Ok..is this normal for ADD?
Example: In grade 10 I was in a math class and although I am not good at math at all, we were learning something new that I understood well. Not just well, PERFECTLY! I never did anything wrong with it. We spent a couple days on it then were sent home with homework and a quiz the next day. I did all the homework correctly, and when I went to class the day later I was asked to do a question on the board before the quiz, which I also did quickly, eaisly, and correctly. Then the quiz..I failed it.
I read somewhere that ADDers can understant something but still not do too well on tests...but is something like that normal for ADD? I find this happens with everything, I don't even bother studying for tests anymore, but that is an extreme example I will never forget. I am blown away by this..does anyone else experience this?

hm. I guess I am wondering if you had to set up the problems on your own for the quiz...whereas with the homework, and in class, the notes and the set ups were already visible to you?

Back when I was in school, I'm severe ADHD and, I was never medicated, I never paid attention what was going on in class, NEVER did homework, NEVER studied, but for some reason, I always passed the tests I took, maybe luck, who knows, but I think everyone is different.

T-Bass

Performance anxiety, perhaps? I wonder if it would help to take your tests untimed.

It sounds like classic test anxiety to me. Did u try and talk to your teacher and explain that u did very well on the hwk, the take home and such, so u know the material. But, when it came to the real test u freaked out. That would be my suggestion. I agree with exter as well, take your tests untimed and in a distraction free room. That helps so much more then I can say!

Pressure from the test, I'd guess. It's not uncommon for ADHDers to find that the harder they try to concentrate, the more difficult it becomes. When there was no pressure, you were relaxed and your brain could do it's thing, but when there was pressure added, you couldn't. Have you been diagnosed as ADHD? Are you taking any medication?

no im not diagnosed or on meds. I really need to do that...

Do you think in the test time at other things? Do you read the questions form alpha til Omega? Do you understand the questions or do you quess what the teacher want to know? Than you can write things which arent be false but the teacher doesnt want to read this and give you 0 points!

I never had problems with tests. I could not study at all and ace a test! It was a homework that I had a problem with. I just didn't want to do it. I couldn't sit still...

Okay, but did you understand what I was asking you regarding the process of formulas being readily available in class, in the notes, etc versus having to recall them all on the tests/quizzes? I am asking this because not only am I adhd, I am also a teacher. Test anxiety surely comes into play here...but I am wondering if there isn't the possibility of an undiagnosed learning disability with recalling the formulas and keeping them straight? It happens. My dyscalculia wasn't diagnosed until I was a senior in my undergraduate program. My adhd wasn't diagnosed until I was nearly finished with my second program. lol and yes, I would strongly advise you get around to that evaluation! It couldn't hurt, right?

Yes the notes are there, I could see them..not on the test but before hand yes. I admit math is like greek to me, I can't remember it at all but when I was younger I was good at it so..go figure. I guess it probably is just text anxiety, but I know I was feeling confident and happily ready to go on that one..so what happened?? This doesn't just happen with math, it happens with everything. Even a subject I could easily have an A in(though I wont based on hw completion) I can flunk a test. It boggles my mind but now taht exams and tests are worth about 50% of my grade, I need to know whats going on!!!

When I was a student I never studied, I passed every test with A's, but I failed every class with the exception of Industrial Tech and Phys ED. I later took my G.E.D. and passed 97% higher than anyone who took the test for that year. When I was in school it would frustrate my teachers and parents so much that they finally put me in a room with my homework and said you can leave when your finished. At 12:30 in the morning they told me to go to bed. This lasted all through high school. I could pass every exam with flying colors. As I taught myself more about my condition I learned that what generaly happens is that ADD children tend to develope very good memories to compensate for there lack of attention. Thus good on tests, and lousy on everything else. I am currently on cylert which works out well for but not to good for others for some strange reason.

It's a classic ADD experience to perform poorly in classroom settings, especially in math. There are several factors involved:

1) ADD is primarily a dysorder of the Working Memory

2) The Working Memory is the little mental chalk board in your head you use to plan, organize, and problem solve. It's what you use when someone asks you to add or subtract numbers in your head. It's the place you temporily store retrieved bits of information that you'll use in planning a future event or solving a problem.

3) ADD is a dysorder of losing attention, mainly due to being distracted

4) We usually aren't even aware that we are distracted, until our attention span is tested in a setting like a classroom full of people

5) Stress causes distactibility and reduces working memory

6) Performance and Testing inrease stress

7) People with ADD have low threshold for stress

8) People with ADD have low confidence because of multiple performance failures

9) People with ADD have difficulty controling their own thinking. It's can be difficult to shift the mind out of the old familiar ruts of past performance failures-this is not only a confidence issue, but another big distraction.

