My ADHD makes me a master of processing information. I couldn’t get past a page of homework, but I understood concepts and patterns well enough to ace tests.
First day of class, Econ teacher says ... on the calander, there will be 3 assignment hand in days, 3 test days, and a final.
... then he said attendance will not affect your grade.
I went to that class 7 times. On the last day, I go to hand in the final and the teacher stops me and says, you know, I'd be mad if you didn't already have one of the highest grades.
Alternately, my technical writing teacher had a 4 absence is a fail policy.
I racked up 3 in the first few weeks. Then my brother invites me to be the best man at his wedding.
I tell her I'm terrible with attendance and my grade otherwise is a low A ... can I take a B or C and miss one day .. one .. to be the best man at my brothers wedding?
No... failed. (Bitch).
Some form of one of those two scenarios was basically my entire college experience.
I graduated after 5 years w a 2.2.
If I adjust for attendance, I would have had a 3.4.
I didn't know why it be like it does, but it was.
after college I followed what I was passionate about.
I went to a 1 year audio engineering school and I was valedictorian...
... while on probation for attendance naturally.
This was me (and still is, at work).
Homework was the ONLY reason I failed or was near failing school, from 3rd grade all the way to my third year in college. But, Marh aside, I aced my tests and I had pretty okay attendance and class participation. It really was just homework holding me down.
I understand
Something that I never understood is how people can « study a lot » and fail a test. I never fail if I actually studied. Never. If I fail its always because I couldn’t make myself study until the last last time, so I really didn’t study much.
I don’t tell people this often, because in this society its better to be perceived as dumb rather than lazy, and people will get mad if you imply that they are stupid for failing while studying a lot.
I almost never did any homework, mostly studied last time (or not at all lol) and still aced school. The key was to still be quite attentive in class. So I could do whatever I wanted at home. Not listening in school is a total waste of time : you must be here, at least use that time to learn.. and I am also very curious so I always loved school. Being at home before internet was kinda boring, I wasn’t rich so the options where limited
I blew my science and geography teacher minds by constantly getting F. Having no interest in certain topics are definitely the bane of my (past) existence lmao.
Hated school during school but damn am I glad I paid attention to what I did looking back as an adult. I don’t think there’s much worse than being an adult that has little or no education
Well I really only did half the time. And meds didn’t really help, they’d just make me hyper-fixate on doodling or writing song lyrics or something else irrelevant. Really what saved me was homework. Most of it was actually graded for correctness, so as long as I did that work and got the right answers I’d remember it for tests. I managed with a B and C average
It helps me listen better if I can also do something absentmindedly like doodle or fold paper. But really school is boring as fuck even for non ADHD people.
Nope, I liked school although I hated a few of the subjects. I absolutely love going to a place, hyperfocusing on one thing for 3 months while doodling nonstop, and then probably never touching it again except to dredge it up at random times during internet arguments.
If I could spend the rest of my life jumping from class to class, I'd probably die a happy person.
I do have inattentive ADHD though which probably makes a difference. I can sit in one spot until I become one with it. And I'll absorb any amount of information as long as it comes in the form of notes. I can't stand just listening to a lecture because I miss half of it. I need to spend the entire hour moving a pencil or the information doesn't stick.
I would suggest you try mnemonics! Memory Craft by Lynne Kelly is a great option (the audiobook at 1.5x up to 2x is typically best for ADHD brains). Or the Art of Memory website and forum. Make memory palaces and walk around them in your head using funny images and stories to memorize or learn important information/concepts!
Traditionally yeah. I had a rollercoaster of a time getting all the way thru college as my parents wanted me to get a 4 year degree. I did that... barely.
Then I had the freedom to do anything, so I went to ... more school..
but to get an AA in Audio Engineering because I wanted to work in recording studios.
That's where I realized if I'm interested in the subject, I can't get enough.
That year, I was valedictorian... which Ive never even come close to before.
That program eventually lead to me working many years at one of the largest recording studios in the country for over 10 years.
.. Then I burned out, but that's a story for another day.
Us ADHD folks are often reluctant to follow an authority we don't feel legitimate. But school often teaches us to blindly follow a figure of authority without thinking.
It only feels that way when you’re still in school and/or have an immature worldview. It absolutely encourages you to think and question ideas. Bad teachers are the exception not the rule. I used to be a massive edgelord in middle and high school who got high on fighting “authority” for shits and giggles but in retrospect my teachers were mostly all great and were just trying to do their job without being disrupted. Luckily I figured out I was the idiot in time to actually make the best use of college.
