Good students w/ ADD?? | ADHD Information
school. sucks.
Thank god I graduate college in a few with a degree in biology.
dieburnbot38209.9714930556damn, seems like i've written these messages myself.
I've always been competitive but I gave up after I failed miserably many many times. My grades before medication were disgusting, especially in the boring classes.
I NEVER did well on tests. I would be SO distracted by everything elese that was going on that I usually had to read each question many times.
Now that I'm in school for something I love and I have a job that I love and I am medicated I feel I am doing a million times better. I have my competitive side back and I did really well last year in school, especially because I was friends with the class genious and made it a point to compete with his grades. We became good friends and I now have the privilidge of working with him.
Hey tehre,
All my progress reports have always said things like "erratic grades"...
One day I'd get a 100, and the next I'd get a 13 in the same subject. I always got almost perfect scores on standardized tests- AP scholar, National Merit commendation, perfect score ASVAB, but have report cards smattered with random A's and F's. Teachers never understood, but the reasons were simple. If on the night before a fact based exam, I lost a textbook, or the person who usually lent me notes to photocopy was absent or decided not to trust me with them, I would be lost- as I never could pay attention during class. If I had the book, or someone else's notes, I'd ace it. Sometimes I'd forget that there was a test and do something other than prepare. I actually enjoy taking multiple choice exams....
I also had horrible study habits my whole life. I never could study in a group, too many distractions, I couldn't stay in one spot, and couldn't shut up long enough to do any work. But I loved the competition in class and it kept me going. When I really needed to concentrate and study, I always drank mass quantities of coffee or took caffeine pills. It focused me and let me cram. I am such a procrastinator and I never, ever started a paper more than 2 days before it was due.Even through grad school. I don't plan to take anymore classes, so I guess I'll never know if my meds would have made a difference with this. Ironically, I teach study skills to elementary kids (who says you have to take your own advice
?) A word of advice....If this is offered at your child's school, sign them up . Break this vicious cycle!
dede
Hi ApothNYC.
I was pretty much like what you described. I made wonderful grades, always competitive. I had all kinds of ways to compensate for the condition. It looks to me like there are various degrees of it. Very good at numbers...Very disorganized...
I have always lost things more than the average person, talked too much and too fast although I eununciated very well....:) As I have gotten older though, I am increasingly forgetful. I have just been diagnosed, and started on adderall.
I cruised through school and never had a problem until high school math. I made it through but barely. I hit the wall in college at 28 yrs old.
In college, my business math teacher told me to forget that I was doing math and consider it as something I did every day without thinking about it. He pointed out different things that single mothers have to do to repair things, estimate grocery costs, etc. Once I felt I had free reign to figure things out my way, I did great.
In accounting, I was the one the teacher always asked, "are you really sure you have it?" I would say yes and then go home and struggle. He and I both were sure I would fail. I didn't know how to study. I finally figured out that I could take my corrected work home and do the assignment again and again until it matched my corrected work. It took forever for me to understand it. I couldn't remember what to do when, so I had to understand what and why for every little thing. I was the only one who aced the final. He had two trick questions which he had added at the last minute. One you couldn't figure out because there was not enough correct information. I got the right one wrong so he knew I hadn't cheated! He admitted in front of the entire class that he would not have believed I hadn't cheated if he hadn't added the last minute questions. I must admit that it felt so good to be held up as an example of what studying could do!
High school was so easy and college took up so much of my time that I couldn't face the thought of struggling any more and raising a toddler. The most stupid thing I ever let ADD cause me to do was to drop out before I graduated. Twenty years later I am still kicking myself in the butt for that one.
I am so jealous - what a bunch of smarty pants you all are.LOL Barb...I meant I did great in elem school, Jr High and High school...It seemed at that time, we never learned anything new really and so it was easy...I dropped out of colllege too.
I work with a lot of people who graduated and they act like they don't have a brain in their head...so I don't think too much about not finishing school.LOL It has taken me this long to even acknowledge I had any sort of "problem"
I just felt like anything requiring prolonged focus was not "worth doing". I am not kidding. I think I had some compensatory things in my brain helping a little. Like I could remember stuff that alot of people had to make lists for...I could almost keep my cking account in my head. If I did forget something it boomeranged back into my consciousness. I am supposedly "smarter" than a lot of people who are much more educated/accomplished. That is OK. I have never chosen to feel like something was "wrong" with me.
