Exam Countdown vs Past Code
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Exam Countdown
This app helps students, teachers, and schools keep track of important dates. It provides countdown timers for exams, tests, and coursework deadlines, with options for reminders and sharing progress with others. Users can organize their academic schedule and stay on top of their responsibilities.
- Countdown timers for exams and tests
- Unlimited exam countdowns
- Color-coded exams
- Icon customization
- Share countdowns with others
- Add notes to exams
- Basic and detailed notifications
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Exam Countdown is the beautifully simple countdown, planner and widget app for every exam that matters. Counting down since 2015, rated 4.7 stars from over 30,000 ratings. The original exam countdown app, used by students, teachers and schools in over 100 countries. Count down to the ones that count: AP exams, the SAT and ACT, midterms and finals, IB, college finals, assignment and homework deadlines, the driving permit test, music grades and every test in between. CALENDAR VIEW See your whole semester on a month grid, color coded, with every exam a tap away. LIVE COUNTDOWN WIDGETS A Home Screen widget that ticks every second, plus Next Exam, Next 4 Exams and Lock Screen widgets. LIVE ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN Live Activities put your next exam on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island as it approaches. MAKE IT YOURS Hundreds of icons, every color, categories to group your subjects, and notes on any exam. Free version: • Unlimited exam countdowns, all in one place • Count down in years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds • Color code your exams • Choose from 400 icons • Add notes to any exam • Invite friends and family to count down with you • Notifications before every exam Premium version: • Ad free • The full widget collection, including the second by second Live Countdown • Live Activities on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island • Calendar View • Categories to group your subjects • Detailed alerts, with your choice of alert sound • Record and review your exam results • Sync across all your Apple devices • All 400 color icons and 70 colors Exam Countdown is free to download and use. Premium is available as a yearly subscription or as a one off lifetime purchase. Terms of Use - https://www.root38.com/terms-and-conditions/ Privacy Policy - https://www.root38.com/privacy-policy/
Past Code
Instantly find mark schemes for IGCSE and A-Level past papers by scanning their codes with your camera. Save time and effort by accessing the correct resources directly.
- Scan past paper codes with camera
- Instant mark scheme retrieval
- Supports IGCSE papers
- Supports A-Level papers
- User-friendly interface
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Stop wasting your time and effort looking for mark schemes online. With the help of Past Code, you can use your camera to scan any IGCSE or A-Level past paper code and find the mark scheme associated with it instantly. For further information you can email us at omarayyanapps@hotmail.com or at my personal email omarayyan@hotmail.com A Omar Rayyan Production Copyrighted 2021
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Exam Countdown at 4.7 against Past Code's 4.0. Exam Countdown also leads on review sentiment (82% vs 50%) and ratings volume (1.6K vs 4). Past Code's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and ads (none vs shown). On price, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Exam Countdown sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 3 months. Past Code asks for nothing beyond the download.
Exam Countdown holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Exam Countdown has 1.6K ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Exam Countdown's written reviews are positive against 50% of Past Code's.
Exam Countdown ships an update every 2 months, Past Code every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Exam Countdown | Past Code |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (1.6K ratings) — better | 4.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 82.0% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.6K — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 99 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ROOT38 LIMITED | Omar Rayyan |
Customer experience
Exam Countdown
Past Code
Bugs and requests
Exam Countdown
Reported bugs
4 issues- Login issues after device change
- Subscription not working as expected
- Loading screen freezes
- Incompatibility with newer devices
Requested features
5 requests- Calendar view
- Sync with device calendar
- Customizable exam reminders
- Widget support
- More icons and color options
Past Code
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Exam Countdown
- Premium 3 Months$2.993 Months
- Premium Yearly7 Days trial$4.991 Year
- Premium Access1 Year trial$4.991 Year
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- Premium Yearly Subscription$5.491 Year
- Lifetime Premium$9.99
Past Code
No in-app purchases
