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GCSE revision

I’m starting year 11 and I don’t have any good devices for studying is a iPad or an laptop good for gcse ?

Reply 1

an ipad or laptop is fine, there’s loads of videos on youtube u can use for revision, there’s also loads of past papers u can find and do online. so ipad/laptop is good

Reply 2

idk_12345677

Original post

by CAROL_47

I’m starting year 11 and I don’t have any good devices for studying is a iPad or an laptop good for gcse ?

ipad. more versatile

Reply 3

jkddu

Original post

by jkddu

an ipad or laptop is fine, there’s loads of videos on youtube u can use for revision, there’s also loads of past papers u can find and do online. so ipad/laptop is good

i’d suggest an ipad tho, get an apple pencil with it, it’ll be very helpful

Reply 4

vse.kar.vem

Original post

by CAROL_47

I’m starting year 11 and I don’t have any good devices for studying is a iPad or an laptop good for gcse ?

Personally, I did most of my revision in notebooks with my revision guides, though for year 11 I'd prioritize doing past papers, most teachers will be willing to print them out for you. Either device will be good for taking notes and accessing revision materials tbh, as long as you have youtube you'll be fine. Just use whatever you find more comfortable.

Reply 5

24Raspberries

Either works. It's more about how you learn.

I had a laptop which I used to view past papers and watch videos, and also found Seneca pretty helpful. I wrote out the answers to all my practise questions and past papers by hand on lined paper and that worked fine for me. I also found that easier to manage as I could have as much paper in front of me as I wanted, whereas if you only use iPad and laptop you're limited to the size of the screen. I also used physical revision guides (textbooks/workbooks).
None of my close friends had iPads however I knew of people who did and they seemed to like them a lot. In sixth form more people had iPads (or Windows equivalents) and found them really helpful. I think there are lots of different note-taking apps you can get on iPads to organise your revision and make various resources like tables, spreadsheets, mind maps, documents... both typed and hand-written/drawn.

Generally I'd say you should be doing some sort of handwriting when answering questions and past papers, either on a tablet with an electronic pencil or with pen and paper, as that's what you'll be doing in the exam on a tight time limit and you don't want to lose that skill and dexterity. Of course this advice is not for those who will type in the final exam, if this applies to you.

So overall I'd say either is fine - you'll want some kind of screened device that's not a phone so you can view past papers, online question banks, YouTube videos, and online school resources, but I don't think either would negatively impact your learning. Both will get you access to all of these, but iPad has the touch-screen so you can handwrite notes directly onto it, while laptop is typing-based. If you have the option of either then go with what you choose and what you think you'll be most comfortable working with. If this is inaccessible to you then talk to your school - they may be able to lend you a device. If not then libraries have computers, you can watch videos and access past papers on your phone, or try to print them out at school/ask friends to print them out for you.

I'm not good enough with tech to say which has better RAM/processing power so if that's a concern to you then talk to someone more knowledgeable about it or do some research, but at GCSE and even A-level this shouldn't matter.