Study Advice Please! | ADHD Information
I SCHEDULED IT FOR SEPT 13TH, BUT I CAN RESCHEDULE IT WHENEVER I WANT IF I'M NOT READY.I took the state boards for my PCA license, and they let me take it in stages.Will they accomodate you?
AD/HD is a recognized mental disability by the ADA, and everyone is supposed to accomodate you. Like wheel chair parking stalls.
Find out tomorrow.
Find an ADA office first before you ask the state boards. Individuals don't know as much as agencies.
I HAVE TO RE-TAKE THE STATE BOARD NURSING EXAM FOR THE 5TH TIME AT 0/TEST! I NEED SOME ADVICE ON HOW TO GET PASSED IT. THIS TEST HAS HAUNTED ME SINCE MAY 2003. I DIDN'T HAVE ADD MEDS BEFORE SO I HOPE THIS TIME I CAN FOCUS/CONCENTRATE ENOUGH TO PASS. IT'S TEARING UP MY MARRIAGE AND I AM EMBARRASED AT WORK AS A NURSE AID FOR 1 1/2 YEARS WHERE THEY KNOW I GRADUATED FROM SCHOOL. I WORK PART TIME, HAVE A BABY AND 9 YR OLD DAUGHTERS, NO DAYCARE, AND NO SUPPORTIVE HUSBAND. ANY IDEAS? IT'S A 5 HR COMPUTER TEST AND I HAVE TO REMEMBER & APPLY KNOWLEDGE FROM 10 YRS OF COLLEGE. ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED.
THANKS
I can't help you with it as I always have been able to go into hyper focus for tests. Hopefully your meds will give you the focus and recall you need to pass this time.
I will pray for you to pass. When do you take it?
Let us know when you pass and we'll have a party! 
I LIKE USING TAPE RECORDER OF MY NOTES, AND DAVIDORNADO'S SINGING METHOD
. I AM ALSO A VISUAL LEARNER SO THE TEACHER'S ADVICE IS GOOD TOO. ANOTHER PROBLEM IS DISCLIPLINE MYSELF TO SIT DOWN AND STUDY WITHOUT HOUSE AND KIDS INTERUPTIONS/DISTRACTIONS (TO DO LISTS, PHONE ETC.). I DO HAVE TO ORGANIZE BEFORE I START, BUT I HAVE TO MAKE TIME TO DO SOMETHING! I KEEP PUTTING IT OFF BECAUSE I'M SCARED TO FAIL. I AM SO BURNED OUT ON STUDYING FOR THE TEST. I KEEP PUTTING OTHER HOUSEHOLD STUFF BEFORE STUDYING AND AVOID IT OR FORGET TO STUDY. HOW MUCH SINCE DOES THAT MAKE? I'M OVERWHELMED
Hey,
I'm taking college classes right now in Spanish. ( and I read that ADDers can get out of Spanish, Haa haa I'm doing it naner naner!!)
The best thing that helps me is to study outloud... it drives my family crazy reading outloud to myself.. but it helps me focus my attention on what I am doing.. If i study silently, I start thinking of all sorts of things that have nothing to do with spanish, LOL.
The next thing that really helps is a study group. I sat down at Starbucks, got my self a solo frappuccino and went over notes with 2 other students. We talked, discussesd, and practiced vocabulary, research studies, etc etc...
I ended up doing pretty well in the class as a result.
Is it possible to find others who are preparing for the nursing exam that you could study with? Maybe take another prepatory class for the purpose of meeting someone to study with?? Just ideas that I thought I would throw in 
Sherry
LOLz - the notes are already in spanish, so are all the textbooks...
Besides that, I think I might get too distratcted by the new language and forget about the Spanish!!! But still.....hmmm a third language... how fun would that be?
think I'll do a search on Norwegian
Sherry
[QUOTE=kibbles002]Hey,Is it possible to find others who are preparing for the nursing exam
that you could study with? Maybe take another prepatory class for the
purpose of meeting someone to study with?? Just ideas that I
thought I would throw in
Sherry[/QUOTE]
Hey! We could play spin the Doctor!*
* Mebe that's Y I didn't make it through medjool? 2 ADDistracted by the nurses?
I'm taking college classes right now in Spanish.
Sherry[/QUOTE]
Oh, here's a thought:
Translate your classnotes into Spanish, then from Spanish to Russian
or Gaelic, then back to English. Handling them several times may aid
your retention...
[QUOTE=kibbles002]LOLz - the notes are already in spanish, so are all the textbooks...
Besides that, I think I might get too distratcted by the new language and forget about the Spanish!!! But still.....hmmm a third language... how fun would that be?
think I'll do a search on Norwegian
Sherry
[/QUOTE]Oooops, how ADD of me! I was thinking in Spanish and translating to English.Hey, here's another iDea: think to do a search on Klingon
I was born a poor Klingon... and didn't have any rythm.
In order to receive accomadations, I had to request it the first time I took the exam. The state will not allow accomadations after you took it already. Good thinking though. Thanks!
Here is some advice from a teacher. I studied educational psychology a few years ago in school and learned some interesting things.
Our minds remember better if we do certain things.
Organize what we are learning before we put it into our brains.
You can organized it in heirarchy, whole to part, chronological, etc.
Also, attach what you are learning to something you already know.
Other things that can help.
People each learn in different ways. Some are verbal, some are musical, some visual, some kinetic, some analytical, some are intrinsic, etc. You can put the information you need to remember to a song like twinkle twinkle little start. You can remember a whole lot more and do it quicker that way. It seems silly, but try it. It really works with some of the kids I teach. I also have them visualize a lot of things like spelling words. I myself am very visual and can picture my notes when I am taking a test.