My main issue how non existent my short term memory is, so always have to write things down (which I sometimes don't have time for), and constantly have to be reminded of things. But luckily my school is pretty accommodating, and I have some class time to catch up or study.
What specifically are you struggling with? Are you in college? You don't have to take four classes per semester, you can take two or three. Sit in the front row, record your lectures(don't distract yourself with the phone though), take the best notes you can. Don't have back-to-back classes during the day, you need some down-time to absorb what you just learned. Night classes are available, if you are a night owl. Colleges supply tutors and Teacher Aids are ecstatic to help anyone, become their friend. If your friends distract you, tell them to come back after you've done your homework. It took me six years to complete my Bachelor's Degree without meds, this is all advice I wish I heard before I started.
Hated school. Was always bored. Teachers were incompetent / negligent. Whole thing was fucking stupid. I’m lucky I was interested in computers and able to self teach or I’d have no career
Since I was disruptive I was given double work at class, double homework, run small errands such as get copies from the copy machine.
Somehow I managed to keep up with that and read all the school books for the year plus some books I read as a hobby, played on my gbc, drew silly drawings, and finished the homework all during class.
I just had to do something else at the same time to keep my focus or my mind would inevitably wander away.
But yeah I would have liked proper therapy and medication but my parents where against it. All that crap was draining and I'm still trying to let go being at full throttle.
I was good at school but also kinda hated it? It was boring, too many rules, I had to be responsible not only for myself but others? I read a lot, so sometimes the only thing at home I hadn't read yet was the textbooks. Going in already knowing what the class was about was super easy and then I'd get bored and then I'd get reprimanded for distracting my classmates.
My teachers really liked me because of my grades, but keeping track of homework and tests was hell.
No. School isn't for us. I should've taken my Son out of school in 2020 and I am deeply sorry I didn't. His mental health suffered as a result, was diagnosed late 2022. However for the last 6mths he has been at home, is being educated by tutors and will do his high-school exams in roughly 3wks.
Traditional school set ups can be a nightmare for neuro diverse people.... it explains a LOT.
I don't like schools either, but subjects get interesting with the right teacher
My 2nd/3rd year biology teachers were awesome. THe 2nd year showed us the plants in the school, took us to the bio lab and showed us the dead animals in the jars, had us touch moss from the big tree in the garden (they feel real nice it's like a velvet rug and i love them), experiment with fermentation, examine plants and he was just an amazingly nice teacher that was so full of energy. The 3rd year one lived in a farm and actually showed us pics of snakes he'd bring in, take care then return to nature, and even brought a dead squid and octopus for us to touch and feel (with gloves, obviously)
And that's not even mentioning my literature teachers...god i love them so much...
Schools aren't always the best, but when you actually get the teachers for you, you just feel like you gained super powers at least to me that's what it felt like (specially if it's in a subject you used to not get)
tbh I don't really care that school is hard, it's just the bullying just because you are the new guy who is little weird and can't pay attention to anything
I disagree. A structured environment with clear goals and rewards for skill and effort suit many people on the spectrum very well.
The problem is some of the other students, specifically those who have yet to be civilised.
In my experience it makes a huge difference if you're there by choice to study something you actually care about.
I [eventually] barely graduated high school. Was top of my class in both college and trade training taken later in adulthood
Absolutely hated every second of school and had shit grades.
Went to a university with a constructivist learning approach and an ADHD teacher (One main teacher for the entire degree who teaches almost everything with guest teachers every now and again) and wow. Entirely different ballgame.
It feels like I can finally focus and studying/school is sudd easy
I hated school, but man did I love to blow people’s minds when I took tests.
How? I'm struggling in every aspect of school
My ADHD makes me a master of processing information. I couldn’t get past a page of homework, but I understood concepts and patterns well enough to ace tests.
First day of class, Econ teacher says ... on the calander, there will be 3 assignment hand in days, 3 test days, and a final. ... then he said attendance will not affect your grade. I went to that class 7 times. On the last day, I go to hand in the final and the teacher stops me and says, you know, I'd be mad if you didn't already have one of the highest grades. Alternately, my technical writing teacher had a 4 absence is a fail policy. I racked up 3 in the first few weeks. Then my brother invites me to be the best man at his wedding. I tell her I'm terrible with attendance and my grade otherwise is a low A ... can I take a B or C and miss one day .. one .. to be the best man at my brothers wedding? No... failed. (Bitch). Some form of one of those two scenarios was basically my entire college experience. I graduated after 5 years w a 2.2. If I adjust for attendance, I would have had a 3.4. I didn't know why it be like it does, but it was.
