in a number of formats and is also interactive in a browser. What I really liked about the program was that it has all the bearings of a professionally made software with hardly a rough edge. A quick download and you have entertainment for free.

EclipseSoftware v1.2 is a Windows only download.

If you are a crossword zealot then this is for you. Use it design your own crossword puzzles and let us know if you could match the down with the across.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Certainly this is not art and it contains a considerable amount of redundant and superficial information. However, its creation did require imagination. The thing is, whether you’re writing a diary, a blog or a column for a magazine, writing remains a creative process.

Now creativity can be an issue. Among writers a complete lack of ideas is called writers block. But most often it is not that bad and all that is missing are the delicate details. The internet actually is a valuable source for ideas. On the other hand, people who are creative are not necessarily great writers. They may be lacking the basic knowledge of how to properly construct and present a story. The following tools should prove very helpful in releasing mental breaks and becoming a better writer
.

1. StumbleUpon

Stumble Upon is a great place to start in case you have no idea what to write about, since you can randomly stumble recommended websites. When you need cues for an existing story idea though, you can filter for a specific topic by searching for keywords. Extensions for both IE and Firefox are available.

2. 911 Writers Block

This tool is provided by the WEbook publishing company. It is intended to overcome blocks in fiction writing. There are nine different dials ranging from settings, characters, entrances, over verbs or how to kill a character to endings. You can browse through all suggestions and save the ones you like best. Later you can view all your saved cues and delete ones you are not going to use.

3. one word

If you cannot get your head around a story or a topic, give it a break. But rather than switching on the TV or taking a nap, you should give your brain a refreshing workout. At ‘one word’ you will be given a word and sixty seconds to write about it. If you’re bold enough, you can submit your thoughts or read what others had to say.

Unfortunately, the words are not random, new ones are added every couple of days, and the purpose of the site in fact is to collect spontaneous thoughts on various topics. Nevertheless, the 60 seconds timer in combination with a book to select a random word will work just as well. Just don’t submit it. But keep writing!

4. Cliché Finder

A source for overused metaphors and as such nothing that you would want to overuse. However, you may discover just the right expression to get a message across.

5.Language is a Virus

When required to complete a piece, don’t ever waste time not writing. Instead, try to find more and more random inspiration. One great resource is “Language is a Virus” which provides some interesting tools, for example the “Haiku-a-Tron” pictured on the left, a “Slice-n-Dice” text cutter, the “word by word (nonsense)” translator, a character name generator, and a number of articles and further resources.

Whatever you do, if you absolutely cannot continue writing, at least read or try to gather inspiration in the lively world.

6. Better writing

Critical ingredients to good writing are spelling, grammar, and correct use of words. Oxford Dictionaries’ website AskOxford has a very valuable section dedicated to better writing.

7. UsingEnglish

While it is difficult to get everything right even for native speakers, it is a huge challenge to master the English language as a writer when it is your second language. Sometimes it is necessary to go back, recapture, and simply study the language. UsingEnglish can provide great assistance in finding English idioms, understand phrasal verbs or studying irregular verbs.

For more resources regarding the English language I will refer you to a post from earlier this year by Shankar: 30+ Online Resources to Expand your English Vocabulary. You may also check out other writing related websites we have profiled earlier.

What do you do to overcome a block to your flow of writing? Do you have any online gems to share?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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