Good luck!
Hey Jackson,
This one's for you:
The Bone Saw ng
A Song, by Davidornado
The toe bone's connected to the~ ~metacarpal bone!
The metacarpal bone's connected to the~ ~angle bone!
The angle bone's connected to the~ ~soccer bone!
The soccer bone's connected to the~ ~leg bone!
The leg bone's connected to the~ ~ski bone!
The ski bone's connected to the~ ~long bone!
The long bone's connected to the~ ~trom bone!
The trom bone's connected to the~ ~hippie bone!
The hippie bone's connected to the~ ~coccyx bone!
The coccyx bone's connected to the~ ~L5 backbone!
The L5 backbone bone's connected to the~ ~L4 backbone bone!
The L4 backbone bone's connected to the~ ~L3 backbone bone!
The L3 backbone bone's connected to the~ ~L2 backbone bone!
The L2 backbone bone's connected to the~ ~L1 backbone bone!
The L1 backbone bone's connected to the~ ~T7 backbone bone!
{hey, this could take longer than I think
}{so, you get the picture, the spiney bones are connected to other spiney bones, so you sing the thoracic set and the cervical set... I'll pretend I did... 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer, ya' take one down, and pass it around, and spit a little (hey! that's where they got the word spittle: it's a compound word) 98 bottles of beer on the wall}
Where was I? Oh, yeah...
The hippie bone's connected to the~ ~coccyx bone!
Stop IT! Enough already... I'll get to the punch line...
The C1 balckbone bone's connected to the~ ~head bone!
The head bone's connected to the~ ~Merci! I forgot the punchline!
A So Long, by Davidornado
OOOooo - I'm looking into getting a small voice recorder for Xmas. Sony has some cool ones with Dragon software that will convert the voice transmissions to print!
They're small, can fit in your pocket, can download to your computer...
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR ADVICE. EVERYONE HELPED! EVERY REPONSE HELPS ME TO GET MOTIVATED AND FEEL MORE CONFIDENT PLUS LET ME KNOW I AM SUPPORTED BY PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND HOW OUR BRAIN WORKS. I LOVE IT!put questions/ answers on audiotape so can listen until mastered. Yeah, like write down in your own words, but a lot fewer, what it is you're studying, like in the margins of the page. Then highlight them.Or, draw a line figure of what you're figuring out...
I take math to a spreadsheet, and each cell is one step of the process, and I title the cell above it, so I know what that number/function/macro cell is doing.
And if all else fails, memorize the buzz fraze (the sound byte).
e.g. pH is the negative log of the hydrogen ion concetration.
I still don't know what it means, but I got the answer write on the test...
[QUOTE=repairman]I don't know if this will help you in time , but...
[/QUOTE]I cheated a lot... little letters, like tatoos...
Hope this can help out, davidiel
one thing that really works for me is trying to explain the material to myself or pretending i'm trying to explain it to someone else. i'll read a paragraph or two and then write down a sentence or two in my own words what the stuff i read was about. i'll arrange my own sentences in an outline format so i can use it for reference later, but usually, after i try to think about how i would explain it to someone else i remember it better. also... let yourself take breaks... like 15 minutes every hour. don't expect yourself to just sit down and study for 3 hours straight. i hope this helps! good luck!!!
Okay, then instead of studying in a linear fashion, have you thought of studying several topics at once?So when you get bored with one, jump to another. Or if you get distracted by a related (?) thought, you can go to it, study it awhile, until the next disrapture occurs.
I don't know if this will help you in time , but a book I've found helpful is called"The BRAIN BOOK" by Peter Russell. It has the visual diagramming trying to fly mentioned and other tipssuch as foci and discussions as to why memory may or may not work in certain situations. one article of information the book gave me is the fact that if you remember the first and last 15 minutes of study, only study on one subject for 30 min. and you have a chance of over 80% recall. Also interference causes disruption in memory,so study right before sleep, then again right after you wake up for reinforcement(good for tests).
Hope this can help out, daniel
Don't know if these will help, but they were new to
me this summer, and seemed to really help. I used
them to "anchor" the information I was studying so I'd
remember it, and the first one works well for
"cramming" stuff you already know but forgot to
study...
I was taking art history, so the info to learn was
dates, names, relationships between people,
political parties, etc.
Scribble technique:
Make your notes as you usually do, and study them
until you think you know the info pretty well.
This is the different part: on a blank piece of paper,
THINK each point you need to remember, while
SCRIBBLING on the page, as if you were writing. I
will write out, semi-legibly, the key words, like names
or whatever that I need to know the spelling or exact
phrasing.
Essentially I am linking the info I need to remember
to the act of using a pen and paper, but I'm able to
"write" at a pace that matches the speed I think at.
You could adapt it to typing by typing nonsense
words while going over the information.
Card technique
Write your main topic on a card. Have lots of blank
cards. Use these to write your subtopics.
Brainstorm, or write the points you want to
remember (from the text, experience, etc) and write
this stuff on the cards, and arrange them first around
the main card. Now you can see their relationships,
and arrange them PHYSICALLY so related topics are
close to each other, touching, slanted, etc. in the
ways you feel they reallly are. Use the backs of the
cards to write details, or (for essays) paragraphs you
might use on a topic.
Arrange the cards on the wall or the floor, whatever.
This is easily transfered to programs like
"Inspiration" (which no longer works on my
computer)
There are also audio recording devices around -
maybe you could speak anything you want to
remember and listen to it over and over, maybe
using a scribble technique to anchor the auditory info
to the use of a pen and paper, or to typing.
If I've totally got the wrong idea, sorry. Hopefully this
is useful for some (even if it's just "hey!" I do that too!)