Windows apps for students · no accounts · plain files
Flashcards that schedule themselves, citations from a pasted DOI, a timer that blocks the sites you tell it to, a PDF reader made for a hundred pages a day, a planner that knows what a 78 on the midterm means, and a lecture recorder that links your notes to the audio. Six apps, one studio, student pricing.
Which app?
Pick what you are trying to do this week. Each tab names the app that fits and the habit that makes it work.
For this task
Spaced-repetition flashcards · Free up to 200 cards · $19
Make cards while you read, not the night before. Ten new cards a day plus reviews takes 15 minutes; 300 cards a semester is a full course. Margin can turn highlights into cards automatically.
See CardstackFor this task
PDF reader for reading, not printing · $29
Read once with the highlighter, then export highlights to Markdown as your summary. A 30-page paper becomes one page of notes you wrote yourself.
See MarginFor this task
Citations and bibliography · $24
Collect references as you read (one paste per source). Write in Word with the Citeline add-in; change from APA to MLA in one click when the professor changes their mind.
See CitelineFor this task
Semester planner and grade calculator · $14
Enter every syllabus in week one. Tidyclass shows the crunch weeks in advance, and the what-if calculator tells you which exam actually moves your grade.
See TidyclassFor this task
Focus timer and site blocker · Free · Pro $9
Start a 25-minute block with your own block list. Four blocks equal two solid hours; the weekly report shows which hour of the day you focus best.
See FocusbellFor this task
Lecture recorder with timestamped notes · $34
Record, type short notes, mark “exam” moments. Before the exam, click through the bookmarks and hear the explanations again instead of re-watching three hours.
See LecturaThe apps
Requirements for all: Windows 10 (21H2 or newer) or Windows 11, x64 or ARM64, 4 GB RAM. Sizes are the installer download. Prices are one-time; students get 40 % off at checkout.
Spaced-repetition flashcards
Cards with images, audio and cloze deletions, scheduled by a spaced-repetition algorithm that shows you a card just before you would forget it. Import from CSV or from Anki decks; study on the PC, export the deck to your phone as a static web page.
Citations and bibliography
Paste a DOI, ISBN or URL and get a complete reference in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, IEEE or 9,000 other styles. Drag the citation into Word or Google Docs, keep PDFs attached, and let the bibliography rebuild itself when you change the style the night before the deadline.
Focus timer and site blocker
A Pomodoro timer that lives in the tray and, during a focus block, blocks the sites you put on your own list. Pro adds a weekly report, custom block lengths and a “hard mode” that cannot be paused for the first ten minutes.
PDF reader for reading, not printing
Highlights, margin notes and tags in a reader built for a hundred pages a day. Export every highlight of a paper to Markdown or straight into Cardstack as flashcards. Night mode that actually reduces contrast, not just inverts.
Semester planner and grade calculator
Courses, deadlines, weightings. Enter the syllabus once and Tidyclass tells you what a 78 on the midterm means for your final grade, what is due in the next ten days, and how many hours the week needs. Exports an .ics feed for your phone calendar.
Lecture recorder with timestamped notes
Record the lecture (with permission), type notes while it runs, and every line you type is linked to the second in the recording. Click a note, hear the professor again. Offline transcription in English, Spanish and French on your own PC – nothing is uploaded.
Pricing
Buy once, use it for as long as you like; updates included for 12 months, renewal at half price. Checkout and license keys are handled by our payment processor; the links are in the app’s About box and in the trial reminder e-mail.
from $9
One license, two PCs, updates for 12 months. Free tiers of Cardstack and Focusbell stay free forever.
$79
All six apps together. Two PCs per student, updates for 12 months, one key for everything.
$6 per seat
For departments, tutoring centers and study labs: 25 seats minimum, volume keys, invoicing.
Try the timer
Focusbell’s timer, in the browser. Pick a preset, press Start, and work until the bell. The desktop app adds the site blocker, the weekly report and a “hard mode” that will not let you pause for the first ten minutes.
This is the same timer that ships in Focusbell, minus the site blocker. It runs only on this page and stores nothing.
Study methods
These are the six lessons of the Study Sprint e-mail course, in short. Each one works without our apps; the apps just remove the friction.
Split the page: cue column left, notes right, summary at the bottom. Writing the summary within 24 hours is where the learning happens. Lectura’s note pane is laid out this way.
Review a fact at growing intervals: one day, three days, a week, a month. It feels harder than rereading, which is exactly why it works. Cardstack does the scheduling.
Close the book and write what you remember before you check. Turn headings into questions. Every Margin highlight can become a question card.
Mix problem types in one session instead of doing twenty of the same. Slower today, better on the exam. Tidyclass helps plan mixed study blocks.
Open the file and work for two minutes; the resistance is in starting, not working. Focusbell’s 10-minute hard mode is built on this.
List every topic, rate each 1–3 for likelihood and 1–3 for confidence, and work the top-right corner first. The Study Sprint course ends with a template for this.
Office
Four people at the Cottonwood Corporate Center, fifteen minutes from the University of Utah. Support by e-mail on business days; phone for license and lab questions during office hours.
“Cardstack and Margin together changed how I read. Highlights become cards, cards become the review queue, and I stopped rereading chapters the night before.”
“Lectura is the reason I passed pharmacology. I typed “EXAM” next to anything the professor repeated and listened to those thirty clips the weekend before.”
“Tidyclass told me in September that November was going to be brutal. It was. But I knew, and I had moved a project forward by two weeks.”
Studystack Apps LLC
2825 E Cottonwood Pkwy, Suite 500
Salt Lake City, UT 84121, USA
FAQ
Yes, 40 % on every single license and on the Semester Stack, with any .edu address or a photo of a student ID, applied at checkout. The code changes twice a year and goes out in Study Sprint.
No account, ever. Internet is needed only for Citeline lookups (DOI, ISBN) and for checking updates. Lectura transcribes on your PC; recordings never leave it.
Yes – Windows 10 (21H2 or newer) and Windows 11, x64 and ARM64. Cardstack decks and Margin notes are plain files, so you can move them to any other tool if you switch platforms.
A single license covers two PCs you use. On a shared PC, deactivate from the About box when you leave, and the seat frees up.
A free e-mail mini-course: six e-mails over two weeks, one study method each, with a worksheet. After that you hear from us at most once a month – release notes and the discount code. Only your e-mail address is needed, and you can leave with one click.
The version you have keeps working, no time limit. A renewal for another year of updates is half price, and security fixes stay free.
30 days, any reason, full amount – see the Money-Back page. Deactivate the key, tell us the order number, done.