Study-buddy: Introducing five startups to help you go back to school

Summer is coming to an end. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you didn’t waste it playing computer games, nursing hangovers and not doing stuff, because now it’s school time.

Yes, it is once again time for early mornings, late night reading, and financial worry. But hey, what’s university without discomfort? (Great, obviously. University without discomfort is great).

Anyway, here are five startups that might make it less painful, or at least help you survive until Christmas.

LiquidText 

Hailed as Apple’s Most Innovative iPad App of 2015, LiquidText helps professionals and students consume, understand, and discover insights in the things they read. The latest version extends this to working across multiple documents at once. So users will now be able to connect excerpts and ideas from any number of documents and webpages, view documents side by side, make comments that refer to multiple documents at the same time, link documents together, and so on. Basically, it will help you read faster – something I’m sure we can all agree is a good thing.

Swot up here: LiquidText

Goodwall

Probably one for those not yet in college, Goodwall is a global social network for school pupils which allows them to get recognised by universities and win scholarships and/or bursaries. The platform allows students to list their accomplishments and extracurricular achievements, and helps them connect with recruiters from top universities. Essentially a LinkedIn for high school students, Goodwall helps students show off all of their many talents. Great if you’ve got some, less fantastic for the rest of us underachievers.

Swot up here: Goodwall

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LemonAid

One for the sporty people, LemonAid streamlines the recruitment process for colleges and athletes in equal measure. The app allows for direct messages between coaches and athletes, speeding up a process that is normally bogged down by countless emails. Working like a combination between professional network LinkedIn, and dating-app Tinder, LemonAid allows coaches and athletes to swipe through the app before finding a mutually beneficial match. Athletes can upload videos to show off their prowess. Performing like a sort of ‘digital baseball card’ video in the deck negates the need to travel and highlights overlooked talent.

Swot up here: LemonAid

Lectus

Lectus is a UK startup and app that provides an instant direct connection between school pupils and top university student tutors. All tutorage is conducted through online video calls and students can connect to brainiac professors easily, who can help with everything from problems with homework to navigating those horrendously competitive university application process. Students are never more than two taps away from an expert tutor, and sessions start at 40p (53c) per minute, with the first minute free to discuss the problem. Students can stay for as long as they want and are only charged for the time they need.

Swot up here: Lectus

Lenny

Ok, so, only available in the US for now BUT Lenny is great. Essentially easy and non-punishing credit for students/millennials, Lenny users simply set up an account by downloading the app and applying for an initial credit line from as little as $100 up to $10,000 dollars with 0% interest when balances are repaid in full and on time (up to 9.8% if you’re late, so don’t be). An exclusively mobile-first lender, Lenny uses a credit decisioning algorithm to determine an individual’s credit score. Once a credit line has been approved, users can cash out to their bank account or instantly pay their friends using the peer-to-peer payment function. Handy.

Swot up here: Lenny