What is the worst nightmare of every student? Eccentric professors? Boring lectures? Tons of books to read? Think again. There’s nothing that takes the wind out of a college student’s sails like assignments. Admit it: you’re probably part of the majority of students who hate writing essays. And we are right there with you. It’s hard to love writing when you’re told exactly what topic to choose, how many words to write, and what structure and references to apply. And don’t even get us started on that fate worse than death, aka deadlines? They are nothing but evil monsters that kill your motivation, and bring nothing but anxiety and procrastination. Still, you need to get a grade. No wait! You need to get a good grade! Luckily, we’ve got some simple yet effective internet hacks for you to turn your college assignments from drab to fab.

Select Smart Sources

For budding young academics, finding reputed sources can be one of the most grueling tasks of writing a research paper or assignment. Gone are the days when you could turn to Wikipedia for all the answers. Luckily, we have a simple solution for you to use instead. Google Scholar is an excellent search engine that connects you to peer-reviewed journals. You can save yourself an ample amount of time by filtering out all non-academic content through Google Scholar. It’s the best source to access authentic and academically recognized work. It’s also a good idea to bookmark some online academic journals like “Academia” or “JSTOR” if you’re studying a subject that requires you to have strong references.

Let Google Docs be your research guide

Sometimes you have an idea for an assignment but you don’t know where to look for evidence to back it up. Well, the internet always has the answers. And now you don’t even need to go elsewhere to look for it. When you’re working in Google Docs, go to Tools > Explore to search the internet for similar content. Google Docs will even provide you a list of search topics and images based on the content you’re writing about. Want to go one step further? Simply click on the “cite” button beside the link, and you’ll receive a ready-made citation to add as a footnote to your paper, courtesy of Google. Talk about making things easy!

Write the bibliography using EasyBib

Done with the writing process? Well you need to write a proper bibliography too. It can be a very daunting task to first put down all your sources and then check and recheck that they match your format. Thank god for apps. You can easily skip the hassle and use an app like EasyBib to write your Bibliography properly. Use their search solution to find the document or website you intend to cite, and EasyBib will do the rest for you. The free version helps you cite in MLA format, but investing in EasyBib Pro allows you to cite in Chicago, APA, Harvard, and 7,000 other formats – a decent investment in case this is going to be a regular exercise for you.

Use Google Books as your personal library

When’s the last time you set foot in your college library? No, we’re not trying to guilt you into going there just yet. Not when a quick search in Google Books can save you the trip, offering instantaneous access to a multitude of books and magazines. Through Google Books, you can download any books in the public domain into a PDF. Not just that, you can also access countless books that are either out of print. Looking for a particular paragraph to quote without reading the entire tome? You can also use Google Books to search within books for those specific phrases or keywords you need to improve your assignment.

Save money by buying your textbooks online

This is a hack that’s not just for assignments, but for college survival. We all know that buying all your textbooks every semester can cause a huge dent to your wallet. And you’ve already had to shell out on your Bangalore PG rent, food, travel and other expenses. So skip the premium rates that your college bookstore is charging and go online for the best deals. You can end up saving a huge amount by opting to buy second hand, or even e-copies of your textbooks. And if you’d rather not spend at all, you can try your luck and search the title of your textbook in Google, followed by “filetype:pdf.” There’s a chance you might be able to find your textbook, or at least the most important sections from it, as a PDF online. If that doesn’t work, you can also try searching for similar textbooks by other authors or publishers. This way you won’t be restricted to just the titles that your college prescribes. And you know all that extra information is bound to pay off during assignment season!

Edit, edit, edit

We are talking about technology, if you are not using it to make your content better then what’s the point? Most of us tend to make some basic grammar mistakes in our writing, especially during all nighters right before a deadline. But the last thing you want is for those careless errors to get you marked down. Well, we’ve got a quick hack for you. You can simply download a free app like Grammarly and add it to your MS Word to check your spelling and grammar as you write. It even uses a built-in thesaurus to offer suggestions that attempt to make your writing stronger. You can also use it to check the internet for content similar to your writing and help you avoid accidental plagiarism. Now that’s taking your college assignment to the next level.

Making use of these hacks can be a major help in saving both time and money — two things that are hard to come by on a college campus. But to make the most of these hacks, you have to have access to a good internet connection. And that’s where so many campus hostels or PGs fall short. The last thing you want is to be arguing with your landlord about the WiFi being slow when you’ve got a deadline to meet. That’s why we recommend skipping these old fashioned options and opting for a professionally managed accommodation provider like Stanza Living instead. Their fully furnished rooms come with several amenities like meals, housekeeping, community events etc., among which you will definitely find 24×7 high speed Wi-F for all your research needs. So whether it comes to writing assignments or making housing decisions, trust us and make smart choices. They’ll make your life so much easier.