Even though I suppose there is...LOL. The only thing I regret is not knowing sooner really, because meds for it would have helped.Lately, I was just forget things period....I was losing stuff on a regular basis. I have a very hard time keeping things organized, or my house tidy....I have always talked too fast and too much....I have just started taking adderall. I think I want to switch to brand, because generic actually made me sleepy until I chewed it..now it doesn't anymore. 
LOL, I was wondering the exact same thing. I too was a gifted student and scored in the 99th percentile on all the standardized tests. Papers were easy also, unless I wasnt given specific directions. If it was open ended at all, I would get distraught and end up with a crappy paper. Research papers were very overwhelming because I had to do everything by myself without a teacher giving me directions. As a recently diagnosed health professional, I was wondering if anyone else was considered an excellent student.....something of a paradox for what most people consider normal in ADD. Some of my experiences....
--An excellent test-taker (esp. multiple choice).
--strong competitive streak..."got off" on getting the highest grade on an exam.
--illegible notes (I would often re-write them as a study tool)...people would ask to borrow them....and NEVER ask again... but i could read them and thats all that mattered.
--inability to study in groups (may have contributed to my lack of friends)...had to study alone locked up in my basement.
--pretty much always "crammed" ...imagine what i coulda done with Adderall then!! (15 years ago)
--essays..term papers tended to run shorter than most....couldn't focus long enough.
--somewhat "photographic" memory...during an exam I could visualize the page in my notes where the answer was...
--did well in classes with awful professors (those research guys with tenure that everyone avoids)..by teaching myself from the textbook.
I could go on....but I gotta go... : )
Yes to all of the above!! I was labeled 'gifted' and the teachers at the time wanted me to skip a grade as I was ahead in all of the subjects except math which I still did fine in. Luckily my parents did not allow me to skip the grade and I think that this was definitely the best thing for me.
I only recently was diagnosed with ADHD, I am 31 now, and I am still working on finding the correct combination of medication to best treat my symptoms.
I think that I was able to cope very well in high school, but as the rigors of college life appeared I really think I began to feel the strain. Of course, I didn't notice it at that time, but looking back I think it is very obvious.
I have always been very good at memorization tests (multiple choice, true/false, matching, etc), but usually did not do quite as well on essay exams. Writing papers was always difficult as I would find myself overwhelmed by the research that I had done and not know where to begin with the paper. It was always a matter of proscrastinating until the last minute and then I would get the paper done usually working right up until the last minutes.
As for studying for the tests...I would do my best studying locked in a room with no distractions by myself. My 'crutch' was to rewrite notes that I had taken as well as important items from the book so that I could memorize my notes and then 'picture' them in my head during the test. This worked well for me for the test, but it definitely didn't benefit my true understanding of the information or retention for longer terms.
I am now a CPA that works as a director of marketing and have both my bachelors and MBA degrees. I think of all of the additional time that I spent studying instead of socializing like most of my friends and it is kind of sad as I think things would have been so much different if I had only been diagnosed earlier in life? But, I guess the main thing is that I am now receiving treatment and am able to take advantage of the unique gifts that I have because of the ADHD.
It will be interesting to see if others have the same experiences.
Interesting because I never got very good grades in high school.
My grades actually improved in college but they still weren't eye-popping.
I can do really well on projects when I can concentrate really hard but I find it really tough to get in that zone. Maybe I'm not all that intelligent to begin with. I have an ok job, but i live in an area where its really hard to make ends meet on the salary that i make. And when i'm at work all i do is wish i was making more money, and beating myself up for having such an empty life. Hopefully this doesn't result in me getting fired but i wouldn't be shocked if it does. Sometimes I just don't feel like i'm right for this world. Maybe i don't have adhd, maybe im just dumb.
I was considering a thread on this myself (this ties in a bit with the how important is age 7 thread).
I can't remember much before this age, but I did win lots of form prizes.
After failing miserably at the first school I tried, I was awarded the 2nd scholarship to a major public (you'd say private in the US) school here in the UK.
I have always been a "lastminuter", and this was fine upto GCSEs (age 16), on which I got really good grades, despite teachers predicting the worts.
A Levels (age 18) were much tougher, especially Art, which was heavily course work based - but I did really enjoy it, so managed to get a B. I should have got an A in Physics, but was more interested in arguing with my teacher. I was thoroughly bored by maths, in which I got a C. Geography was always my strongest subject, but even in that I was not predicted good grades. I fondly remember my geography teacher meeting me in the street afterwards and sayinf "Ah, Smith, an A in Geography, totally undeserved, but well done."
