From understanding a complex physics topic to writing an essay on Google Docs, you probably spend hours each day as a student browsing the web. Fortunately, there are a ton of Chrome extensions available to enhance your workflow. Here are five extensions I use daily as a student.
1Grammarly to Fix Writing Mistakes
There’s nothing more embarrassing than sending your professor an email, and realizing you misspelled a word minutes after hitting send. Whileyou can unsend an emailwithin a specified time limit, it’s pointless if the damage has already been done. Grammarly is an extension I can’t imagine living without.
You can use Grammarly’s online editor, but its browser extension lets you proofread your content in real time. The extension works with over 500,000 applications. So, you can use it on most apps you use for school, including Gmail, Outlook, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word.
With a few clicks, Grammarly can fix all your spelling mistakes, suggest synonyms, and ensure your text isn’t all over the place by removing unnecessary words. As students, we communicate with many people: professors, TAs, students, and more. Often, we need to adjust our tone accordingly and Grammarly’s tone detector can help ensure your writing leaves the right impression.
While AI tools are often looked down upon in the academic world, there’s no harm in using them to generate a few ideas to get you started. Grammarly’s AI writing assistant can generate text based on prompts you provide or help you create outlines for assignments you’re working on.
You can opt for Grammarly Premium, but I think the free version is fine if you’re just looking to take advantage of the extension’s proofreading features. I used Grammarly’s free version throughout high school and never felt like I needed to upgrade.
Download:Grammarlyfor Google Chrome (Free)
2Forest to Set Focus Timers
Ever felt like you need more than 24 hours in a day to finish your overflowing to-do list? While it’s completely normal to feel like this, if you’re a student juggling multiple courses, the issue might be how you manage your time.
I used to struggle with this too, then I came across the Pomodoro Technique when looking for productivity techniques. If you’ve already been using theForest app to control your phone addictionor to stop you from picking it up when you’re studying, you’ll definitely enjoy using the Forest extension.
Similar to the iOS or Android app, Forest lets you plant a virtual tree by setting a timer for the amount of time you’d like to spend focusing. The extension allows you to switch between two different modes before you begin planting a tree:BlocklistandAllowlistmode.
The latter lets you visit all websites except the ones you specify, while the former lets you visit only the websites you specify. you’re able to edit the list of websites you’d like to block or allow by heading to the extension’s settings. If you’ve already been using Forest’s mobile app, you can also sync your progress.
Download:Forestfor Google Chrome (Free)
3Zorbi to Make Flashcards
I’ve experimented with many different study techniques before. While the only way to ace most of my courses is through tons and tons of practice problems, I also take a few courses that test how well I can memorize information. For such courses, I rely on flashcards.
Although there are manysites for making flashcards online, the Zorbi extension has become my go-to studying tool. Whether my notes are in PDF form or are on a website, Zorbi makes creating flashcards effortless.
All you need to do is select text, and right-click or control-click it to create a flashcard. You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts to create flashcards, which only makes it quicker:
Once you create a card, you may format the text, add images, equations, and much more. Zorbi also integrates with Notion, and can automatically create flashcards using your notes.
Creating flashcards is pointless if you forget the information a few days later. Zorbi addresses this by offering pre-made spaced repetition profiles such as General, Casual, Screwed, and Med School, each requiring you to study flashcards at different frequencies. If none of these profiles suit your needs, you’re able to create your own. The best part about Zorbi? It’s completely free to use!
Download:Zorbifor Google Chrome (Free)
4MyBib for Easy Citations
At times, it feels like writing a research paper isn’t the tough part—citing all my sources is. Fortunately, if you’re using websites for reference, you can use an extension like MyBib to generate your citations for you.
MyBib features over 9,000 citation styles, including APA (American Psychological Association), AMA (American Medical Association), MLA (Modern Language Association), and Harvard.
To use it, just open a web page and click the extension icon. Once you choose your citation style, MyBib will format a citation for you within seconds. Simply click it to save it to your clipboard, or click theEditbutton to modify it. MyBib is also completely free to use!
Download:MyBibfor Google Chrome (Free)
5Dark Reader for Comfortable Browsing
Regardless of which career you’re pursuing, one thing that binds students together worldwide is cramming an assignment or studying past midnight. This habit can cause a lot of strain on your eyes. While Google Chrome has a built-in dark theme, it doesn’t work on every website. One such example is Google Docs.
Although there’s a workaround toapply dark mode to any website in Google Chromeby enabling a flag setting, a simpler way is to use the Dark Reader extension. Once you download it, click the extension button on the toolbar and selectDarkunder theFiltertab. The dark theme will now apply to all the websites you visit. You can also configure the extension to switch only certain websites to dark mode.
Download:Dark Readerfor Google Chrome (Free)
One way or another, each of these extensions has significantly transformed my workflow. Fortunately, they are all free to use, even if in a limited capacity. You have nothing to lose by downloading them!
