What this covers
- Sync services lie about what is downloaded until you check
- Verify with the connection off, not by looking at an icon
- Compress first, so the whole folder fits comfortably
- The reader here works offline; the tools do not
The most common way a study session fails is not lack of discipline. It is a document that will not load, thirty seconds of waiting, and then something else on the screen.
This is worth fixing structurally rather than by resolving to be better, because it is entirely a technical problem and it has a twenty-minute solution.
Sync services are optimistic
Every cloud drive offers an 'available offline' setting, and every one of them is willing to show that setting as enabled while several files are in fact not downloaded. The reasons are reasonable - storage pressure, a background sync that was interrupted, a file that changed since - and the effect is the same.
The only thing that establishes whether a folder is genuinely available is turning the connection off and opening files at random. Do it once after setting up, and again after adding anything substantial.
The twenty-minute setup
Once per revision period.
- Download everything in one sitting
The whole span of papers, mark schemes and reports you intend to use. Collecting as you go guarantees the folder is never complete.
- Split, merge and crop before syncing
Do the document work first, so what syncs is the version you will actually use rather than the raw downloads plus the working copies.
- Compress anything over about 10 MB
Not for storage - for sync reliability. Large files are the ones that quietly fail to download.
- Mark the folder available offline
The wording differs by service. Look for 'keep on this device', 'make available offline' or a pin icon.
- Turn the connection off and check
Aeroplane mode. Open five documents at random, including the largest. This is the step that matters.
- Repeat the check after adding anything
Ten seconds, and it catches the one file that did not come down.
Preparing the folder first
The reader here works offline. The tools do not.
The PDF reader on this site renders in your browser and keeps working with no connection at all, because the library it uses is served from this site and cached. The tools that transform a file have to send it to a server, so they need a connection. Do the document preparation before the session, not during it.
How much space this actually takes
Less than people expect. Six years of past papers for one subject - question papers, mark schemes and examiner reports - is typically 60 to 150 megabytes as published, and a good deal less once anything scanned has been compressed.
Three subjects is comfortably under half a gigabyte. That is not a storage problem on any device made in the last decade; the problem is only ever whether the files are actually there.
What tends to fail, and why
The three failures we could reproduce.
| Failure | Cause | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| One large file will not open | Sync skipped it under storage pressure | Compress large files; verify offline |
| Whole folder empty on the device | 'Available offline' set on a parent folder that was later moved | Re-set it after any reorganisation |
| File opens but shows blank pages | Partial download of a large document | Check the page count against the original |
Print the things you will sit
Offline is a property of the device. Paper is a property of reality, and for anything you will attempt under timed conditions it is the better medium anyway.
Print the papers you plan to sit at the start of the period, number them, and put them somewhere that is not the same place as the mark schemes. That removes both the connection and the temptation in one step.
A folder that will not let you down
- Everything for the whole period downloaded in one session
- Combined files split, packs merged, reading copies cropped
- Anything over 10 MB compressed and checked
- Folder marked available offline
- Verified with the connection off, opening the largest file
- Papers for timed practice printed and numbered
- Notes file on the same device, also offline
Questions and answers
Does the PDF reader on this site work offline?
Yes. It renders in your browser using a library served from this site, so once the page has been loaded once it keeps working with no connection. The tools that transform files need a connection, because transforming a file means sending it somewhere.
How do I check a folder is really available offline?
Turn the connection off and open several files, including the largest. Do not rely on the icon - every sync service will show a folder as available while individual files are missing.
Should I keep everything on the device permanently?
For the duration of a revision period, yes. The space cost is small and the reliability gain is large. Archive it afterwards.
What about a laptop rather than a tablet?
Same procedure. Laptops are slightly worse offenders, because desktop sync clients are more aggressive about evicting files that have not been opened recently.