Managed to get to a good university, where I started to really struggle, as almost everything was coursework, and there was no discipline.
I think it is fair to say that my symptoms got worse the older / more advanced level of education I got - assuming of course that I get the diagnosis that I believe describes my symptoms (ADD inattentive type).
Out in the world of work, I have had my share of success and failure. The really stupid thing is that I have contracts with clients which should net me a reasonable income each month, but I have lost interest in working for them. This is shooting myself in the foot financially. I have one project which is bringing me in a reasonable income (six figure if measured in US$), but I am loosing interest in that too.
I'm sure I'm not the only one here who can find it difficult to concentrate on doing something even if it is financially rewarding (sorry, getting ot here, maybe this is one for a different thread).
Sorry, forgot to add that Smith is not my real namei learned to read and write before Pre-School, i was always refered to as the genious of the Family
but that didn't transfer over to School for me, i always found it a challenge to listen to the teacher for any more that 10 minutes. the More hands-on classes where a breeze, but any class that had a long and boring lecture i failed miserably
In high school I was kind of a slacker. I got good grades in the classes that I liked and got ok grades in the classes I hated. I am surprised I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD back then. I constantly lost things, would forget assignments, my area would be disorganized and such. I don't think the teachers in my school knew that one could be gifted and have ADD. My parents called me the absent minded professor.
At college,I was able to do well on most exams, including essay ones. My downfall like many other posters was research papers. I had no problem going out and doing a research paper if I was given a specific topic or question to answer. It is when I am left to my own devices that I had a major problem. I graduated with high honors from a major public university depsite heavy drinking and living in a frat house during my last two years of school. I wonder how could of a student I could have been if I would have been focused on the right things and not abusing my brain during that time period
I want to go to grad school, but the cost is scaring me for the simple fact that I am afraid of the amount of research required of grad school classes. I would have no trouble learning material and taking exams. At the school I want to attend, some people I know have had to two 25 page papers in a very short period of time..(2-3 weeks) That kind of assignment scares the crap out of me..especially since I would be going into serious debt for school. I can't afford to fail.schools simply require better grades of grad students.
jamesrwrightiii38208.7524652778
i was in gifted and talented, scored in the top percentiles on all my testing whether for school or college or iq or whatever.
i've always been a good test taker. i sometimes wonder yeah..can i possibly be having adhd AND be a good test taker?
i think the key for me is that i always loved taking tests. i was competitive as well and i liked being the first one finished and with the best grade. it was personally a serious chink in my poor little ego if i didn't get that done.
with that said..i can take tests all day. but i skipped classes often..i didn't do homework EVER and i never wrote papers b/c i didn't understand often what my proffessers really wanted. they often told me that i could write fiction but i need to improve my technical writing for a specific audience etc. i found even 'simple' compisition to be daunting..the questions they ask of a paper are too open ended for me. so nowadays i realize fully that i REALLY need good specific instructions to do well or to do whatever it is that you're asking for. otherwise it might be something totally different that i end up with or i will stress and be indecisive and make five drafts of a paper and not turn it in.
i can't listen to ppl giving me instructions. my mind instantly wanders. i have to take notes and try very hard to pay attention. i hate that!!!
everyone that meets me asks "what did you major in?" "where did you graduate from" "when did you complete your masters?"
LOLLLLL
i'm about to reenter school. i'm doing it with meds this time. and i 've finally chosen my major. thank god.
so hopefully this round of school will be different. with its challenges still, yet more manageable.
sumi
I was gifted too. Just considered a chatterbox and I never lived up to my potential (so they said). I always crammed the night before and reading chapters in textbooks was beyond boring. So I listened in class and developed a 'voice' memory of lectures. And I learned to skim books real quick for the important stuff.
Research papers!?! Dear lord--rather stick sharp sticks in my eyes. But any project that involved creativity was an easy A.
One of the give-aways was that my mother insisted that I take piano lessons, but sitting still to practice was too much for me. However, I loved to dance! I would play a few bars, then get up to dance to whatever I heard.
I still dance when standing in lines etc.
wow its so great to read about other people like me..
