The question is currently as clear as I can make it. Is getting an iPad worth it? Is it useful for medical school? I will be attending an MD school in the fall. I don't know what other information is relevant so feel free to ask me questions.
MD Should I get an iPad?
- Thread starter datboi_58
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I love mine. Would recommend but is not at all necessary. Probs about 20-25 percent of my class has one that they use for lectures! I like writing and drawing better than typing. I like the flexibility to easily mark up slides and such
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I’m still in undergrad, but I love my iPad. It allows you to benefit from handwriting your notes, while still allowing you to carry everything in one lightweight place. You can mark up slides, papers, etc. No need to carry multiple notebooks and no need to print everything out.
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I was on the fence but so glad I got my ipad. It's much better to take notes than my laptop- easier to write little notes & draw things out with the pencil. Also if you have a macbook you can use the ipad as a dual screen which is nice, especially when making anki cards.
Not set on buying one but trying to gauge the usefulness. Technically speaking, it’s 100% unnecessary (as are many things) but I’m just trying to gauge the possible utility on a scale from totally useless to absolutely necessary. And unnecessary does not = totally useless.
@scubascuba, @gardalina and @Tiran145
Any recommendations for which iPad to buy if I do get one? Is there a benefit to a Pro vs. the regular version for note taking purposes or other purposes you use it for? Do I need to get the current one or will a previous generation work just as fine? Obviously, I will need to get an Apple Pencil and I’ve heard the paper-like screen protector is pretty awesome as well. Thoughts?
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Depends on how you study I think. In my case, ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. It completely changed the way I study, mostly because of notability and being able to draw, take notes, etc. I use it all day, every day. Hardly touch my mac. But again, experiences vary.
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I have the iPad Air, it has more than satisfied all my needs. I have a very old laptop that does not work very well, so I bought the iPad knowing that I would pretty much use it in place of my laptop, but a regular iPad should satisfy your needs. I have a friend who recently purchased a regular iPad (after having been convinced by the Apple employee that she did not need an iPad Air for med school because the regular one would serve her just fine) — she has been loving it and does not regret her choice.
I have a glass-like screen protector, but I know a lot of people enjoy their paper-like screen protectors.
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I just bought an iPad pro today so I'll try not to be biased lol. Obviously a laptop can be used in place of an iPad, but there are many useful apps that you can use on an ipad that you can't on a laptop. I've always liked reading on ipads more anyways, so it really comes to down to a preference and not so much a necessity... the reading format, applications, and note taking aspect is what drew me towards purchasing one.
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For using the ipad as an extra display I think you have to have a newer ipad and macbook. I have a pro but I think the regular ipad would do just fine. I don't have a screen protector but just put it in a case when I'm not using it. I would not recommend the apple keyboard. I think it's a waste of money- there's a lot of other keyboards out there that work just as good if not better.
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deleted859689
Gotta pay to put anki on there 
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Really depends on what kind of learner you are and you really won’t know until you get to medical school. If you end up loving lectures and taking notes on them the iPad + an Apple Pencil is the best way to do it. Your essentially paperless and can have as many notes as you want neatly organized without having to flip the pages of printed powerpoints etc. this is what I started school with and I loved it. Then I discovered anki, more specifically zanki. And I have not written down a single thing in months. So now I barely touch my iPad and it’s collecting dust. Really up to you in the end
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Love my iPad! It has allowed me to go paperless for med school. The apps I use most are Notability, Anki, and Human Anatomy (100% recommend for anatomy even tho it isn’t a free app)
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Absolutely necessary for on the go netflix
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Not at all necessary. Laptop that can handle a browser and word is sufficient. Min 8GB of RAM, 16 even better. 512 GB SSD has been helpful as well, have been using a lot of space and the extra cushion is nice. Non-apple computers can get you these specs at a much better price as well.
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^^ this. I only use mine to carry PDFs of all my textbooks and it's so much better than reading on my laptop because I can also highlight and take notes.
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I got an iPad for med school and had to search for reasons to use it instead of the MacBook I already had. Don't get me wrong, iPads are very very cool and I love mine - but in terms of actual productivity nothing beats a Mac in my opinion
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I use my ipad pro w/ apple pencil and keyboard to take notes. I basically don't use paper at all now, I write it all on there, sync my writing on notability to dropbox. Reading papers/books is also way easier on there. I have a PDF of Costanzo and can mark it up very easily while I study. If I want to make my own anki cards, I can pull those notes out of dropbox and screencap etc. to my heart's desire.
