Best iPad Apps for Students in 2020
Tools to increase productivity, retention, and workflow
The possibilities to study smart and efficiently have never been greater. For the past few years, Apple has made some big moves to accommodate students. The launch of the first iteration of the Apple Pencil in 2015 marked the beginning of what is arguably the best handwriting experience on any tablet. iOS (now iPadOS for selected iPads) continued to improve steadily over the years and today the prospect of replacing laptops with the iPad Pro is closer than ever.
One of the things that makes the iPad such a great tool is the seemingly endless number of apps in the App Store. Whatever the task is, there’s a high chance that there’s an app for it. Developers have made immense efforts to make use of the powerful operating system and brilliant hardware, making the iPad one of the best investments you could make as a student.
Here are some of my most favorite iPad apps. Enjoy!
Notion
I found it hard to come up with a good description of what Notion is, so I took to the App Store page. Notion is “the all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases”. It’s so much more, though. I use Notion for counting down days until deadlines and exams, keeping track of projects, taking notes, writing article drafts, keeping track of job applications, etc. The list goes on and on.
Pros
- Very user-friendly — can be very advanced if you want it to be
- Clean interface
- Versatile — eliminate the need of a lot of other apps by using Notion
- GIF integration
- Fantastic support that takes feature requests seriously and upgrades the app frequently
Cons
- iPad app is not as well designed as the macOS app.
- Drag-and-drop for images doesn’t work — you have to manually copy and paste (small con, but it’s usually a feature of other note-taking apps)
- Requires a keyboard for most comfortable note-taking experience
Notability
If you’re looking for a great note-taking app for handwritten notes you’re going to want to choose between Notability and GoodNotes 5. I happened to start using Notability first, so I became used to the pen dynamics of Notability.
I’ve tried both, and while Notability is a bit more “bare-bones” I find it to be incredibly powerful and a little less cluttered than GoodNotes 5. The iPad + Apple Pencil allows for some really beautiful notes — if you have the time and patience.
Pros
- Intuitive user interface and note sorting system
- Runs extremely smoothly
- Ability to record, take notes, and then play the recording back with note-taking recorded on top
- Ability to export directly to Google Drive
Cons
- Few paper and pen options
ScanPro
If you’re a student you probably know the struggle; Handouts. Tons of handouts. For a lot of people, using an iPad is all about going paperless. ScanPro is a super simple document scanner that turns your handouts into nicely scanned PDF:s. The scanner automatically crops the image you take of a document (you can manually do it as well).
Pros
- Very simple
- Does what it’s supposed to do
Cons
- OCR scanning hidden behind paid upgrade (there are tons websites that do this for free)
Anki
The science of memory and information is interesting, especially when applied to the area of studying. Two of the most tried and true methods of studying are active recall and spaced repetition. Active recall basically means actively retrieving information on a subject as you study. The most efficient way of doing this is to use flashcards. As doctor and YouTuber Ali Abdaal preaches: active recall is a way of life. Spaced repetition means that in order for information to truly stick, you need to revise it at increasing intervals.
Anki is probably the most well-built flashcard app out there when it comes to tying the two methods together. The Anki app for iPad is $24.99, which is a steep price seeing as the macOS app is free, but being able to revise on-the-go definitely makes it worth it.
I hope you enjoyed these app recommendations. Feel free to leave a recommendation of some of your favorite iPad apps in the comments!
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