I did very well in school...IQ tests etc...skipped a grade...
papers were always too short, lost interest after the start...
managed to graduate..but it took 3 colleges and 3 majors to do it...I am now and ICU nurse at a large university hospital
I don't remember ever opening a book to study in high school, and spent most of class time doodling. I suppose that led to the really mediocre grades I got in some subjects. In other courses I deliberately did poorly on tests because being a high achiever was "not cool". What a surprise to everyone when I came out in the high percentiles in the college entrance exams.
I also did well on tests, particularly multiple choice, and really struggled on papers. Ater 3 years in 3 different majors I left school for 10 years before eventually going back. For me, science is much easier than arts.
for all those who are struggling through college! You can do it!
I remember having a really hard time reading textbooks (my reading skills are great, but not for things that don't interest me)....So I did well on tests because I could remember verbatim what the teacher talked about.
HOWEVER, if I was tested on something I was supposed to read, I was toast.
As far as degrees, I have two...
One in an art, the other in a science...
Seems I do equally well in both.
Go figure.
My second grade teacher suggested to my parents to hold me back at the end of that year due to a reading problem. That summer my mother sent me to a 6 week diagnostic reading clinic ran by the University of Texas and after extensive testing it was found that I was in all classifications of reading performing at and 11th grade level. I would say that is gifted. In college I was always on the Dean's list for my second degree, but my first degree (parents choice) I struggled. I think the outcome of your performance as a person with ADHD depends on your interest. Another member described it as ADHD person's ability to "hyperfocus".
If you enter the search "famous people with ADHD" you will get a list a mile long of "gifted" people.
PS I also have photographic memory.
Me too CreativeCrazy!
In 4th or 5th grade (I don't remember exactly) my mom had to fight the entire school to get me into the gifted reading section. She knew I was reading high school level books from the library, but the teachers didn't want to bump me. If she hadn't convinced them...? School was boring enuf in the "gifted" classes, I can't imagine how miserable I would have been in "normal" classes.
One of my all time favorite classes was a science class in middle school. The teacher let a small group of us, 3 or 4 I think, leave the class and do independant study on whatever we wanted for a quarter. Just had to do a project of some sort to talk about what we did. It was awesome!
College though? Yeah right. I lasted a semester before giving up. Luckily I've found a job that gives equal weight to experience as a degree. (I'm a newscast director) Nice adrenalin filled job that's never the same two days in a row. I like it
Mostly I was just bored
.vei there other people like me.... not that weird 
It is nice to know we're not alone. I was always in those
'gifted' classes as well, but outside of the classroom didn't really
feel like I belonged. It was such a struggle to get through a
chapter of a text book, and it would usually only happen at 3am the
night before a test. And many of the other's seemed to know what
they wanted to do. I just hopped from one interesting topic to
another. I usually enjoyed (or at least was interested in) classroom discussions but droning lecture's were nearly unbearable. Felt like a constant struggle to keep myself from bolting from the room in those.
"Research papers!?! Dear lord--rather stick sharp sticks in my eyes. "
Hee hee! oh, yes, defintiely! I was the master of test taking, especially those standardized tests, but writing made my stomach flip flop. Although I did like the research part, it was the synthesis of all the facts and bits that caused anxiety attacks.
Anyway, I think the thing that kept me going through school (BA, MA) was the outside structure and pressure (along with a big time fear of failure). That all evaporated as soon as I started my first REAL job. I'd spend hours imobilized by the vagueness of my responsibilities and the lack of any real "big brother" watching over me. 2 years of that and I knew I had a problem, but not what.
I think the meds help, but I also think I'm realizing (through the ADD discovery) that I may not have made the best choices about my work environment (confusing symptoms and causes) and I might have to find something different.
So what do you all think is a good job for an ADDer? My doc said that often we're good at "the big picture" and not so much "actualizing" (not his words, just the gist).
I can say with out a doubt I excelled early in classes, read the book in a week and then quickly got really and truly painfully bored. Then, I just cheated by copying other people's mundane assignments and then skipped alot of classes. I was bored and it was physically painful to sit through the slow pace, sitting still, eyes forward etc. Right before a test, I would lock myself in a library cubby with no distractions and read through the book and ace the tests. I to wrote notes from the book and rewrote them as a way to concentrate. Teachers were not fond of my learning style and hated giving the A's. I just always felt they aimed to the lowest common denominator in the class...and probably still do.
Process and having to wait for others was painful for me. Still is but I can control it better.
Wow, I too was one of those who crammed the night before. For me I would sit in my room and listen to the radio. When I would write the test or exam I would remember the song I was hearing when I had read a particular part of the text and therefore I would remember the answer.
