What iPad should I get for sixth form?

I’ve been thinking about getting an iPad for sixth form/ college for myself as I will be taking chemistry, biology, physics and maths and I’ve hear it could be quite useful for past papers. Any recommendations for iPads? I will also be getting a MacBook for college too as I’m doing an EPQ

Reply 1

userrrrloser

9

Original post by Idk23323_school

I’ve been thinking about getting an iPad for sixth form/ college for myself as I will be taking chemistry, biology, physics and maths and I’ve hear it could be quite useful for past papers. Any recommendations for iPads? I will also be getting a MacBook for college too as I’m doing an EPQ

I don’t think both would be necessary it’s quite pricey, an iPad can act as both. You could get a keyboard and pen for the iPad and you can use it for past papers and your EPQ. As a btec student I got an iPad 10th gen and I use it for my coursework, but the iPad Air is realllyyy good too! I preferred the iPad over the air because I didn’t really care for apple intelligence or any of the extra things it came with.

Reply 2

MaterialsEng

11

Using an iPad for school just makes it a glorified notebook, and you don't need a high-spec device for that. The base-level iPad is perfectly fine, does the job well, just make sure you get an apple pencil with it and use a good notes app like Notability.

My school actually bought us all an iPad for 6form, and I didn't really use it, but I have been using it throughout my degree and it's really convenient. Since the school bought it, it was just the base model and so it is now 6 years old, but it has done the job and I don't feel like I have missed out on anything from the other models.

That being said if you want to spend the extra money, the iPad Air is also a good shout for students. Anything above that is just unnecessary for the types of tasks you would be carrying out.

I don't know what you are planning on doing at university, but if you are interested in engineering, be careful with buying a MacBook, a lot of engineering software is not compatible and I have seen students have to remote desk into University computers and struggle with lag issues etc.

This really comes down to how much money you are willing to spend on devices. Buying a new MacBook just for EPQ seems overkill to me, but if you don't have another computer at home then I guess it's justifiable. I would of probably held off buying a MacBook until starting Uni, so then you will have a better device to get through your degree, but again maybe you are planning on buying all new devices for University 😆

Reply 3

Phelena

9

Original post by Idk23323_school

I’ve been thinking about getting an iPad for sixth form/ college for myself as I will be taking chemistry, biology, physics and maths and I’ve hear it could be quite useful for past papers. Any recommendations for iPads? I will also be getting a MacBook for college too as I’m doing an EPQ

Regular iPad or an Air will be fine with an apple pencil.

If you do get an iPad I'd recommend staying away from MacBook because having a normal laptop would give you more versatility and options for software, do Apple stuff and note taking on iPad, everything else on a non-apple laptop.

Reply 4

Darcey08374

12

Original post by Idk23323_school

I’ve been thinking about getting an iPad for sixth form/ college for myself as I will be taking chemistry, biology, physics and maths and I’ve hear it could be quite useful for past papers. Any recommendations for iPads? I will also be getting a MacBook for college too as I’m doing an EPQ

I have an iPad and a MacBook- I think my iPad is just a standard iPad Air. For chem and bio I don’t use my iPad without the pencil, I defo recommend that. I also recommend the app notability for notes and also a case with a keyboard if you can to type as well as write.
Macbook is useful to act as a second screen and I actually think I use it more - it has a lot of useful stuff on there if you set it up well. I mainly use it for English/EPQ but also for flash cards/excel/storing notes etc.

iPads are much easier to use in class and basically act as a bigger phone screen in my opinion. If you are able to I recommend putting all the PowerPoints, school notes etc on there - I have no paper notes from sixth form and it’s much more organised and easier to access when I need something. Definitely research apps to go with it, notability is a life saver and definitely worth the money but I’ve also heard good things about good notes. I use anki and quizlet on my iPad and laptop, personally love the scratchpad feature on my iPad for anki! For bio and chem which is a lot of writing equations/labelling pictures/maths skills then a pen is super useful, personally I have an apple one but any would work

Reply 5

ilovespareribs

13

Original post by Idk23323_school

I’ve been thinking about getting an iPad for sixth form/ college for myself as I will be taking chemistry, biology, physics and maths and I’ve hear it could be quite useful for past papers. Any recommendations for iPads? I will also be getting a MacBook for college too as I’m doing an EPQ