Five sentence summary:
Before the semester begins, determine add/drop dates, pick back-up classes, make sure you have your accommodations in place and potentially ask if there's anything new that might apply to you, and organize all of your sticky notes, calendars, highlighters, etc. Once the semester has begun, start feeling out your courses and potentially dropping ones that won't work and adding ones that show more promise. Set yourself up for success as much as possible by quitting classes with ableist instructors or ones that don't have the best overall design for your interests. Finally, once your schedule is finalized, add all the major deadlines for all classes to a calendar and identify if you'll need to book any tests with the disability office.
I almost always found the start of a new semester overwhelming when I was an undergraduate. There's so much to think of, so much new information, and our routines, our systems to stay on track all change. It's a lot. Honestly, the start of the semester is still overwhelming from the flip side, but I've learned a few things.
Before the semester starts
1. Determine your class registration dates and times. When can you register? Set alarms.
2. Determine when the add/drop period is. You can typically change courses for a week or two after the semester starts, but find out the date and find out any policies and procedures if you haven't done this before. 3. Pick your classes, your back-up classes, and balance your schedule. If you need to take five courses this term, find eight that you could take this semester. You'll want alternatives (keep reading to find out why). Don't take too many hard classes in a single semester. Hard may be hard in terms of they include a lab component, hard may be hard in that the classes bore you to death but are required. Make sure you have a good balance of classes that will be fun and exciting and classes that are boring and/or more work. You also want to make sure your week/days are balanced. If you don't do well with morning classes, don't expect this to suddenly change. 4. Register with the disability office (if new) or remind yourself of what the process is for notifying your professors of your accommodations. In some cases, the office handles it all for you. At other schools, you need to fill out an online form every semester. 5. Review what accommodations are available to you and ask your disability advisor if there is any new technology that you should consider. Yes, you may not have needed to record your lectures your first year, but you may find that one history lecture that is three hours long is harder to maintain your focus during. Schools also get new tools, so something unavailable last year might be offered this year. What are some potential accommodations for ADHD? 6. Buy your notebooks, pens, sticky notes, and etc. Organize all of it too so you're ready to go. Make sure to pack some snacks and some sort of drink in whatever bag you use for that first week. That break you have for lunch might be shorter than you thought or the class you planned to eat dinner during might not allow food. Throwing in a charger for your phone and any other electronics you rely on isn't a bad idea either.
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Five sentence summary There are many accommodations that can make managing ADHD much easier. The table below may be helpful in determining what accommodations you should investigate. By thinking of meetings as lectures, defenses as tests, and so forth, graduate students may find a lot of the accommodations in the table could apply. The Job Accommodation Network can be a great source for more information and ideas on potential accommodations. ADHD manifests itself in different ways in different people. Some of these accommodations may work for you and some may be useless. Some may work at certain times and not at others. Some may not be available at your college.
If you're learning and you have ADHD (you're an undergraduate student, you're taking a single class at a college, you're a graduate student, or you're enrolled in a course for professional development or for a skill), here are some accommodations that might be useful. Five sentence summary: Learning online is challenging but having accountability with an accountability buddy or a study group is a big help. Make time to create the space you need to study with the tools you need to learn. Break everything down into small parts to make it easier to handle. Take advantage of the nice parts of online learning. Pay attention and reflect on your learning and how you work best. While I took some online classes while I was a student, I did not take an entire semester's worth of classes online, and I certainly didn't shift online unexpectedly. Learning remotely is a whole new experience and it means new problems related to ADHD, new tools, and possibly some advantages. Here's what helped me be a successful student and what's helping me accomplish my work now. Have an accountability buddy. This should be someone who will actually hold you accountable but who you also feel comfortable sharing struggles and failures with. Check in with them weekly or more regularly and talk about your weekly goal list. Support and help each other. Try scheduling virtual study groups. Partner up with one or two folks from your class at set times on set days. Have a list of attainable goals or an agenda for each meeting. This can create accountability, so make sure to choose serious study partners. Invest in your organizational stuff: calendars, color coding notes with highlighters and sticky notes, folders that are labeled, etc. If you can afford it and it will help declutter your life, buy it. Identify large assignments & break them into chunks. Then create a schedule. You may not stick to it & everything will take you longer than you plan, but it will be better than trying to do it all last minute. You could even ask your prof to review it to see if it's reasonable. Make a to-do list at the start of each week and refer to it. Have some easy tasks and some harder ones and take the time each week to reflect on how you did. What were you able to accomplish? What was challenging and why? Use some sort of app or program and set reminders for all of your assignments. I mean, do this regardless of remote learning or not. I missed every meeting and doctor's appointment before I had calendar reminders. ADHD life saver... Check in with your Disability Office, if you haven't already. Different times mean different challenges. There may be new tools that can help you. It never hurts to ask. Schools are investing a lot more in technology because of the pandemic, so options that were unavailable previously may now be offered. If you tell them what you're struggling with, they may have suggestions for you. Write down what your big goals and hopes are for when you're feeling really stuck and hopeless, and stick it somewhere you regularly see it. What did you come to college for? What are you trying to accomplish? What's your dream? Don't lose sight of it. Have a separate space for studying. If you can't and it has to be your bedroom, then do something to make a clear distinction in your mind that this is work time. Put on nice clothes, put your calendar in front of you, keep your to-do list in sight, etc. Take advantage of some of the nice parts about online learning: you can re-watch lecture videos as many times as you need to without worrying about spacing out too much. Figure out what time of day you focus best and plan to watch the videos then. Work with your ADHD. Another potential perk of remote learning is that you can stand and watch your lectures. Create a standing desk or listen to your lectures again while on a walk. Your fidgeting and need for movement doesn't have to be as much of a hindrance now. Whoohoo! If you're struggling, ASK FOR HELP. Your professors should be there. Never be afraid to ask if you don't understand something. If your professor really is a jerk, ask other professors in the department, other students in the class, your academic advisor, the accessibility office, etc. Lastly, reflect on your learning and your focus. Ask yourself what works, what doesn't, what sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, what study locations help, what tools you find easy to use, what challenges you the most, and etc. Try and identify patterns. Sometimes there won't be anything to identify, but other times you might notice that you never get as much done as you want when you try and start the homework two weeks in advance or you won't remember to submit your assignments for this one class because it's through email and not an online system. Key points:
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