That being said, I also do a ton of work on my macbook pro, e.g. making anki cards happens on there, I don't do any long writing assignments on my iPad etc. While school was still physical, I would usually just take my ipad to small group/classes and leave the laptop at home.
Is it totally necessary? No, but I don't regret buying it.
That being said, I also do a ton of work on my macbook pro, e.g. making anki cards happens on there, I don't do any long writing assignments on my iPad etc. While school was still physical, I would usually just take my ipad to small group/classes and leave the laptop at home.
Is it totally necessary? No, but I don't regret buying it.
What about Chromebooks or cheaper android tablets (Samsung tab?)? Are they good enough for med school productivity? Im trying to save money and not having to spend a lot on unnecessary things. From what I've read, they just need to be able to run anki, word, powerpoint?, excell, and browsing, right? Is there any essential medical app (step 1 prep?) that requires full iOS or window 10?
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Sent from my LG-H932 using SDN mobile
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deleted407021
I’d say go ahead and get an iPad if you’re getting a tablet. The rest of the tablet market was basically killed by the iPad and you can get a brand new 7th gen one for just over $300 with student pricing. You can bump up to the very good iPad Air for about $100 more.
Ultimately it’s not a lot of money to spend on something you’re going to use constantly.
futureMD10__
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Would anyone have recommendations on what storage amount is sufficient? Is 64GB enough with all of the notes from lectures and so forth or do you recommend 256GB?
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deleted971841
Asking the important questions.
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I have a MacBook and iPhone, so I got the 64gb and have the $1/mo 50gb iCloud subscription. The storage has been good for me so far.
To answer @datboi_58’s question: I think a tablet of some sort is greatly beneficial if you can afford it, as do my classmates since ~90% of them use it in some form. If you have use Apple products and already have a computer then I would get an iPad. If you are looking for a new laptop, I would consider a Surface Pro if you are interested in a 2-in-1.
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You can't use notability (which is arguably the best notetaking app - and really the only reason why ipad is recommended more other than typical apple-for-everything-type consumers) on android devices, but one note works fine. It doesn't have all the features of notability, but then you can also upload and pull everything from one drive which is more convenient than notability in that way.
Have an iPad, love it. Use it to watch netflix and otherwise.
It is not necessary at all for studying. Everyone uses it to "write notes" could have easily just typed their notes (10x faster) into OneNote.
It is not necessary at all for studying. Everyone uses it to "write notes" could have easily just typed their notes (10x faster) into OneNote.
Hahaha wow I just came to this conclusion myself. I have both and I type my notes first because it's just so much faster. I use my iPad to write stuff out and memorize...which could easily have been done with a piece of paper. It's just way cooler now lmao
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For those of you that have an iPad pro, would you recommend the 11 or the 12.9? I can't decide between the two...
Are you going to have a computer too? I have the 11 inch but it's not my primary computer or anything. That said I really like the size I got
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I have a Macbook pro already. Just can’t decide between size and portability.
I got the big one 12.9. I personally loved it for the complete anatomy app. And notability taking notes directly on an iPad lecture notes.
One underrated aspect of the bigger one is you can look at 2 lectures simultaneously easier
One underrated aspect of the bigger one is you can look at 2 lectures simultaneously easier
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deleted889094
I got a laptop with a touchscreen and stylus to write my notes and whatnot. It turned out that Anki was way easier for me so I pretty much only do that now. Eventually I started wanting written notes again so I just went for paper. It's just easier and I like it more.
Literally only use my iPad for netflix.
Literally only use my iPad for netflix.
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Is there a way to type notes on your Mac and draw simultaneously on your iPad on the same Powerpoint (almost like a split screen type thing)? I usually type/annotate on the PowerPoints but was planning to get an iPad to draw stuff out etc. My only concern was that sometimes I may want to type what a professor says but will have two sets of the same notes if I am drawing something as well.
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I didn’t use my iPad at all in preclinicals.
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deleted889094
I think you could do this with OneNote
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Don’t get an iPad unless you have always used one. I bought one because I thought I needed it and I never used it so I ended up selling it. All I use is my laptop.
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what about for drawing in anatomy and such? did you just use paper?
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The only things I ever drew out were the brachial plexus and lumbosacral plexus. In general I just use anki and complete anatomy which is a 3D atlas, both of which don’t require an iPad.
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deleted1079620
I have one, got the cheapest WiFi model during a back to school sale and the Apple Pencil.
