Studeersnel
How frustrating is it, when you have to do an assignment and no answers are provided? With Studeersnel, those days are gone! Studeersnel is a website for students, by students. This website is full of summaries, old exams, solutions to self-study assignments and more, all uploaded by other students. Furthermore, you can also ask AI questions. Unfortunately, the website is in Dutch, but you can find documents in English too.
All the material is organised by university, study and subject, ensuring you will find exactly the documents you need! You can access most of the material with a free account, but some documents require a Premium account. No worries though: instead of paying for this, you can also upload your own study material, giving you 14 days of Premium access per document!
Writing assistance
With writing assistance tools such as Grammarly or Academic Writing Assistant, you can easily write a flawless essay. Grammarly is an AI-driven tool that checks your grammar, spelling and style, and offers suggestions for improvement as you type. You can upload documents, but also download Grammarly for your desktop or a Chrome extension. This way, Grammarly improves all your texts, wherever you write.
However, some features in Grammarly require a Premium account. Fortunately, the University of Twente also offers a free account for a writing assistant, Academic Writing Assistant, which gives you access to many useful features. For instance, you can see how many vague or informal words you use, and which words recur frequently.
Scribbr
When writing a thesis or essay, Scribbr is your best friend! On Scribbr, you will find hundreds of articles that provide help with all thesis-related topics. Want to know how to write a proper introduction or which statistical test to choose? Scribbr explains it for you! Additionally, you can check your thesis for plagiarism, or have it reviewed by experts (although the latter is paid). Also convenient: with the source generator, you can complete your bibliography in no time!
Mendeley
Speaking of sources: keeping track of your sources and referencing them correctly can be quite challenging. Mendeley makes your study life much easier by helping you organise and refer to your sources. In the Mendeley Reference Manager app, you can store all your sources and create shared lists with project teammates. Most databases allow you to download citations, but you can also enter them manually in the app.
Even more convenient is to download the Mendeley Web Importer extension. With just one click, your reference appears in your Mendeley list. If you also download the Mendeley Cite tool, you can place your references directly in the correct spot in the text in Word. Mendeley then ensures that your references and reference list are kept in the correct style.
Quizlet
Cramming terms and definitions is not that simple. Fortunately, there's Quizlet, to make this easier and more fun! You can create your own flashcards, but you can also practice with one of the many sets created by other users. Whether you need to learn anatomy, memorise terms, or remember formulas, Quizlet has got you covered.
Trello
As a student, you always have plenty to do, so sometimes it can be quite difficult to keep an overview of what you need to do and when. Sounds familiar? Then Trello is what you need! In Trello, you can create different boards with to-do lists and organise tasks by labelling them, adding dates or assigning tasks to other members. Are you working on a task or is it already completed? Then you can easily move it to the corresponding list. Nothing’s more satisfying than seeing the tasks you have already finished, right?
Canva
Most students will already know this website, but it is still indispensable on this list: Canva. Here you can design all your presentations, posters, videos and other documents, to give them that extra touch. Canva is easy to use, so even if you're not a star at designing, your presentation will look like it was made by a pro.
Websites for maths
Sooner or later, almost every student at the University of Twente will have to deal with it: maths. Whether it’s calculus or statistics, you will have to get through it. Fortunately, there are all kinds of useful websites to help you solve a difficult problem. The websites Math Insight, Pauls Online Math Notes and Mathematics LibreTexts offer clear explanations and practice assignments (with answers!), which make even the most complicated concepts understandable. At WolframAlpha, you can enter your exercises and receive answers and plotted functions.
BioDigital
Although this website is particularly useful for the medical students among us, I still would like to mention it since it has helped me a lot in learning anatomy: BioDigital. Here, you can learn the entire anatomy of the human body with the help of 3D models. You can click on all the structures in the models and read information about them. Super convenient if you need to memorise all the muscles, for example!
AI tools
Last but not least, AI-related websites cannot be left out, of course. ChatGPT is always convenient for asking all your questions and brainstorming. Copilot serves the same purpose, with the added advantage that you can also generate images with a free account, unlike ChatGPT. Small disclaimer: these websites are of course perfect to help you, but don't let them generate an entire text. This is because the university checks for plagiarism, so make sure your work is really yours and not written by AI (you'll learn more from that too 😉). Finally, for conducting research, there is Research Rabbit, a tool that helps you find related scientific articles and resources.
With these tools, studying becomes a lot more fun and efficient. Remember: work smarter, not harder!
