A step-by-step guide to getting started and building a daily routine that takes about five minutes. Set aside fifteen minutes for setup. After that, Apex does most of the planning.
Before you start: Apex runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 26.2 or later. Button names in the app may differ slightly from this guide as Apex updates, but the flow stays the same.
Do this once at the start of the semester, ideally with all your syllabi and your class schedule nearby. The more Apex knows up front, the better your first week will be.
Get Apex Student on the App Store. It's free. Open it and choose Sign in with Apple or sign up with email and a password.
Why it matters: your data is backed up to your account, so your plan carries over if you reinstall or switch to a new iPhone or iPad.
Take a photo of your class schedule, or a screenshot from your school portal, and give it to Apex. It reads every recurring lecture, lab, and section and adds them to your calendar automatically.
Upload each syllabus once, as a PDF or a photo. Apex pulls out every exam, essay, quiz, and deadline, plus your professor's name and office hours, and organizes them by course.
Tip: this is the step that saves you the most time. After this, you shouldn't need to reread a syllabus to find a due date.
Classes are only part of your week. When you first create your account, Apex asks about your regular commitments outside class. Fill these in carefully, so study time never lands on top of a shift or a practice.
Schedule changes weekly? After setup, tell LOLA in the Chat tab whenever you get new shifts or a new game schedule, and your week reshuffles around them.
In the Calendar tab, connect your existing calendar. Events you already have stay where they are, and Apex plans study time around them instead of on top of them.
Next, open the Chat tab and tell LOLA, your AI assistant, how you actually live. This is what lets Apex put your hardest work in your best hours, protect your sleep, and keep time for the people you care about. Be honest. The plan only works if it fits the real you.
You don't have to cover everything at once. Add more anytime by messaging LOLA. It remembers what matters, and you can review it in Settings → "What Apex Knows."
Apex can ask for a short energy survey each morning, plus a quick "How are you feeling?" every couple of hours. Your answers feed your body battery and tune the day's focus forecast. You can skip any check-in with one tap.
If you allow it, Apex can also read last night's sleep from Apple Health to pre-fill your body battery. Access is read-only, and your health data never leaves your device.
From the Menu tab, open your courses and the GPA tracker. Add each course's grading categories and weights (for example, exams 50%, homework 30%, participation 20%) and its credit hours. Set a priority for each class so Apex knows where your effort matters most.
Go back to the Calendar and look over the week Apex built. Study blocks sit in your strongest focus hours, and big deadlines are already split into smaller steps.
Don't aim for perfect. Apex learns from how your week actually goes, so the plan gets better on its own over the first couple of weeks.
Apex works best as a quick check-in a few times a day, not another app you have to manage. Here's the routine we recommend.
Pick a regular time, like Sunday evening, to look back on the week and set up the next one. Apex does the heavy lifting with its weekly optimization; you just steer.
See how productive you were at every hour of every day. Tap a weekday on the efficiency bar to jump straight to it. If you keep slumping at a certain time, tell LOLA, and Apex will stop scheduling hard work there.
Open the week view in the Calendar. Check upcoming exams and big deadlines, and make sure their study steps are spread out. Add new commitments like games, shifts, or plans with friends.
Professor moved a due date? Edit it, or upload a revised syllabus. Dropped or added a class? Update your courses so your plan and GPA stay accurate.
Pick one or two small things to track, like three morning runs, in bed by midnight, or finishing problem sets a day early. Short-term goals are easier to keep, and Apex keeps tracking them until they stick.
LOLA understands plain language, so you don't need special commands. Here are things students ask every day:
If you're behind or overbooked, LOLA gives you a concrete plan to catch up, never a lecture. And every suggestion is editable.
Settings → "What Apex Knows" shows the short summary LOLA keeps about your habits and goals. Clear it anytime.
iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Apex.
Every energy check-in is optional and can be skipped with one tap.
Settings → Delete Account removes your account and all associated data.
Details are in the privacy policy.
Edit the item directly, or add it yourself. Clear, well-lit photos or the original PDF give the best results. For a schedule printed as a table, try a straight-on photo with the whole table in frame.
Tell LOLA when you do and don't focus well, and answer a few energy check-ins. Apex also learns from your Efficiency Map over the first couple of weeks, so timing improves on its own.
Keep logging your study sessions and completing the activity debrief after each assignment and exam. Dynamic Studying adjusts its estimates per class based on how long your work actually takes.
No. Study sessions and check-ins save while you're offline and sync automatically when you reconnect.
Install Apex and sign in with the same Apple ID or email. Your data is backed up to your account.
Still stuck? Check the FAQ or contact support. Include your device, iOS version, and app version.