MOST people use their fancy mobile phone apps to kill time or find out where the nearest takeaway is — but young people in Bolton are using applications to get them ready for their forthcoming GCSE exams.

Earlier this year every child at Essa Academy in Great Lever received an iPod to help create a culture of “anytime anywhere learning”.

And now, instead of relying on traditional paper revision guides, 15 and 16-years-olds are turning on their iPods for speciallydesigned apps to help them pass their exams — downloadable revision guides.

GCSEPods have been designed to meet the needs of GCSE pupils.

The three to five minute chapters, which include images of key words, phrases and images, provide students with relevant information which is easy to digest and remember.

Abdul Chohan, Director at Essa Academy, said: “Students today learn in a very different way to previous generations, which is why we are so committed to developing creative technology within the academy to enhance student learning experience.

“Some schools are still nervous about allowing consumer technology in to the classroom, but we recognise that this is what our children relate to and enjoy using, so we want to capitalise on this.

“They can easily download a series of well written and well produced learning and revision podcasts, broken down in to concise sections on to their own hand held devices and listen to themat home or on the go or simply watch them, on a computer.

“The students’ responses have been extremely positive and we are really keen to see whether GCSEPods help to boost our exam results later this summer.”

Pupil Adil Bhutawala, aged 15, added: “GCSEPod is really helping with my revision as the information is presented in such a way that it just seems to sink in.

The diagrams that support the audio are really helpful and as they are interactive, it is like having your own personal teacher on hand to ask you questions and put you to the test.”

Anthony Coxon, co-founder and director of GCSEPod said: “Essa academy is one of the early adopters of this way of learning and this has put themat the forefront of using consumer technology in the classroom resulting in them being well placed and ahead of the game.”