The end product is that we can lose a huge portion of our cognitive abilities during a stressful, distracting, pressure and performance based activity due to a low threshold for stress, reduced self-confidence, distractiblity and a deficit in working memory.

You probably didn't didn't anticipate such a technical response. But, thanks for giving me the oportunity to organize my thoughts on the subject:)

Okay, but did you understand what I was asking you regarding the process of formulas being readily available in class, in the notes, etc versus having to recall them all on the tests/quizzes? I am asking this because not only am I adhd, I am also a teacher. Test anxiety surely comes into play here...but I am wondering if there isn't the possibility of an undiagnosed learning disability with recalling the formulas and keeping them straight? It happens. My dyscalculia wasn't diagnosed until I was a senior in my undergraduate program. My adhd wasn't diagnosed until I was nearly finished with my second program. lol and yes, I would strongly advise you get around to that evaluation! It couldn't hurt, right?
Hello, I was looking through this forum for my 16-year-old daughter (h.s. sophomore) who has adhd (as do I). Can you explain more about dyscalulia -- how would we know if she had it?

Each year seems to get worse ... she was a great student until about 7th grade. The adhd was diagnosed at the end of 8th grade (because she kept telling me she couldn't focus and thought she might have adhd, not because the teachers picked up on it).
Thanks!

LOL@dyscalcula

Read my post if you want to know why your daughter, if she has ADD, has problems with school.

Cjo, one suggestion would be to request in writing to your daughter's school that she be evaluated for a possible learning disability. This will legally get the ball rolling for testing. If you have any questions about the Iep or 504 process, you can go to www.bigsplace.com and also to www.wrightslaw.com for assistance. Additionally, you can request the special education office in your child's district provide you with your state's interpretation of IDEA, at no cost.

Learning disabilities can often be comorbid with add/adhd, and layer on more hurdles in the learning process. Identifying and addressing them can only help a student perform at his/her best potential, keeping in mind the add/adhd must also be addressed.

There are many different types of learning disabilities, and they can overlap. Dyscalculia just happens to be the one I was diagnosed with in college. For me, it effected the thought process for higher forms of math and science. My french professor suspected this when I suddenly began to struggle with foreign language structurally, but could still speak and read it fluently. She had also taught me several women's studies courses in my Humanities program and knew my abilities in English were not showing accurately in my foreign language grades. It turned out that the same thought process used in learning math and science (both weak areas for me) is also used in learning foreign language. I could learn--I simply needed to learn in a less "traditional" way. This also helped with my (then undiagnosed) adhd, because the alternative for me was more interesting, allowing me to focus more effectively. If you wish to learn more about this particular learning disability, you can type it in as a key word, and do a general search. You can also type in learning disability/disabilities and find many listings.

I have observed many undiagnosed students who are clearly (to me anyway) add/adhd, many likely have unidentified learning disabilities, too...I can encourage their parents to look into possibilities, but I cannot make them actually get their children diagnosed. I also do not ever tell a parent to medicate the student, because I'm not a doctor. My decision to use medication was a personal choice. Two of my children are also adhd, and at this point, they are using concerta. My 8 year old son is dyslexic, and his teachers and I work very closely with him, addressing both his adhd issues and those obstacles he faces with being dyslexic.

If you wish to discuss this with me further, feel free to send me an email. Best of luck to you and to your daughter!

Where's My Keys:

Your math test difficulties hit me like a familiar brick. The reasons for my difficulties are very different than what many others have said in this thread, so I will share my experience, since maybe it hits closer to home for you than test anxiety.

I consistently understood math well enough to get A's or B+'s all throughout grade school, but my test and quiz grades were all over the map-- a lot of C's and D's, sometimes an F, sometimes a B, now and then I would manage an A. I would come out of a test thinking, damn, there was not one question on there that confused me-- I ACED that sucker! Get it back-- WHOA, a 72%??!?! WTF? Then I'd look it over and see that I got say 6 points off for something that genuinely reflected a misunderstanding of the material, and the other 22 points off for things like computational errors, accidentally finding a square root instead of a cube root, missing a computational step, not noticing a negative sign, accidentally looking at the wrong number on my sheet and computing using the wrong number, etc. etc. etc. You get the picture. My teachers would see that I was getting bad grades and encourage me repeatedly to stay after school for extra help with them. When I did, they would see that I understood the material with no problem. Then I would get another D. My 9th grade math teacher, Mrs. C, said, "You are just making careless errors! If you keep making these careless errors, I can only assume that you just don't care! You can't expect me to help you if you don't care." Ouch-- that burns to this day!!

