Free Student Resources: 27 Free Websites & Programs

I had a bit of downtime in my internal medicine rotation so I started to put together some free student resources that I think will benefit you whether you are in high school or university. While there will be many things you might have already heard of, I hope you will find one or two new websites!

Programs EVERY student should have or at least know about:

• VLC: media player that can play almost any type of video file; easy to add subtitles
  • great for watching (and speeding up) lectures or videos your professors send you
• Anki flashcards: desktop version is the most powerful, very customizable 
  • read my blog post about what makes Anki worth your while here
• Simple Scanner (Android): great for quickly scanning and storing important documents; you never know when it’ll come in handy, so I just keep the app on my phone for ’emergencies’  
  • *some phones have this built into their camera app, but in case yours doesn’t, there are great free iOS and Android apps 
• Pocket: an app that allows you to save articles, blog posts, etc for later reading; it’s great for perusing content on your phone during your commute, especially if you’re like me and you often come across content that you can’t read at a given moment but then forget to go back to (click here for a longer description of Pocket)
• Prezi: fun way to make presentations that are dynamic and engaging (might be considered unprofessional by some) 
• Canva: easy-to-use graphic design website; great for clubs, projects or content creation
  • read here for my list of free apps and programs for content creators 

Studies & Schoolwork:

• Notetaking:
  • LibreOffice: free word processing software, very similar to Microsoft Word – very very powerful, looks a bit outdated though; it works great if your school doesn’t sponsor Microsoft suite for its students
  • OneNote: great for note-taking, very fast sync across devices and integrates handwriting tools too 
• Citation software for research articles: read some compare&contrast articles to see which one suits YOUR needs the best, but all three are excellent:
  • Mendeley: my preferred one, with my limited experience
  • Zotero: came highly recommended 
  • EasyBib: helps you build a bibliography for your essays/papers in high school and college 
• Storage: these are all different websites where you can get x amount of storage space for FREE! I generally create another/new account if I need more space.
  • Google Drive
  • Dropbox
  • OneDrive 

• Calendar and Organization:
  • Google Calendar: excellent cross-platform calendar that integrates well with emails
  • Google Keep (Android and iOS): my go-to app for storing notes on my phone
  • TickTick: to do app that has started taking the place of my Google Keep

• Productivity and Teamwork: 
  • Notion: organization and productivity website and app that is very versatile and completely customizable – might be a bit overwhelming at first, but check YouTube tutorials and videos for inspiration
  • Miro: online collaborative whiteboard platform 
  • Microsoft Teams: integrated teamwork platform for large projects
  • Trello and Asana: both project management platforms, very well known, quite similar (read here for a comparison – https://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/trello-vs-asana-battle-of-the-freemium-project-management-tools/)
• Focus:
  • Noisli: website that lets you compose your own background sounds (such as rainforest + bird chirping, or thunderstorm + lightning – only works on desktop for free (app is paid)
  • Forest app: pomodoro timer app that keeps you engaged (premium version is not free – you need premium to add friends) 
    • there is a free Chrome extension that you can use on your laptop, which allows you to white or blacklist certain websites

“Educational” Entertainment:

• Spotify (free with ads, but student discount available): music player that lets you create your own playlists or listen to others’; I use it both for study music and for relaxation
• Podcast Republic (Android) or Overcast (iOS): my favorite podcast apps for each platform, but there are many others; I listen to podcasts on my way to/from classes and while doing banal chores
• Pinterest: collect ideas and inspiration for everything from notetaking tips, medical mnemonics, study hacks, easy recipes, etc.
  • most people don’t traditionally think of this as a ‘student’ resource, but it has so much valuable content, if you know what to look for!

Language learning:

For my blog post dedicated to language learning (some tips and tricks), check out this link. Here I’ll just note my two favorite websites.

• Linguee: a really powerful dictionary that gives examples, pronunciation and works offline
• ReadLang: allows you to read PDFs in your target language by instantly translating words/phrases that you don’t understand (click here for my detailed explanation)

Do you have any favorite programs that I can add to this list? I’ll update this regularly so be sure to check back!