I also got the "Not living up to her potential" in all grade levels. My friends could never understand how I could study for an hour or not at all and still manage to get better marks than they did.
I seem to have the photographic memory function, I can remember phone numbers I love trivia(useless knowledge) and as long as I was "there" to hear it I would remember it.
LOL, I am in college right now, that is a whole other post. The short version is me starting at 17, changing my major 10 times, dropping out, making a couple vain attempts to go back, and than finally now at 24 finishing it up. I am doing a distance education program now, it is much easier than being on campus and gives me more flexibility. This though, presents the obvious problem of procrastination. Last semester I had three courses, requiring a ton of reading, and probably in the neighborhood of 20 essays. I put everything off until two weeks before the due date of all of the assignments. Prior to this, I had not turned in a single thing. I managed to pull off two A's and a B, I couldn't get distracted, there was no time for it. I had straight A's in high school, and so school never was a problem for me as such.I am lucky I dont get that 'stuck" symptoms. I may be wrong I may change course 20 times in a minute but I dont draw blanks. I excell at pressure tests. I am done well before anyone else even if I did vibrate my desk 8 inchs from it's starting place. I may write sloppy and miss a few answers for failing to read the whole question( the whole review my answers has never been something I could do) but dont feel like the deer in the headlights. I am hoping with medication I can do better than "getting by" in the classes that are so boring they hurt...first up Philopsophy...I am a 43 yr old sophmore and on my third major, that I could really relate too...about time I figuired out what I wanted to be when I grew up!
F F F'itty F. I was the most underacheiving student ever. I could do very well on tests, *if* they were not timed. Timed tests were automatic F's. However, in my day, grades were almost entirely dependant on how much homework you finished, so F. I would be forced to sit at the dinner table from 4:00 to midnight, every day, until my homework was finished, and *all* I could think about is what I would do if I could go out and play. Sometimes I would actually finish my homework, and then I would forget to turn it in the next day. F F F.Strangely, I am a very educated person. I learned everything that everyone else learned in school.
Here I am, another one... breezed through high school, then couldn't make it to class in college. I did well in the ones I actually showed up for, but changed my major 7 times and finally opted for Computer Science so I wouldn't have to write papers. It took me 15 years to finish but after medication (the last two years) I managed to double major in Comp Sci and Philosophy (papers were a snap on the meds). I highly recommend any type of computer work for people with ADD. Even before the meds and graduating, the easiest part of my administrative job was troubleshooting everyone else's computer. Now I'm a programmer and love every second of my job. The environment is quiet and secluded, and you can usually have a mess of papers around with nobody thinking twice about it.
me too me too me tooI always scored in the absolute top percentiles of all standardized tests i
took as a kid- but it wasn't always because I really knew the answers but I
would read a few (related) questions ahead, and infer what the other
answers had to be.
Once i had access to word processing, my dismal grades started to
change. Sometimes is right- computers really help me compensate. I
would just type freeform, come back later and edit then edit again. But
still my grades were all over the map. No one was more shocked that I
was when i got the highest scores in math on the psat than any other
female in my high school. Why was I getting a d in algebra then? Because
the class was just worksheets, and not exciting big idea concepts.
I wanted to write research papers in college, i actually did. I would get
excited about ideas, have piles of little index cards of notes, and would
be able to TALK about it but I ended up having to go to the tutoring
center (as it closed on the last day of the semester) to get help on
organizing it. I'm not a bad writer, but the method or organization of all
the ideas i had kept breaking apart. it ended up okay, but i have run away
crying from anything like it since.
I was the student that good teachers liked, even if i didn't get an a. Bad
teachers hated my guts.
Sumi,
That's me exactly. I'd rather take 16 credits hard core science classes like O- chem and Physics than one class in which you have to write papers. Writing has always been a nightmare for me. I've been in school for 6 years NOW trying to finnish. I'd avoid taking classes involving writing and then I even decided to go pre-med because there is alot less writing. Although with undiagnosed add and being a single mom this rigorous schedule took a toll on me too. I was just diagnosed at 27 with add and it makes sooooo much sence. After being on the meds I feel like a completely different person and am so excited to be starting the next semester. Also add is considered a disablity and you can get alot of help through disabled student services. Quiet rooms for exams, more time, free tutoring including WRITING WORKSHOPS, priority registration, A NOTE TAKER ect. Anyway I'm excited. I hope school goes well for you too this time round.