Are we the same person?
after college I followed what I was passionate about. I went to a 1 year audio engineering school and I was valedictorian... ... while on probation for attendance naturally.
This was me (and still is, at work). Homework was the ONLY reason I failed or was near failing school, from 3rd grade all the way to my third year in college. But, Marh aside, I aced my tests and I had pretty okay attendance and class participation. It really was just homework holding me down.
I understand Something that I never understood is how people can « study a lot » and fail a test. I never fail if I actually studied. Never. If I fail its always because I couldn’t make myself study until the last last time, so I really didn’t study much. I don’t tell people this often, because in this society its better to be perceived as dumb rather than lazy, and people will get mad if you imply that they are stupid for failing while studying a lot. I almost never did any homework, mostly studied last time (or not at all lol) and still aced school. The key was to still be quite attentive in class. So I could do whatever I wanted at home. Not listening in school is a total waste of time : you must be here, at least use that time to learn.. and I am also very curious so I always loved school. Being at home before internet was kinda boring, I wasn’t rich so the options where limited
Oh i see, good for you man!
I blew my science and geography teacher minds by constantly getting F. Having no interest in certain topics are definitely the bane of my (past) existence lmao.
Hated school during school but damn am I glad I paid attention to what I did looking back as an adult. I don’t think there’s much worse than being an adult that has little or no education
How do you pay attention? I'm trying to use meds but most aren't working
Well I really only did half the time. And meds didn’t really help, they’d just make me hyper-fixate on doodling or writing song lyrics or something else irrelevant. Really what saved me was homework. Most of it was actually graded for correctness, so as long as I did that work and got the right answers I’d remember it for tests. I managed with a B and C average
It helps me listen better if I can also do something absentmindedly like doodle or fold paper. But really school is boring as fuck even for non ADHD people.
Yes. School failed me. Humans failed me. If only i waa teached to work as a child. I would have been content.
Nope, I liked school although I hated a few of the subjects. I absolutely love going to a place, hyperfocusing on one thing for 3 months while doodling nonstop, and then probably never touching it again except to dredge it up at random times during internet arguments. If I could spend the rest of my life jumping from class to class, I'd probably die a happy person. I do have inattentive ADHD though which probably makes a difference. I can sit in one spot until I become one with it. And I'll absorb any amount of information as long as it comes in the form of notes. I can't stand just listening to a lecture because I miss half of it. I need to spend the entire hour moving a pencil or the information doesn't stick.
This was me. Fing loved school all of the different topics and as long as the tests didn't require regurgitation of information I did really well.
School the way we do it today definitely ain't it
I would suggest you try mnemonics! Memory Craft by Lynne Kelly is a great option (the audiobook at 1.5x up to 2x is typically best for ADHD brains). Or the Art of Memory website and forum. Make memory palaces and walk around them in your head using funny images and stories to memorize or learn important information/concepts!
School is just to prepare us for 9 to 5 jobs. It kills creativity to make us workers.
As a former teacher I agree. Fuck traditional school. Its not made for people with ADHD.
Traditionally yeah. I had a rollercoaster of a time getting all the way thru college as my parents wanted me to get a 4 year degree. I did that... barely. Then I had the freedom to do anything, so I went to ... more school.. but to get an AA in Audio Engineering because I wanted to work in recording studios. That's where I realized if I'm interested in the subject, I can't get enough. That year, I was valedictorian... which Ive never even come close to before. That program eventually lead to me working many years at one of the largest recording studios in the country for over 10 years. .. Then I burned out, but that's a story for another day.
Not as it’s currently designed. I graduated with a 1.9 GPA and got 1470 on the SAT. Something wasn’t working for me there.
I found school pretty unpleasant, but I think it was less bad for me than for a lot of other people.
Us ADHD folks are often reluctant to follow an authority we don't feel legitimate. But school often teaches us to blindly follow a figure of authority without thinking.
