It’s that time of year – exam time for many students in High school. I thought I’d share some study skill which work for my son who is currently in Year 12 preparing for ATAR exams.
- Making the content visual
The ADHD brain has little tolerance for boring, routine, uninteresting tasks and information. Let’s face it, a lot of revision is boring, routine and uninteresting. So the secret is to try and make it more interesting. Also the ADHD brain often has weaker short term memory but strong long term memory which means once it goes into the brain, it will remain there.
Try using mind mapping (as in picture above with lots of pictures and colours), doodling in the columns of notes and adding colours with textas when trying to remember content.
Try using acronyms for remembering lists of things to remember but put it to a tune if you like singing or record it and play it back to yourself when brushing your teeth.
- Sleep
You probably know that the most important focus around sleep is to make sure you are getting enough sleep to ensure your brain functions properly. If you’re in the upper years of high school, you need a minimum of 8 to 9 hours sleep. So try to turn off devices and screens an hour before you think you need to be asleep and a regular routine will help get you to sleep.
What you may not know is that the ADHD brain will have some executive functioning weaknesses which may impact the ability to plan, to organise, to prioritize and to get started & stick at something. All skills which are very important for study. So if the ADHD brain doesn’t get sufficient sleep, these skills may actually be even weaker than normal. If you are struggling to stay awake when studying, you might benefit from taking a nap, then come back and try again.
If your ADHD brain finds laying down to sleep really boring that’s because your brain doesn’t receive the “tired” messages immediately from your body. You need to train your brain to rest until it receives the messages from your body that you are tired. Tired and sleepy are not the same thing. Try audible books, podcasts and music to help you brain to rest until it gets the messages. Practicing this technique will help your brain to get in the habit but be patient with yourself.
- Making time visible
Time blindness is often a challenge for the ADHD brain. This can mean that the passing of time can seem different to peers perception of time. This time blindness can impact some aspects of study. It can be difficult to calculate how long a piece of work will take. It can be difficult to calculate how long to stay studying for. It can be difficult to get back to study after taking a break. Impacts like these can result in a day disappearing without achieving the planned study.
There are some ways which can help with this:
- Making time visible using timers, alarms, sand timer, visible clocks or the app “Time timer”. By making the time “visible”, there is a better chance you will be aware of time passing and with it the study time.
- Asking someone to be your accountability partner. An accountability partner is someone who you give permission to check in with you at agree intervals to make sure you’re on track with your planned study. Keep the intervals short at first, say half an hour, and be clear what you want to achieve in the half hour.
- Set yourself an overall time to study and include breaks. Set a timer for each break and reset the timer when you get back to study.
- Creating self-motivation by using rewards
The ADHD brain often has a challenging time being self-motivated. Self-motivation is an executive functioning skill and for some people with ADHD, this skill develops slower than your peers. This may be why you find your friends have an easier time studying than you do!
It’s important to promise yourself a break with something you like after you’ve done a period of study. However, the breaks should be short and not involve anything too stimulating or it will be difficult to get back to it. Stay away from screens as they draw the attention in and it’s so difficult to get off them. Try reward breaks like playing with your animal, getting a drink, fixing yourself a tasty snack, doing five jumping jacks, a short walk round the block, talking to a friend who is studying also so will not stay chatting all day. All of these won’t take long but will give your brain a rest without pulling your attention completely from your study.
At the end of the complete study period, take note of what you achieved (no matter how small) and write down for yourself where you are going to start in the next study period. Now give yourself a large reward which can involve a screen if you’re finished for the day.
- Thinking about your medication’s best support
If you’re using medication to support your ADHD in school, take notice of when you feel its best impact. It’s well known that people have a preference for their preferred time to study. Some people are best first thing in the morning, some are best later in the day. However, if you are taking medication, you need to use the best time that it helps your brain to focus and pay attention.
Talk to your professional and ensure you understand what type of medication you are using and how long it’s expected to work for. If you’re taking medication that lasts for 12 hours and you’ve taken it before your school day, you can expect that studying after 7pm might not work well for you. Therefore it’s important for you to pay maximum attention during the school day where as your friends may find that studying after school until 10pm works well for them. Be clever using the benefit of the medication to support your study.
If you would like any further information or support on this, please contact me.
Recent Comments