At some point, I figured out that if I talked my way through my test, verbalizing in my head but not out loud, my "careless" errors were drastically fewer. I would verbalize emphatically throughout the entire test: "Okay, so I have to first set up the equation like this... negative 246 minus that divided by this, don't forget the square roots sign... compute, okay then the next step is to take the quotient from that step and plug it into this equation like so...." You get the picture.

When I first saw a psychiatrist 5 months ago, I told her about this. She said I was compensating for my difficulties with executive function when I talked my way through like that, and it was no wonder that I did much better that way. I think I was also forcing my attention to stay put, and to take note of everything that I needed to notice to do the problem (a negative sign for example), by verbalizing everything. Please try this strategy, Where's my Keys. It just may work for you. (And you will get a lot better grades in math than I did!!)

Another option is to see if your school will make some accomodations for you in giving you conceptual tests rather than computational tests. That way you could explain why the equations work, and how to solve different kinds of problems rather than just showing that you can do what you memorized by rote. Personally, I think that this style of testing is a lot more valuable than the way they usually test, but I don't know if you could convince stubborn old administrative curmudgeons of this. :eek:

Let me know what you think. :)

Flighty.

Maybe it is just test anxiety, instead of ADHD. ADHD isn't a catchall, for any symptoms that you are experiencing. There are other things, that can cause ADHD-type symptoms. Maybe you need to figure a way, to make test-taking a bit less stressful.

She has already said that she was not nervous or anxious about that test. She went into it very confidently. (Or maybe he? I can't remember if there is an indication of gender in the post.)

I have twice come across articles stating that people with high working memory, who normally answer questions more skillfully than those without, lose all of that advantage when put under stress. (Stressors tested included time limits, being teamed up, cash rewards...)

I can't find either right now:(, but at least one of these articles was on Netscape.com (http://www.netscape.com/) somewhere....

Either way, I assure you that I can relate. Much like what Way Too Flighty reported, I have sometimes ended up with C's and maybe worse purely because of minor computational errors.

Well, I've found the article, but lost the edit button... What ever happened to it? *Finds an edit button on this post, edits.* So it just disappears after some time? Well, that's annoying but tolerable, and I guess it makes sense.

Anyways, here's "Why Smart People Choke on Big Tests (http://channels.netscape.com/new/html/live/scoop/np/14.html)".

Aw rats, that website really recycles it's addresses. No problem though; a web search turned up this Slashdot link (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/10/0038248&from=rss) to the pretty much identical article, Smart People Choke Under Pressure (http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050209_under_pressure.html).

What, if anything, can be done to address this condition? Do all these meds one reads about (adderall, dexadrine, etc, etc) really do anything? Can anyone comment from personal experience whether medication provided significant improvement in any way? Thanks!

May May



It's a classic ADD experience to perform poorly in classroom settings, especially in math. There are several factors involved:

1) ADD is primarily a dysorder of the Working Memory

2) The Working Memory is the little mental chalk board in your head you use to plan, organize, and problem solve. It's what you use when someone asks you to add or subtract numbers in your head. It's the place you temporily store retrieved bits of information that you'll use in planning a future event or solving a problem.

3) ADD is a dysorder of losing attention, mainly due to being distracted

4) We usually aren't even aware that we are distracted, until our attention span is tested in a setting like a classroom full of people

5) Stress causes distactibility and reduces working memory

6) Performance and Testing inrease stress

7) People with ADD have low threshold for stress

8) People with ADD have low confidence because of multiple performance failures

9) People with ADD have difficulty controling their own thinking. It's can be difficult to shift the mind out of the old familiar ruts of past performance failures-this is not only a confidence issue, but another big distraction.

The end product is that we can lose a huge portion of our cognitive abilities during a stressful, distracting, pressure and performance based activity due to a low threshold for stress, reduced self-confidence, distractiblity and a deficit in working memory.