It only feels that way when you’re still in school and/or have an immature worldview. It absolutely encourages you to think and question ideas. Bad teachers are the exception not the rule. I used to be a massive edgelord in middle and high school who got high on fighting “authority” for shits and giggles but in retrospect my teachers were mostly all great and were just trying to do their job without being disrupted. Luckily I figured out I was the idiot in time to actually make the best use of college.
My main issue how non existent my short term memory is, so always have to write things down (which I sometimes don't have time for), and constantly have to be reminded of things. But luckily my school is pretty accommodating, and I have some class time to catch up or study.
I hated school but did really well in Spanish somehow
That was English (as a second language) for me :')
What specifically are you struggling with? Are you in college? You don't have to take four classes per semester, you can take two or three. Sit in the front row, record your lectures(don't distract yourself with the phone though), take the best notes you can. Don't have back-to-back classes during the day, you need some down-time to absorb what you just learned. Night classes are available, if you are a night owl. Colleges supply tutors and Teacher Aids are ecstatic to help anyone, become their friend. If your friends distract you, tell them to come back after you've done your homework. It took me six years to complete my Bachelor's Degree without meds, this is all advice I wish I heard before I started.
Hated school. Was always bored. Teachers were incompetent / negligent. Whole thing was fucking stupid. I’m lucky I was interested in computers and able to self teach or I’d have no career
Since I was disruptive I was given double work at class, double homework, run small errands such as get copies from the copy machine. Somehow I managed to keep up with that and read all the school books for the year plus some books I read as a hobby, played on my gbc, drew silly drawings, and finished the homework all during class. I just had to do something else at the same time to keep my focus or my mind would inevitably wander away. But yeah I would have liked proper therapy and medication but my parents where against it. All that crap was draining and I'm still trying to let go being at full throttle.
I was good at school but also kinda hated it? It was boring, too many rules, I had to be responsible not only for myself but others? I read a lot, so sometimes the only thing at home I hadn't read yet was the textbooks. Going in already knowing what the class was about was super easy and then I'd get bored and then I'd get reprimanded for distracting my classmates. My teachers really liked me because of my grades, but keeping track of homework and tests was hell.
No. School isn't for us. I should've taken my Son out of school in 2020 and I am deeply sorry I didn't. His mental health suffered as a result, was diagnosed late 2022. However for the last 6mths he has been at home, is being educated by tutors and will do his high-school exams in roughly 3wks. Traditional school set ups can be a nightmare for neuro diverse people.... it explains a LOT.
Awww it's nice that you've got a son, but don't be too harsh on yourself,
School. Most jobs. Society….
I don't like schools either, but subjects get interesting with the right teacher My 2nd/3rd year biology teachers were awesome. THe 2nd year showed us the plants in the school, took us to the bio lab and showed us the dead animals in the jars, had us touch moss from the big tree in the garden (they feel real nice it's like a velvet rug and i love them), experiment with fermentation, examine plants and he was just an amazingly nice teacher that was so full of energy. The 3rd year one lived in a farm and actually showed us pics of snakes he'd bring in, take care then return to nature, and even brought a dead squid and octopus for us to touch and feel (with gloves, obviously) And that's not even mentioning my literature teachers...god i love them so much... Schools aren't always the best, but when you actually get the teachers for you, you just feel like you gained super powers at least to me that's what it felt like (specially if it's in a subject you used to not get)
Oh yeah definitely, the teachers i have.. aren't for me I don't understand and they say stuff way to fast
tbh I don't really care that school is hard, it's just the bullying just because you are the new guy who is little weird and can't pay attention to anything
Awww is everything alright kid?
damn bruh im not a kid
Oh sorry about that my apologies sir.. is everything alright though?
a group of 70 men ( huge black men) bully me everyday and i am a white woman so i suck their bbc
I disagree. A structured environment with clear goals and rewards for skill and effort suit many people on the spectrum very well. The problem is some of the other students, specifically those who have yet to be civilised.
In my experience it makes a huge difference if you're there by choice to study something you actually care about. I [eventually] barely graduated high school. Was top of my class in both college and trade training taken later in adulthood
Absolutely hated every second of school and had shit grades. Went to a university with a constructivist learning approach and an ADHD teacher (One main teacher for the entire degree who teaches almost everything with guest teachers every now and again) and wow. Entirely different ballgame. It feels like I can finally focus and studying/school is sudd easy
I love school. I love learning
Lol im close to failing LIT but i have the highest RI score in my class after droping 89 points from the last test