SmartBook

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Where does one start when there is so much to critique? You load the app and it asks you to login using your credentials. Get comfortable with this part, because you will do it more than studying. Next there is the remember me button... not sure what it’s there for. It doesn’t seem to remember anything. Maybe it is asking “Remember me?”... yeah little button i do, since I have to log in anytime i put my phone down, we have become the best of friends. Next, you get logged in and it provides you the most spartan of menus... why are my expired purchases the first thing that comes up? I’m not that student anymore... I’m trying to forget that student. Eventually you find the current course you are enrolled in and click the button. Perfect! Now you can navigate to the section of the book you need, before being given an inactivity notification and being logged out. This app is like that tragic first date that you never wanna think about, but you are stuck with because it’s the only date you have ever been on, so it ruins you on dating. You get a cat... and another cat... and another... eventually you smells like cat urine and you haven’t learned anything about the subject you enrolled for because this app is so terrible. If this app were a person, i would push it down a flight of stairs and then set the stairwell on fire.

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The app itself is terrible; McGraw hill is terrible. To start, the app is for iPads only, okay, it’s 2019, everyone has a smart phone. When you open the app it turns the whole screen sideways, and guess what? You have to log in, cool, protect my information. However, once you log in, be prepared to do it again because the app constantly crashes and the little remember button doesn’t remember you...ever. If you get in, the first thing you see is your old course. Why is this showing me old courses? Then why, on top of that, does it feel like a loading battle to get to the course i want? The screen freezes and will crash again once you finally get to your course, so be prepared for that. If and when you get to your course maybe you can read the book or do the practice. Good luck. McGraw-Hill, you are a disappointment to the college students who need this because their instructors have them use it.

Okay, I just want to clarify. If you are using SmartBook for your class go to your Blackboard. Once you are there open the link for your assignment from Blackboard! This will eliminate so many issues. If it’s your first time using the app don’t sign in once your app downloads. Go back to Blackboard and click your assignment. Click Launch and it will automatically sign you in. The only two issues I have are as follows: I can’t zoom in on questions or pages. When it’s asking me a multiple choice question I’m trying to hit one answer, but the choices are so tiny and close together that it’s hard to make sure you hit the right one. (Some questions are once you hit an answer you can’t change it.) My second downfall for the app is, if you are on the computer version and you need to click the “Read About This” button it takes you right to the spot you need to read about. In the app version it mostly just puts you are the last spot you read from or some random other spot on the page. Overall it’s a great tool if your laptop is down for some reason.

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This app could easily be a 5 star if it weren’t for the three biggest problems. The app crashes and kicks you off every so often, can’t finish a single chapter’s assignment without it crashing. The second problem is that you have to keep signing in, even after setting your phone/tablet down for 5 minute. The last problem is that when you want to go to the read section about the question it’s asking, it’ll either sometimes won’t load, but if it did, it’ll mostly take you to the beginning of the chapter. Other than those three problems, this app is a great app. It provides you questions about the subject matter, it’ll generate questions that will help you in the areas that you are most struggling with, and it asks you different types of questions, i.e, multiple choice, multiple selection, fill in the blanks. It’ll even ask you the same questions in a different format to the areas that you are struggling to remember in. Overall, I would love to give this app a 5 star, but I can’t mainly because of three issues that I have to give it a 2 star, -1 star per issue. If these issues could be fixed, that would be awesome!

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This apps lacks the capabilities it would need to be a fully functioning and helpful study tool, especially when it’s being used increasingly more in the college setting. You can only use the app horizontally which does not allow you to scroll to the bottom of some screens to select OK (such as on the “show as ___ or anonymous” screen) and only displays about 5 lines of the text so you are constantly scrolling. The mechanics for the Drag-and-Drop questions either never work or randomly put items together when you try to move them. You need to wait a few seconds for the app to load the next question or you will accidentally skip questions by clicking the I Think So or Unsure buttons (even though it takes a split second to process if you have the answer right or not). If developers created this with higher standards and greater expectations, this app could have been an amazing tool for students who don’t have the capability of purchasing computers/accessing public ones.