I put my iPad into DFU mode without thinking much about it. I didn't realize I would lose everything. Is there a way to get everything back the way I used to have it before I tried recovering my iPad?

Question

A couple of days ago my iPad died, so I plugged it in to charge. It went into a rebooting loop, and when I looked up how to fix this, I saw that I can put my iPad into DFU mode to fix certain things like this. I did, not thinking much about it because l had seen both of my parents get new phones and everything was slowly but surely on their phone the way it was on their old phones.
I thought that even though I agreed to the iPad being put back into factory settings, I thought I would be able to get everything back the way it used to be just by logging into iCloud when setting it up. I was wrong. This is a school iPad, so all of my notes are gone. The only things that were backed up were my photos. All the games, social media, etc. that I had downloaded prior were gone. Even my notes.
Is there a way I can get everything back to the way it used to be, or was agreeing to put the iPad back into factory settings the wrong thing to do? Was it a mistake to take it upon myself to fix my iPad in this restarting loop? I would really like to get everything back, especially my school notes.

Answer 1

The only way to get everything back is by restoring a backup. If you didn't have a backup, there is nothing that you can do to recover your lost documents and your notes. If you have a backup restore the backup in order to recover your data. Purchased apps can always be downloaded again as long as you use the same Apple ID that you bought them with, but data can only be recovered from a backup or if you have copies of the documents and notes on a computer.
Back up and restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using iCloud or iTunes - Apple Support