You probably didn't didn't anticipate such a technical response. But, thanks for giving me the oportunity to organize my thoughts on the subject:)

May May,

yes LOTS of us have experienced dramatic changes in classroom performance since starting meds, but it doesn't help everything, especially if the person has anothe rlearning disablility such as dyscalcula. If you want to find some personal stories just look around the forums a bit and you'll find some pretty quick... or start a new thread since that's really another topic.

oh and welcome to the forums!
Christiana

While in college I never did well on tests especially math. The second time I took the math class I asked the professor if she would accept extra work instead of test scores. I explained to her I froze on tests. Got lucky she agreed to it. Talk to your teacher and see if you can work something out.
When I had to take tests to get my teaching license I went in with the attitude and I would take my time and give it my best shot. If I failed at least I learned what the test looked like. I passed them :)
Good Luck

Let me tell you... I was put on an IEP in school... They said I have a disability in reading/writting... But the thing they didn't know was that... I can't pronouce words at all or anything lol... BUT if you say the word out loud and let me hear it and see it... For some odd reason I could read it then... I don't think I got this same disorder anymore thought... I mean yea I do have trouble reading still(can't remember a dang thing)... But my writting ability has improved very much so... I'm about to go back to my highschool and get a copy of my IEP so I can see what they said is wrong with me, then take it back to my Psychologist and have them reevaluate me... I swear at the age of like 13-14 my mind just clicked... Things started to make sense to me... So I don't know... We'll see :)

A friend of mine is very much add (maybe even bipolar, as well).

She is convinced she understands *everything* that she is told. Unfortunately , she has the habit of coming to a conclusion about what is being said before the speaker has finished talking. Of course, she ends up not getting it 100%. The consequence is that the resuts are often chaotic.

On the otherhand, she can understand , but still not get it right because she does not take the time to double check herself. In her case , the problem is compounded by her insistence that she is "right" and everbody else is "wrong". Until she can get some humility going, and be a little more careful she is going to keep having problems. Right now, she is pretty sure the world is wired a certain way, and can't get past her own denial. Hopefully, she will eventually work through it all and start doing better.

Denial ia a big, fat trap. Avoid it.

Me :D



Ok..is this normal for ADD?
Example: In grade 10 I was in a math class and although I am not good at math at all, we were learning something new that I understood well. Not just well, PERFECTLY! I never did anything wrong with it. We spent a couple days on it then were sent home with homework and a quiz the next day. I did all the homework correctly, and when I went to class the day later I was asked to do a question on the board before the quiz, which I also did quickly, eaisly, and correctly. Then the quiz..I failed it.
I read somewhere that ADDers can understant something but still not do too well on tests...but is something like that normal for ADD? I find this happens with everything, I don't even bother studying for tests anymore, but that is an extreme example I will never forget. I am blown away by this..does anyone else experience this?

prolly one stupid thing wrong. Like a negative instead of positive. You mess up the greater than or less than or those less or greater than or equal to. It's hella easy to overlook these rediculous details. Or you prolly screwed up the order of operations. I used to forget that you squared before anything. I realize now how much that mattered. LOL

o my god. This year has been great for mathematics. My teacher helped me realize, my logic and understanding of solving the equation wasn't to blame. The details were. As described above. Hahaha. I would do everything correctly, although my inattention and carelessness, and self-conviction of stinking at math prevented me from knowing this sooner.

Is add a gift or not to u guys ??????

One of the points Russ Barkley likes to make is that .."ADHD is a disorder of Performance and NOT Perception."

What he means by this is that we KNOW what to do, we just can't do it.

That is based in part on the way ADHD impairs working memory.

For example, there are 6 types of attention as defined by neuropsychology.

Of those, 5 are considered to be "input" functions in terms of the way the brain works; while only one is an "output" function.

The one "output" function is the ability to "persevere" or persist.

Thats the one impaired by ADHD.

Hope that helps and good luck.

I consider mine to be a gift. It took me a long time to learn about perseverence. It took me a long time to realize that I couldn't fix everything, and that this didn't make me a horrible person. In fact, it's still something I deal with every day. I can find success in one area, but still struggle in another, when it's seemingly the same thing, but in different settings. I don't know if this is necessarily due to the adhd, or if everyone experiences this to different degrees. I just know that I am me, and I'm a work in progress. :) This is okay, too. I think it makes me better at my job, and better in my life.

Hello, I was looking through this forum for my 16-year-old daughter (h.s. sophomore) who has adhd (as do I). Can you explain more about dyscalulia -- how would we know if she had it?

