It’s about time when most will be returning back to normal life after the holidays. And today we should talk about a must-have app for all those new iOS devices received by students this Christmas: iStudiez Pro.
iStudiez Pro is a simple tool for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that offers students (or anyone who has a recurring schedule) to import their timetable for easy browsing but also add assignments and schedule exams. The idea is simple: making life a little bit more organised for students.
Functionality
The whole app centers around classes and your timetable. One of the core functions is the schedule feature that allows one to import their recurring timetable for faster viewing later. Classes can hold data like timings, location, notes and tutor, all of which are collected into courses. Courses can build up with classes, practical, lectures and more. You can also schedule in holidays and the app brings in all your events from the built-in calendar app too.
The schedule view is a very nice and efficient way of browsing through your timetable and manages your day well. Not only will it show you what classes you have, but mark out which ones are next and hide the ones you’ve already been to.
Classes aren’t just textual listings like in your standard calendar application, instead they are represented with graphics such as beakers or lecterns that look pretty cool.
Assignments
The schedule view is a very nice and efficient way of browsing through your timetable and manages your day well. Not only will it show you what classes you have, but mark out which ones are next and hide the ones you’ve already been to.
In the book-based design, the opposite page is a list of assignments. You can set assignments to the courses you have already created and offer due dates, priority and reminders. Plus, you can factor in partners from your contacts if this is a group activity. Overall I prefer the idea of using the assignments feature for tasks as apposed to iOS’s calendar. Assignments also work with push notifications: a major advantage.
Design
The design of the app is spectacular. It strays away from the default UI to offer a clean and fresh approach. The design is setup like a book in the iPad version and their are enhancements even on the smaller screen in the iPhone counterpart.
iStudiez offers a really nice spin on the iPad's default UI
iStudiez takes a different spin on app design by re-engineering with a custom UI, which works unsurprisingly well. The combination of a blackboard background and book container makes the school-orientated app look like a school-oriented app.
Additional Features
The app does pay for itself by offering a number of additional features hidden away in the settings. You can set custom messages that display when there are no classes or events (ie, when all the events have passed, or it’s vacation).
You can also turn on the optional grades feature. This allows you to set a grade for each assignment you turn in based on a scale you choose (percent, letters or points). If you’ve got a course where your final grade is defined by several factors such as exam, homework and quiz, you can generate this from the grades you input. So if your exam is worth 60% and homework the remaining 40%, it will calculate a probable end grade based on an algorithm with this ratio taken into account. This is a really helpful way of making sure you’re on target.
Grades is a nice, but hidden, feature
There’s also a data managing feature that allows you to send a data backup via email to restore or move your data around.
Conclusion
Overall iStudiez is a very polished and functional app with a great UI to back it up. On the iPad, the app is as functional as it’s smaller counterpart although the real life use seems to be better on the iPhone. There’s a bigger chance of you having your iPhone or iPod on you than your hefty iPad.
No-one can put a price on your academic success so you could expect this to be a $30 to $50 app, but no, iStudiez Pro is available at $2.99 as a universal app for iPhone and iPad. There’s also a lite version available which limits you to one semester with a handful of courses.
One disappointment is that the app is clearly designed with the American schooling system in mind, but I was able to adapt it to a British system easy enough. Attempting to run a two week cycle on the schedule features works fine, but can be messed up if you have a week holiday.
If you got a new iOS device over the holidays or have had one for ages, when you head back to school, you must be accompanied with this app.