Ask HN: Advice on a toolchain for new Python developer?

I'm finally learning Python. After 25 years of c/c++ :-)

I'm taking the EPAT and the coursework is heavily Python based. I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 in a virtual machine for this with Sublime Text. I could run Windows if needed. Host is macOS.

The tutorial videos are starting to mention using Windows and Excel and iPython and Jupyter notebooks. I also have a JetBrains academic license to PyCharm and their other tools. Someone also mentioned WebStorm. Someone mentioned using PySpread instead of Excel. There are a lot of tools, each offering unique pros and cons.

Advice on a toolchain is appreciated. I prefer to run tools locally instead of web based solutions.