TikTok education is an oxymoron. Scrolling through the app is often considered a menial way to pass time, whether as entertainment or a simple distraction. But with an explosion of users accessing the app, the giant volume of videos being uploaded to the platform everyday, and the increasing variety and creativity of content produced from all corners of the world and society, TikTok has an incredible potential to teach as well.

@apesvseverybody is one great TikTok education account suggested by Yorba Linda’s AP Environmental Science teacher, Mrs. Pilkenton. Incredibly useful for end-of-the-year review sessions, @apesvseverybody uploads bite-sized review clips focused on crucial topics for the AP Environmental Science exam. Questions on the El Niño-La Niña natural phenomenon? Hop on this TikTok account. LD50 (Lethal Dose 50) has you puzzled? Watch this TikTok teacher’s review clip. Need to know percent change formulas? @apesvseverybody, aka Jordan Dischinger-Smedes, has you covered. While TikTok’s 1-2 minute video platform can’t completely substitute for your YLHS teacher’s lessons, accounts like Dischinger-Smedes’ provide an entertaining and educational visual learning supplement that could come in handy for AP exams. 

Marco Learning, popular on the internet for AP Exam resources and the bespectacled white pooch, also joined TikTok as another helpful education account. @marcolearning provides short clips for all corners of academia: helpful tips for taking AP exams, resources for the ACT and SAT standardized test (Marco Learning has some TikTok clips previewing the all-digital SAT exams that are being pushed out in the near future), motivational videos, memes and more. @marcolearning’s TikTok videos may or may not be a gamechanger for the next big test looming up in the horizon, but one thing’s for sure – any good test-taking advice is helpful to power up your brain’s arsenal of knowledge.

Next stop: college. @60secondscholar’s account has a huge library of college tip videos of about 60 seconds each. Typically on the subject of higher education, @60secondscholar covers a wide variety of topics, from scholarship application advice, college move-in bucket lists, and casual college trivia. He also hosts a great college spotlight series on TikTok called Apply or Deny; in each 60-second episode of Apply or Deny, @60secondscholar, also known as Zavier, highlights about four to five important facts about a particular college, such as housing, majors, location, and rankings. For rising seniors eager to approach the gates of a university next year, this TikTok account is an amazing resource.

For professional creators and high school teens alike, TikTok is the place to create and consume content. Tristen Shinen (12) films and produces his own clips on TikTok. “I just like to put the most random videos on there whenever I’m bored,” he says. “It’s super easy to film what I want and send videos to my friends there, too.” As for the rest of us students, TikTok might just teach us something new everyday.