In the growing world of technology, it seems as if every teenager is glued to his or her Android, iPhone, or some other distracting device. Students are becoming less and less connected to books and real life communication.

With all the time students spend on their phones, it’s reasonable to assume that they could be doing something productive with the devices. Luckily, there are many proactive app creators that have taken the idea of education into consideration when creating smartphone applications.

An app is an application software designed to function on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Users can book flights, reserve a table at a restaurant as well as talk to or text friends and family. Students can use apps to do anything from prepping for the SAT to scoping out potential colleges.

Some applications that are useful when preparing for the SAT are SAT QOTD (Question of the Day), and SAT Vocab. The SAT Question of the Day app presents a question on your smartphone everyday that pertains to the real test, be it math, vocabulary, or writing. The SAT Vocab app contains 987 words that frequently appear on the SAT and their definitions on virtual flashcards.

Apps that help with choosing which college to attend are Edupath and Scholly: Scholarship Search. Both of these apps present colleges and their different programs.

Edupath allows you to research different colleges and their cost, student population, graduation rate, and even has commentary from current students. For example, if you were to look up the University of Texas at Austin on the Edupath, you would see comments such as “The UT campus is huge, but luckily the transportation system is pretty good. The campus buses run frequently which makes getting to class less of a hassle” (Edupath 2013).

Scholly: Scholarship Search, in addition to matching students up with scholarships that apply to their particular situation, also gives examples of different essays that scholarship programs may ask for.

All of these apps can be explored during idle waiting time or even while just sitting around at home. The world of compact technology has revolutionized the world of test prep and college search. Apps are quickly becoming a progressive part of college searches and college test prep.

apps, Edupath, SAT QOTD, SAT Vocab, Scholly: Scholarship Search