iStudies Pro review: The perfect organizational app for college

iStudiez Pro is a college student's best friend, with great ways to manage classes, assignments, deadlines, and more, all with a well-designed interface that makes it easy to use. It's important to note the iPhone interface is quite a bit different than the iPad version, so most of this review is for the iPad, with differences on the iPhone at the bottom.

8.2

iStudies Pro

The Good

<b>iStudiez Pro</b> gives you a great layout to track your college courses, professors, assignments, and grades.

The Bad

The iPhone experience is not as good as it is on the iPad. Zooming into your calendar on the iPhone is helpful, but limited.

The Bottom Line

College students who want to get a handle on their busy schedules should download this app to make sure they're always on time and know what's coming up.

iStudiez Pro on the iPad
The app controls on the iPad are across the top of the screen. You can hit a Today button to see what you need to do for the day. There are buttons for Day and Week views in the top center so you can plan out your schedule. In the top right of the screen, you have a Planner button to see all your classes for the current semester. To the right of that is the Assignments button, where you can sort by due date, course, or priority. Finally, in the far right, you can view and edit your current instructors.

A great layout for tracking your college schedule (pictures)

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More than just a to-do list app, iStudiez Pro lays out your schedule and makes it easy to see what's coming up at a glance. You start by entering your class schedule with days and times and then the professor for each class along with her e-mail address and phone number. You can also enter your professors' office hours if applicable. You can assign colors and icons to each individual class to make your calendar easy to read quickly.

With your schedule entered and out of the way, you can use the calendar view to see what your weeks will look like. At the top of the screen you can touch buttons for either the day or week view. In week view, you can see all your classes laid out for the week. Touch the plus sign in the lower right to enter a new class or exam, enter a holiday, or any other new calendar event. Touching a class in the week view brings up a window that shows you the day and time of the class, the instructor, and any notes you have about the class.

Day view is where you can see everything you need to do that day. A plus sign in the lower left lets you add classes, holidays, and exams just like in week view. The plus sign in the lower right lets you add specific assignments, when they are due, and you can set the priority. You also can set alarms to remind you when a class is coming or an assignment is due.

On the right side of both the week and day views you have a full month calendar, with dots below each day that symbolize the number of classes and assignments for that day. This makes it easy to see just how busy a day is at a glance.

Finally, iStudiez Pro also features grade-point-average tracking, letting you assign weights to each type of assignment. As you receive your graded homework, quizzes, and exams, you can enter in your grades and the app will track your GPA -- even over the course multiple quarters or semesters.

Differences on the iPhone
On the iPhone, the layout isn't quite as fancy and the buttons are in different locations, but the functionality is all still there.

Buttons at the bottom of the screen get you to the day and monthly calendars, and there are also buttons to track your assignments. The Planner button in the lower right lets you view classes and schedules for each semester, and you can view holidays and your instructor list.

Where you had a button for the week view on the iPad, on the iPhone, it's a little bit different. When viewing the calendar, simply turn your phone sideways to switch to the week view. Here you'll see all your classes laid out, with the color-coding I talked about above, and days of the week. You also can reverse-pinch to zoom when it's difficult to see. Unfortunately the zoom only works on one (vertical) axis, so you can zoom things to be taller, but not wider. Hopefully this is something the developers will fix in future updates.

Conclusions
iStudiez Pro is one of the best college scheduling apps I've seen, going the extra mile to be flexible while keeping the interface readable at a glance and easy to use. This is the type of app I wish I had in college because once you go through the initial setup, everything is laid out for the whole semester. Any changes you make only take a couple of taps, so the app stays out of your way, but keeps you on point to complete assignments and get to classes on time.

Any student who wants complete control over his schedule, assignments, classes, and even grade-point averages, should download this app. Just remember that while it's functional on the iPhone, the best experience is on your iPad.