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. First week or so of classes
1. Map out where you need to go and make sure you have enough time to get there. Printing a map and/or having it on your phone helps. Do this in advance of the class if possible, but be prepared for there to be more students on campus during the times between classes.
2. Have your class schedule in multiple places. Print out a copy for your bag, another for jacket pocket, take a photo of it and have it on your phone, email it to yourself. It's also good to include a link that will take you to the most recent class schedule, just in case a room has changed at the last minute. 3. Investigate your classes. Now is the time to make changes. Make sure your professors aren't ableist. Read the syllabus, look for ableist policies like attendance absolutely required or no flexibility on turning in late work. Talk to others in the class and ask if they've taken courses with the instructor before. Make sure you're course load is balanced. Maybe you wanted to get all of your required courses out of the way quickly, but it turns out you're going to be really bored and have a hard time staying motivated. Maybe you need to take a lighter load because of too many challenging courses. This is the time to drop classes that have ableist professors, that aren't as interesting as you thought, or that just won't work this semester. This is why I recommend registering for more courses than you might need; you'll already have back-up classes and you'll have gone to them! This is probably one of my most useful tips to undergrads. Use that add/drop period wisely and use it for your needs! It's your education. 4. Let your professors know about your accommodations. This doesn't have to be a long conversation. You might just hand them the paperwork. The earlier you let them know you have accommodations, the better. You can also check for ableism. Introducing yourself and saying, "Here are my accommodations. Do you foresee any issues?" is a great way indicator. Your prof may respond with, "Actually, no I can't get you slides in advance" and you know to maybe follow up with more conversations or just cut your losses and go for another class you're excited about. Alternatively, you may find a class you were less interested in, the professor responds with, "Yes, this is totally fine. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to help you learn!" 5. Pencil in recovery time. There is so much going on at the start of a new semester. We have to adjust to new schedules. There are a lot of tasks that test our executive functioning. There are new rules and new routes and potentially awkward conversations with professors. It can all be very exhausting. That's why it's important to pencil in time for recovery. Maybe you take a nap or go for a walk or play video games, but actually make the time for self-care. Pencil it into your calendar. Rest is so important. Once the add/drop period has ended:
1. Make a calendar/document/timeline of ALL OF YOUR DEADLINES. Depending on your classes and your needs, you may want to make one calendar that has all of your major deadlines (mid-terms, final papers due, etc.) and one that has every deadline (lab reports, weekly homework assignments, etc.). Do this not only to set reminders, but you want to have this information in one place. That allows you to find it easily. You also want to look at all of your deadlines and identify potential problem weeks. For example, if you have three mid-term exams in the same week, that might change your study technique or maybe you want to give yourself the next weekend off from work completely to recover and relax.
2. Make friends in your classes or at least make allies. At the bare minimum, you want to exchange contact info with someone who can share notes if you miss a class. Ideally, you want to find some folks who you like and who you might want to study together with and/or work with on final projects. Studying and working with others is something I recommend to everyone with ADHD (and everyone in general honestly). We miss little things and working with others can help us catch key points of lecture we had trouble focusing. We might forget a deadline has been moved but a study group could remind us. You don't have to be best friends with these folks, you don't even have to be friends with them, you just need to find people who complement your work and study style so you all benefit. I'm a big fan of shared note-taking, where multiple people either take notes together in a Google Doc. Maybe you all work in the same document at the same time, maybe you all share your notes after lecture and combine them, or maybe you all work in the same document but you each have different responsibilities (one identifies new ideas, one connects to previous material, one writes down which pages in the textbook go along with the lecture, etc.). 3. Revisit your weekly schedule and see if there are any adjustments you need to make. If you have Monday mornings free and your inbox is always a mess, maybe you pencil into your calendar every Monday morning from 9-11am is for emails only. If you know you need a whole day free of obligations to get any real writing done, maybe every other Saturday is designated your writing day. I recommend putting these into a calendar and actually following them. Say no if someone asks you to meet during these times. That time is reserved. You are not actually free and this is your reminder to yourself that you are not actually free. 4. If you have extended testing or other accommodations that must be reserved in advance, mark those dates down and set reminders. If your school requires two weeks notice to book a quiet room for final exams, determine what day that is on your calendar. If you're brand new, research these policies and procedures and ask your disability advisor. 5. Look into other support groups. By support groups, I mean an ADHD study skills group your disability office offers, or an online group that you use for body doubling, or a writing group the library offers. There are often pockets of communities around campus (and virtually) that you can take advantage of for different things. Sometimes we just need to talk to other ADHD folks to hear how they solve similar issues. Other times it's helpful to have a writing group you check in with every month so that you make progress on your undergraduate thesis. You never know what may be helpful, so it's worth taking a little time to discover what is available and then check it out. Some groups won't work at all. Others will be useful only during certain points of the semester. If you're looking for virtual options for body doubling and other types of online support, I have a post compiled. There's also this post on more general ADHD resources and support. Key points:
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