Subjects – School Planner is a versatile application specifically tailored for Apple’s Vision Pro, offering a sophisticated and minimalistic solution for managing timetables, homework, and grades. The program is designed to provide a seamless experience for high school, college, and university students, facilitating their academic routine with an elegant and user-friendly interface. Below is a detailed review of the application’s features, performance, and areas of improvement based on user experiences and personal insights.
At its core, Subjects serves as an all-in-one academic planner, allowing students to keep track of their schedule in real-time. One of the app’s standout features is its ability to display the current and upcoming classes, providing a comprehensive overview of the user’s academic timetable. The synchronization with external calendar events further enhances the utility, ensuring users always have access to their complete schedule. The application excels in presenting critical and relevant information at a glance while allowing detailed explorations when needed.
The timetable management function in Subjects is robust, offering notifications for upcoming classes. The flexibility to set up recurring rules and customize each class with specific topics and descriptions makes it suitable for a wide range of academic programs. However, several users have reported that notifications do not function as expected, raising concerns about reliability. Despite enabling all necessary permissions, notifications are often missed, which can be a significant inconvenience.
Homework management within Subjects is designed to be pressure-free, with the application sending reminders for due assignments. This feature is intended to ensure that no deadline is overlooked, but again, some users have reported issues with the app’s notification system.
Grades and GPA management is another vital feature offered by the app. Subjects supports various global grading systems, which adds a level of adaptability to its user base. Nonetheless, inputting grades can be a tedious process. Users have noticed that changes like credit amounts do not always save correctly, which complicates accurate GPA calculation. Additionally, the app lacks support for conversion charts used by some educational institutions, leading to incorrect GPA results for such users.
The ethos of collaboration and sharing is central to Subjects’ design. Users can team up to share subjects, classes, and assignments while maintaining personal grade settings that appear only on individual devices. This communal aspect of the app is highly beneficial for group projects or study buddies aiming to stay synchronized.
However, a significant drawback is that the free version of Subjects is highly restrictive. Users can only add a limited number of subjects and do not have access to alerts unless they opt for a subscription. This limitation can be disheartening for those who spend time setting up their schedules only to discover that they need to upgrade to use the features they expected to be free.
As with many applications, user feedback has highlighted some bugs and areas needing improvement. For example, while the live activity feature is appreciated, it does not terminate correctly without manually opening the app, causing a mismatch in real-time class tracking. Another issue is the app frequently crashing on Mac devices when creating new classes, and the interface sometimes appears off-screen, hindering usability. These stability concerns are significant as they affect the overall user experience.
Despite its shortcomings, many users appreciate the clean interface and aesthetic appeal of Subjects. The application boasts a modern, intuitive UI that is easy to navigate, even for those who may not be tech-savvy. It’s clear that the developers have put a lot of thought into the user experience, even if there are some functional issues yet to be resolved.
There are also requests for additional features, such as the ability to group classes by semester or quarter and the inclusion of a live activity feature for homework. These additions could substantially enhance the app’s utility.
While Subjects is a beautifully designed and potentially powerful tool for student productivity, some drawbacks need addressing. The app provides essential features like timetable management, homework tracking, and GPA calculation, yet struggles with reliability and stability concerns. User feedback suggests that with improvements in notification reliability, additional free features, and better handling of grades, Subjects could become an indispensable academic companion. The developers seem responsive to feedback, and there is optimism that future updates will address these issues. Despite its current flaws, Subjects offers a promising platform for students looking to streamline their academic responsibilities in a modern and interconnected world.
