Hi and welcome to the Forum!
Regarding your question there are a few things you can do to minimize battery loss. How bright is your screen? I have mine turned down to half with Auto on, try setting yours to where your comfortable with it. Have a look at how many notifications you are running and how often you have Mail set to push. Also close all your apps completely, from the home screen do the four finger swipe up or double press the home button to reveal your multi task bar along the bottom. It will show all the apps that you have opened at one time or another. Long press an app until it jiggles and a red minus sign will appear above it. Press the minus sign, this will close the app, not delete it, close all these apps, as it helps the iPad run smoothly also. Hope this helps.
The IPad Forum is a community of members from all walks of life and from all over the world coming together to share our experiences and to help each other learn about this wonderful piece of technology the Ipad. There is a wealth of information already here in the many threads we have so doing some searches will answer most of the questions you have. If then you cannot find the answer you are seeking then by all means post your question. There are many friendly and informed members here only too willing to help you.
We also have our own App - It is a very simple app to navigate.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/discussion-forum-for-ipad/id412896524?mt=8
Reading the IPad manual is a great place to start so please download a copy of these.
http://www.support.apple.com/manuals/ipad/
2 very informative threads from which you will learn many tips and shortcuts for the IPad.
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general-discussions/21590-tips-tricks-those-us-who-dont-know.html
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-os/49581-ios5-tips-tricks.html
We have rules like any Community so please read these also
http://www.ipadforums.net/forum-rul...um-rules-everybody-please-read.html#post14697
Once again we welcome you here and are so pleased you have joined us!
Sent from my iPad using iPF