Tamseng has released an iOS version of Study Helper, a popular app designed to help students focus on studying.
Study Helper was originally launched on Android in 2013, and has received over 1.1 million downloads since then. Depending on the time of year, the app gets an average of 80,000 to 100,000 users per day – with exam periods for schools and universities bringing in the most users.
The app is ultimately for students who can’t keep their hands off their smartphones when they should be studying. Study Helper tracks your study time while your phone screen is off, and blocks both apps and data, putting temptation farther out of reach. You can set up different study goals and then track how much time you’ve spent on each goal throughout the day.
Before studying, users can also choose to allow certain apps that they might need during study time such as dictionaries or calculators. There is even a ‘hard mode’ which makes it more difficult to change settings for a preset period of time, and you can even set certain times of day when you want your phone to be locked.
Korea’s education system is competitive and continues into adult life, with many spending hundreds of hours studying for university and civil service exams.
“Our main user base is teenagers, and 30% of users are in their twenties and thirties studying for exams and jobs,” says Lee Jun-Hyeong, vice-president and lead designer at Tamseng. A stats screen lets you compare your study time and habits with others in your age range.
As well as helping students focus, Study Helper tries to be as encouraging as possible by offering encouragement and daily motivational quotes. The app lets students find study partners and join groups where students can help others studying the same subjects. A community forum divided into age groups and subjects also allows users to communicate and post questions.
Tamseng says that it will launch an English version of Study Helper in the future and eventually go global.
“We plan to develop an app for the Asian market which has a similar education environment to Korea. In addition to language support, it will also include features and changes to match each country’s study culture,” says Lee.
