tools that actually helped me survive college projects

for my final year projects i started using a mix of chatgpt and cosine, both saved me when i had no clue what i was doing.
chatgpt was perfect for breaking down concepts i didn’t fully understand, like explaining why my logic wasn’t working or simplifying research topics, and cosine helped me stay organized managing multiple files, debugging issues faster, and keeping track of small changes across the project.

i used them together for everything from writing project reports to cleaning messy python code. it wasn’t like they did the work for me, but they made the whole process less chaotic and way easier to manage.

it made me realize how much of engineering is just figuring things out as you go, and having the right tools honestly matters more than anything.
curious what everyone else here used that actually made your projects less painful like underrated websites, apps, or AI tools that actually helped you learn instead of just copy-pasting stuff.