Magic Keyboard, or any keyboard, for iPad in Med school?

[brainslicer]

Hello, I am going to begin medical school in a few weeks and I bought an iPad and pencil to take notes. The magic keyboard was released and that got me thinking if I should get it, or any iPad keyboard, for school. In my head im going to be primarily note-taking since Im assuming that there arent many, if any, papers in medical school and I wont be typing as much as writing. Just wanted to know if its worth it since it Is quite expensive and Im nearing the end of the line on my bank account.

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[ak14]

I'm an incoming M1 as well, but if you have a laptop I don't think it's worth it to buy a keyboard for the iPad. Most of what you'll be doing on the iPad is what you said: taking notes. I plan on using my laptop for anything I have to type and keeping my iPad on Notability most of the time. If you find you need it, you can always buy one on Black Friday.

 

[deleted1005514]

No if you have a laptop.
Maybe if you don’t have a laptop, BUT wait until your school loan disbursement or at least try a few weeks without it and see if you really need one.

 

[Gambino.]

If I ever want to type something in my notes I'd just pull it up on my laptop. Notability and One Note both have cloud saves in real time so it's pretty easy to just switch between the devices as needed. I have noticed notability is much quicker at updating than one note though (near instant vs like 30 sec delay).

 

[TakotsuboOkazaki]

Buy a mechanical keyboard, preferably MX Blue switches. Record entire lectures, verbatim, but only if in person.

 

[brainslicer]

Thank you all for your help! Im going to wait it out and see if its worth it!

 

[tyrsa]

In preclinicals I used the iPad all the time to take notes, and used a stylus pencil to annotate slides. I had a magic keyboard as well but barely ever used it.

 

[wangzhu87]

Apple Magic keyboard if price isn’t an issue, otherwise logitech K380 bluetooth keyboard.

10 Best iPad Keyboards in 2025: Bluetooth, Wireless and Cases - pctechtest

If you want your iPad to function as a laptop, but don't want to waste a lot of money, then the bluetooth keyboard or keyboard case accessory is what you to need. It would be best if you chose carefully based on your own iPad.

pctechtest.com

 

[Cornfed101]

No, you can do it better on your laptop. Also, taking notes is pretty inefficient. I would immediately convert lectures into flashcards. Taking notes just produces an additional step for no reason

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

No, you can do it better on your laptop. Also, taking notes is pretty inefficient. I would immediately convert lectures into flashcards. Taking notes just produces an additional step for no reason

Making flash cards is pretty inefficient too though. Just use decks from older classes and or step decks

 

[Cornfed101]

Making flash cards is pretty inefficient too though. Just use decks from older classes and or step decks

Yeah I guess I meant: unsuspend the relevant cards, that just sounded a little wordy