3 Ways to use Google Drive to do Better in school

In 2020 and beyond, students should be using all the tools available to them to help them succeed in all educational endeavors. Whether it be self-education, undergraduate, or graduate level university studies, incorporating technology is essential to continued educational success. Today, we are going to examine 3 ways that students can better utilize Google drive in a classroom setting to better succeed.

Taking Notes Simultaneously in the Same Google Document

If you and a group of friends (any amount up to 5 people) coordinate effectively, using a shared Google Doc to take notes can lead to some of the most comprehensive and accessible notes that any of you have ever had. By having multiple people in the same document, the pressures of keeping up with the fast-talking professor are mostly alleviated because your colleagues can be waiting to pick up on the next point while you finish documenting the last one. Not only will you have better notes, but you will also build relationships with your classmates and create valuable connections that can be leveraged later for study groups or career opportunities.  

Creating Practice Problems in Google Sheets

Many courses, including accounting courses, involve homework assignments where students need to solve problems that would best be assessed using Microsoft Excel. Excel is a powerful tool for all accounting and finance related courses and serves as the backbone of the financial services industry. The great thing about Google sheets is that it combines the essential functions of Excel with the collaboration tools of Google in a very accessible package. When I was in school, a group of friends and I knew that one of our accounting professors took the practice problems and put them on the final exam with different numbers. In response, we took the time to put those problems into a Google sheet and changed the numbers to practice for the final.

Maintaining Databases of Course Documents in Google Drive

When I was in school, I had several documents (such as course syllabi and project instructions) that I had downloaded to my laptop multiple times because I needed a quick look at them every so often, but never thought to save them anywhere permanently. Having those documents stored in a Google Drive folder would have made my life so much easier as I could pull up previews anywhere at any time on my phone. Had I used this tool at the time, I’m sure I would’ve been more aware of my course schedules and exam dates.