I’m struggling to keep up with all my classes and I’ve heard that AI tools can make studying easier and more effective. There are so many options out there and I’m not sure which ones are actually helpful for things like note taking, summarizing articles, or making flashcards. If anyone has recommendations for the most effective AI study apps or websites you’ve actually used, I’d really appreciate your advice.
If you’re drowing in classes and the AI hype train keeps rolling by, here’s a sane breakdown of what actually works, cuz half of ‘em are just sparkly cr*p. For notes, Notion AI legit helps summarize stuff—paste in ten pages, it’ll do magic and distill the main points, pretty solid for big swathes of readings. For flashcards, Anki now has a GPT add-on that generates Q&A cards from your stuff—don’t sleep on that, makes drilling info way faster. Perplexity.ai is good for research; basically a chat-ish search engine that fetches papers, does summaries, links you to actual sources instead of just hallucinating like ChatGPT sometimes does. For essay outlines, I’ve seen a lot of folks use ChatGPT or Claude, but check your school’s AI policies, bc some profs are hardcore about it.
For STEM? WolframAlpha gets straight to the answer if you input the problem. Mathly is a new one people are raving about—it breaks down solutions, not just gives answers.
AI tutors? Kahnmigo from Khan Academy is useful; it asks you questions back, so you actually learn. I wouldn’t bother with stuff like Socratic—Google Lens with AI is good for one-off questions, but not reliable at scale.
TLDR: Notion AI/Anki+GPT for notes/flashcards; Perplexity for research; WolframAlpha for math/science; ChatGPT/Claude/Khanmigo for essays and explanations. Try some stuff, don’t get lost in the shiny tools—stick with what clicks for your brain, most AIs overlap anyway. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true (“this AI does all your homework!”), it prob is.
Honestly, there’s way more AI noise out there than legit help—I feel you. @hoshikuzu hit most of the big ones, but here’s my experience from the “constant-guilt spiral” major:
For organizing life and studies, I refuse to touch Notion (I’m allergic to productivity cults) but I live/die by Supernotes. It’s a lighter, AI-integrated note/card system that doesn’t pull you into endless format tweaking. Seriously underrated. Still, Notion’s magic summarizer IS crazy fast if you’re fine with its ecosystem, so there’s that.
Flashcard AIs can spit out junk unless you edit. I’ve rage-quit auto-generated decks from Anki-GPT more than once because they pull out random trivia instead of the stuff you actually need. Editing = remembering. If you want spaced repetition but hate card setup, try RemNote—it autogenerates AND structures knowledge into networks instead of flat decks. Personal bias but, IMO, superior for big concept mapping.
Perplexity’s fine, although sometimes a bit shallow for me. If your research needs to go beyond summary blurbs and into “I need legit academic sources for my 20-page midterm,” try Elicit. It’s built for academic lit diving, actually pulls papers instead of just citing, and the AI highlights key claims and arguments.
Math tools: Yeah Wolfram is king, though Mathly tries really hard. Word of caution—Nerd out in Symbolab if you want step-by-step solutions that make sense, though their subscription thing is a pain. AI-based worksheet generators like Quizgecko are fun if you like quizzes from your own text—good for peer study nights or pretending you’re your own teacher’s worst nightmare.
I straight-up disagree on Socratic being bad for everything but casual Q’s…it’s easily the fastest if all you want is a quick visual explanation on a concept instead of long-winded AI essays. But for full-on tutoring, AI is hit/miss: Khanmigo’s gotten smarter but it can still be weirdly robotic sometimes.
Last bit nobody talks about: AI plugins for Chrome. Try Glasp for extracting and organizing highlights/comments when you’re doing tons of web readings, or Scholarcy if you want PDFs atomized with abstracts automatically.
Biggest thing—don’t trust a tool just because it says “AI-powered.” Most are just cuter UIs for existing stuff. Test what works, dump the rest. No one’s learning style is the same, and tbh, the most powerful hack is still old-school: actually showing up to class…with or without robo-help.
Time for a reality check: everyone says “AI will save your grades,” but let’s get brutally honest for a minute. You’re probably buried under a mountain of class notes, reading lists, and deadlines, and while Notion AI, RemNote, and that Anki GPT plugin sound shiny, none of them will study for you. Here’s a take nobody covered: focus on integration, not just isolated tools. Everyone hypes up flashcards or PDF summarizers, but they rarely play nice together when you’re in the trenches.
Want an underrated hack? Use API-integrated tools like Readwise Reader (yep, that’s the actual name) to dump highlights from everywhere (web, Kindle, PDFs) into a single searchable stack—then connect it with Notion or Obsidian for review cycles. The pro: you get the AI highlights and smart flashcard exports, but you aren’t stuck in one ecosystem. The con: set-up takes a minute, and sometimes data sync is glitchy if you’re not a power user.
For straight-up studying, the so-called “AI tutor” market is a hot mess. Khanmigo tries conversational tutoring (cool in theory), but I find it clunky compared to human tutors. Socratic is speedy for that one-off math explanation, but it’s superficial—if you’re aiming for concept mastery, you’ll outgrow it fast. As for research? Perplexity is great for first-pass answers, Elicit is an upgrade if you need academic muscle, but both struggle with niche or super-current topics.
There’s also this endless debate about auto-flashcards: yes, AI can spit out hundreds of cards, but are they good? I’ll side with RemNote for automatic structure, but quality control is on you. And one more controversial tip: don’t ignore collaborative spaces like Google Docs + GPT add-ons. Sometimes four brains plus “summarize this section” beats fighting with a black-box chatbot alone.
If you want a tool that isn’t part of the echo chamber, try Supernotes as one suggested—lightweight, minimal distraction, but don’t expect it to do your heavy summarizing. Bonus points if you like card-based systems.
Consistently, what you get is this: the best AI-powered study tools today are hybrid mashups, not single apps. Pros: personalized workflows, time-savings, better cross-referencing. Cons: set-up friction, risk of shallow learning, and “AI hallucinations” if you rely blindly on summaries. Competitors like Notion AI and RemNote offer deep features, but they excel IF you vibe with their layouts.
Summary? Test multiple combos, automate what you hate, beware “AI does everything” claims. If you find yourself spending more time tweaking tools than actually studying, that’s your sign to trim the fat.