ETH Zurich and EPFL Student Guide: Best Apps and Study Tools in 2026

ETH Zurich and EPFL rank among the world's top 20 universities — and their exam systems are among the most demanding. The Basisprüfung at ETH, EPFL's first-year block exams, and the rigorous grading curves across Swiss universities require more than talent. They require the right study system.

This guide covers the best apps and study tools specifically for Swiss university students — addressing the unique challenges of technical curricula, multilingual content, dense PDF lecture notes, and high-stakes exam periods.

What Makes Studying at Swiss Universities Different

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The Basisprüfung Challenge

ETH Zurich's first-year exam system (Basisprüfung) requires students to pass a comprehensive exam covering an entire year's material. Fail it twice, and you're permanently excluded from the program. EPFL's block exam structure operates similarly. This high-stakes format demands long-term retention strategies, not last-minute cramming.

Dense Technical Content

Engineering, physics, mathematics, and computer science dominate the curricula. Students deal with 500+ pages of lecture notes per semester — often in a mix of German, French, and English. The content is formula-heavy, conceptually dense, and requires deep understanding, not just memorization.

The Session Exam Culture

Swiss universities concentrate exams into intense 2–3 week examination sessions (Prüfungssession). Students typically have 4–8 exams in this window, requiring parallel preparation across multiple subjects — a scheduling and prioritization challenge that most study tools don't address.

Best Study Tools for Swiss University Students

Category 1: AI Study Apps

TikoNote — Best Overall for ETH/EPFL Students

Why it's #1 for Swiss students:

PDF processing: Upload your 80-page Analysis I script and get flashcards, quizzes, and mind maps in 30 seconds. No more spending weekends manually creating Anki cards from Polybox PDFs.
Multilingual support: Works with German, French, English, and Italian content — essential for Swiss universities where materials mix languages.
Feynman Tutor: Forces you to explain engineering concepts in your own words, exposing gaps before the Basisprüfung does.
Spaced repetition: Automatically schedules review for the 4–8 week build-up to Prüfungssession.

Best for: Basisprüfung prep, processing dense lecture PDFs, engineering and STEM subjects.

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Anki — Best for Raw Memorization

The go-to flashcard app for medical students at UZH and Bern. The SM-2 spaced repetition algorithm is proven, but you need to create all cards manually (unless you use AI card generators). See our spaced repetition guide.

Best for: Medical facts, vocabulary, formula memorization.

Category 2: Note-Taking

Notion — Best for Organizing Semester-Long Notes

Swiss students typically receive lecture scripts (Skripte) as PDFs, supplemented by handwritten lecture notes. Notion organizes everything into a searchable, structured system with databases, linked pages, and embedded files.

Best for: Long-term knowledge management across semesters.

GoodNotes / Notability — Best for Handwritten Math Notes

For STEM subjects where you need to write equations and diagrams, iPad-based handwriting apps are essential. GoodNotes integrates with PDF annotation, making it ideal for marking up lecture scripts.

Best for: Mathematics, physics, circuit diagrams.

Category 3: Focus and Scheduling

Forest — Best for Deep Work Sessions

Block distracting apps during study sessions. Popular among ETH students during Lernphase (study phase) before exams.

Google Calendar + Notion — Best for Exam Scheduling

Map out your Prüfungssession with dedicated study blocks per subject. Allocate time proportional to exam weight and difficulty. See our guide on building a daily study routine.

Category 4: Collaboration

ETHZ Community Platforms

VIS (Computer Science) and AMIV (Electrical Engineering) — student associations that maintain exam archives (Prüfungssammlungen). These old exams are the single most valuable study resource at ETH.
Polybox — ETH's file sharing platform for accessing lecture materials.
Discord servers — Per-department study groups for real-time help during exam prep.

What Study Apps Do ETH Zurich Students Use?

Based on student forums and Fachverein surveys, the most-used study tools among ETH Zurich students are:

Anki — for spaced repetition (especially in D-INFK, D-ITET, D-MATL)
GoodNotes/Notability — for iPad note-taking and PDF annotation
Notion — for organizing lecture notes and study plans
TikoNote — for AI-powered quiz generation and mind maps from PDFs
Past exams (Prüfungssammlungen) — accessed through Fachverein websites

[!TIP] The most effective ETH students combine past exams (to understand exam format and difficulty) with AI-generated quizzes from lecture PDFs (to ensure comprehensive coverage). Past exams alone miss new material; lecture notes alone miss exam style.

Study Strategy for Basisprüfung / Block Exams

A proven strategy used by successful ETH and EPFL students:

Weeks 1–10: During the Semester

Attend lectures and take handwritten notes on key derivations
Upload each week's lecture PDF to TikoNote → generate flashcard deck
Review flashcards 2–3 times/week using spaced repetition
Build a master mind map per course, adding branches weekly

Weeks 11–13: Pre-Exam Lernphase

Switch to active recall: take TikoNote quizzes and past exams daily
Use the Feynman Technique to explain hard concepts from memory
Identify your 3 weakest topics per course → focus 70% of study time there
Study in 50-minute blocks with 10-minute breaks (Pomodoro adapted)

Exam Week: Final Preparation

Take one full past exam per course under timed conditions
Review only the questions you got wrong
Quick mind map review (cover-and-recall) the morning of each exam
See our guide on studying for finals in 7 days for the detailed protocol

The AI Study App Built for Technical Students

TikoNote handles the dense PDFs, formula-heavy content, and multilingual materials that Swiss university students deal with daily. Upload your Skript. Get flashcards. Ace the Basisprüfung.

👉 Start studying smarter with TikoNote — it's free

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the best study app for ETH Zurich specifically?

TikoNote for AI-powered study from lecture PDFs, combined with Anki for long-term fact retention and GoodNotes for handwritten note-taking. The combination covers understanding (TikoNote's Feynman Tutor), memorization (Anki's spaced repetition), and note capture (GoodNotes).

Are there free study tools for Swiss university students?

Yes. TikoNote offers a free tier, Anki's desktop version is free, and most ETH/EPFL student associations provide free past exam archives. Notion's free tier is sufficient for most students' note organization needs.

How should I prepare for the ETH Basisprüfung?

Start spaced repetition from week 1 of the semester — don't wait until Lernphase. Upload weekly lecture PDFs to TikoNote for automatic flashcard generation. Practice with past exams starting 4 weeks before the Prüfungssession. Focus 70% of your final prep on your 3 weakest topics.

Do these tools work for EPFL's French-language courses?

Yes. TikoNote processes French content natively. Anki supports any language. Notion and GoodNotes are language-agnostic. The tools recommended in this guide work equally well for French-language instruction at EPFL, University of Geneva, and University of Lausanne.

The Bottom Line

Swiss universities demand more from students than most — the Basisprüfung, dense technical content, and compressed exam periods require systematic study strategies, not just more hours. The right combination of tools — AI quiz generation, spaced repetition, and structured note-taking — turns the overwhelming volume of material into a manageable, trackable study system.

Your action step: Download TikoNote and upload one lecture PDF from your current semester. Take the auto-generated quiz. If you score below 70%, you've found your gaps with 14 weeks still left to fix them. That's the advantage of starting early.