Our school issues laptops and they’re not big enough to do a split screen thing and be able to see everything well, and since I don’t set foot on campus unless it’s something mandatory, having the iPad means I can have the full sized slides in front of me as well as the lecture on my laptop screen. I also download our textbooks or articles on the iPad when I have to read something and I can highlight/annotate right there. It’s definitely not a necessity, but I like my setup, it’s convenient, and it was reasonably priced.
Our school issues laptops and they’re not big enough to do a split screen thing and be able to see everything well, and since I don’t set foot on campus unless it’s something mandatory, having the iPad means I can have the full sized slides in front of me as well as the lecture on my laptop screen. I also download our textbooks or articles on the iPad when I have to read something and I can highlight/annotate right there. It’s definitely not a necessity, but I like my setup, it’s convenient, and it was reasonably priced.
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You don’t need to draw anything in anatomy. Maybe the brachial plexus. I think I drew that out once or twice and just used a piece of paper.
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Microsoft surface pro 7
The surface pen writes pretty well on the screen. So that's cool
The surface pen writes pretty well on the screen. So that's cool
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deleted889094
I've heard some students recommend an ipad or iPad mini for rotations. They said it's helpful to look things up and take notes without the risk of residents/attendings thinking you're goofing off on your phone. Can any upperclassmen give an opinion?
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I bought a 12.9” iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard a few weeks ago. I‘ve owned a couple of iPads since they were released, and while they were fun little devices, I never found much utility for them. The Magic Keyboard is a game changer and, depending on what you do on a regular basis, actually makes the iPad a somewhat feasible laptop replacement. I used to lug my Macbook around with me in my bag, but now I just bring my iPad since I can do just about anything I would otherwise do on a laptop but with a reduced weight and significantly improved battery life. If you want to take notes digitally, the Apple Pencil is outstanding - I’ve transitioned from carrying some scratch paper to take notes during patient interviews to doing everything on my iPad.
As far as @Kingslayer3395 ’s question goes, yes, it’s possible to do this. The native Sidecar functionality sort of does this but there are apps that have more extensive functionality like what you describe (Duet is the most popular from what I’ve seen). You can make it work.
The idea of being able to access your EMR on a mobile device sounds appealing - and, for a bit, I carried around an iPad Mini as a medical student - but I found it to be more hassle than it was worth and really didn’t use it all that much. For quick checking on things I’ll use my iPad, but for anything extensive (putting in orders, writing notes, etc.), I’ll just use an actual computer.
As far as @Kingslayer3395 ’s question goes, yes, it’s possible to do this. The native Sidecar functionality sort of does this but there are apps that have more extensive functionality like what you describe (Duet is the most popular from what I’ve seen). You can make it work.
The idea of being able to access your EMR on a mobile device sounds appealing - and, for a bit, I carried around an iPad Mini as a medical student - but I found it to be more hassle than it was worth and really didn’t use it all that much. For quick checking on things I’ll use my iPad, but for anything extensive (putting in orders, writing notes, etc.), I’ll just use an actual computer.
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I posted this before, but absolutely get the Mini.
It's great to have UWorld for questions, UpToDate/Amboss for checking differentials/treatments, MedCalc (CIWA, CHADS-VASC, MELD etc), Notability for taking random notes or having FirstAid/books, and - most importantly - the EMR during rounds (we have Epic Canto). We often get labs back during rounds (or imaging) and it's nice to provide that to the team when we're on the floor. The screen is big enough for everyone to see, and I can do my own reading on it without worry about people thinking I'm just "on my phone."
Also, with all the random med school meetings/didactics, it's great to have Zoom on my iPad so I can pop into things without needing to find a spot to post up with my laptop. Absolutely love having my iPad and, if I had to go back, would get it again in a heartbeat.
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This might be the only reason to get a mini instead of just using your phone, but you need to check the policies where you are. We are explicitly not allowed to do this.
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deleted889094
Ok glad to hear. I was on the fence about getting a mini, but the advantage of not looking like you're in your phone when looking stuff up alone wasn't enough to warrant one. You make a good case for it.
I also do some digital art, so I'd be glad to have a means to do some doodling on the couch instead of having to use my computer-connected tablet.
Plus my current iPad is gen 2 so I don't see taking that into rotations. Barely good enough to play Netflix.
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I use an ipad specifically for the apple pencil. For whatever reason its just easier to use for me than a surface. I like drawing stuff and take pretty detailed notes that I then can check and update on my iPhone rather than carrying that thing around.
