I thought I'd share this with those who are experiencing slowdowns and sluggish performances with their iPads. I found these tips to be useful as I was experiencing these issues with my iPad 2 when I upgraded to iOS 8 and couldn't unfortunately downgrade back. Now my performance seems to be a lot snappier.
http://www.iphonetopics.com/ipad-2-vey-slow-issue-ios-8/
http://www.iphonetopics.com/ipad-2-vey-slow-issue-ios-8/