It’s that time of year again—back to uni szn. The thought of endless lectures, assignments piling up, and the eternal struggle with procrastination is enough to make anyone want to hide under their duvet.

But before you sink into the depths of despair, listen up. This year, you can make your life easier with a few study apps that turn stress into success and make your study sessions way more fun. 

Yes, we are also talking about the *very*popular note taking apps that help you create the Pinterest-worthy notes.

We’re here to make your life just a tad bit easier, so here are our fave study apps to give you a head start this academic year.

Good Notes

This app is the best of the best for digital note-taking. It’s got everything from sleek digital notebooks to folders that keep your life organized. Plus, you can import stickers and images—super handy if you’re a med student and need to drop in diagrams. Customize your paper templates to match your style, and record audio notes when you’re too lazy to type. With a bunch of pen brushes and highlighters at your fingertips, it’s easy to be creative.

Notability

While the coolest features do come with a price tag, they’re worth every penny. You get tons of paper templates, and it’s super easy to use. You can customize subjects and dividers to keep your notes organized. Plus, there’s a presentation mode. Our fave feature? The audio playback feature syncs perfectly with your notes. Yup, it records your lectures while you take notes, so you can revisit all those crucial deets you missed later.

Collanote

This free app is a *need* for study sessions. You get 25 pens and brushes (because variety, right?), over 150 paper design templates to match your style, and smart dark mode. Oh, and it’s got shape detection and lets you import PDFs for annotating like a pro. Super user-friendly, so it’s perfect for beginners. Plus, it has those satisfying ASMR writing sounds. Honestly, isn’t that the real reason we all take notes on iPads anyway? 😌📓

Noteful

Enjoy natural, fluid handwriting with Apple Pencil, featuring ballpoint, fountain pen, and highlighter options.You can also annotate PDFs or import documents with ease. Sync across iPhone and iPad, and access all your notes, textbooks, and slides anytime. Plus, capture audio notes with synced playback for a complete study experience.

Craft

It has an AI assistant that helps you brainstorm ideas. Whether you’re online or offline, this app always works. You can customize templates, journal your thoughts, and create rich-text notes that go way beyond boring bullet points. Want to embed multimedia content or collab with your study buddies in real-time? Done. Plus, it syncs across all your devices, so your notes are always just a tap away.

Take yourself on a solo date to these cute reading spots in Dubai.