Each year seems to get worse ... she was a great student until about 7th grade. The adhd was diagnosed at the end of 8th grade (because she kept telling me she couldn't focus and thought she might have adhd, not because the teachers picked up on it).
Thanks! I have very severe dyscalulia along with ADD. The best I can describe dyscalulia is it's like having dyslexia only with numbers. You could know a math concept like algebra really well one day and then the next day that concept is completely gone. You made need math concepts explained to you a million times before you finally get it stuck in your head, or sometimes you never memorize the concept or understand it. When all my friends were in the mainstream math classes taking the highest math classes avaliable I was stuck in the lowest math class learning how to count money, multiply, divide, basic algebra, place value and fractions. Unfortunatly many kids in the lower math classes (RSP and SDC) do not realize they are smart and they end up dropping out of school because of failure to realize that they are as smart as everyone else. I would reccomend calling your daughters school and try to set up an evaluation for her. Depending on the severity of dyscalculia she may be placed in RSP or SDC.

exactly the same thing happened to me in a math test....i dont bother revising either now:P(not that im proud of it)

Back when I was in school, I'm severe ADHD and, I was never medicated, I never paid attention what was going on in class, NEVER did homework, NEVER studied, but for some reason, I always passed the tests I took, maybe luck, who knows, but I think everyone is different.

T-BassNo, you aren't alone.

I could sum up the studying of my K-10th grade year in "pretending to study for chemistry finals for 10 minutes, but then just screwing around and not doing anything."

I'm the opposite, I won't do any homework, pay attention to notes somewhat, never practice what i learn, and i'll understand it perfectly and get an A on the test without studying for it. it's all confidence and what stresses you out. I get stressed out by the thought of having to do tons of problems for homework, but I'd rather take a test than take notes or do classwork. I think that you just freak yourself out before a test. And I freak myself out about doing a bunch of boring problems.

The one "output" function is the ability to "persevere" or persist.

Thats the one impaired by ADHD.I can relate to this statement. The very problems I have consist of being able to do it, but just not doing it. For example, I CAN remember to do things, but I just don't do it. And... I CAN clean my house, but I just don't. also, I am intelligent enough to do my homework, but I just don't do it.


I'm the opposite, I won't do any homework, pay attention to notes somewhat, never practice what i learn, and i'll understand it perfectly and get an A on the test without studying for it. it's all confidence and what stresses you out. I get stressed out by the thought of having to do tons of problems for homework, but I'd rather take a test than take notes or do classwork. I think that you just freak yourself out before a test. And I freak myself out about doing a bunch of boring problems.I was just like you. But that changed when I went to university to study laws. I found out the only way to get my grades was going to library for hours and study. But I found out studying could be fun too. You learn a lot of things which you won't learn if you spent all your day playing computer games or watching TV.

And people look at you with respect if you study alot and you have a lot of knowledge. So it really helps.

I understand 100%..so why do I fail? Sometimes you think you understand, but you don't understand it completely.

I read somewhere that ADDers can understant something but still not do too well on tests...but is something like that normal for ADD? ?It's pretty common for a couple of reasons -- one is many tests are timed (officially or just because the teacher moves on to the next question) and ADDers don't necessarily process as quickly and the pressure of trying to perform slows things down more. Brain scans have shown that the more an ADDers concentrates the less glucose their brains use.

Scattered

I haven't read the whole thread, so pardon me if it's already been said.

McTavish23 is fond of saying that ADHD is a disorder of performance.

This is certainly consistent with my view and my recent experience.

You may very well fully understand the material, but the stress of the test or the on-the-spot requests for performance make it difficult to show what you know.

Remember that ADHD impairs working memory. That means that anything you need to use could be impaired. If you need to retrieve things from long term memory, which is exactly what you are doing in a testing situation, working memory is responsible for this retreival.

Until recently, I was always great on tests, particularly standardized. But when my symptoms hit hard, I couldn't think at all. I knew that I knew the material, but I couldn't access it for some reason.

Test anxiety is also a huge factor for many, ADHD or not. If you can focus on the task at hand, each problem individually, it helps.

Giving answers also bottlenecks at the hands.

A person can TALK at 100-200 WPM. They can often write at 20 WPM and type at 20-40 WPM.

As Barbyma says above, the fact that ADHD/ADD affects "WORKING MEMORY" means that the delay in holding our answers in our brain -- until we can get them out onto the Exam Paper -- means that we lose valuable info for getting our Marks.

If i had to do University and College over again, I'd ask for Oral Exams. (Or Tape Recorded ones.)

Just another reason why I hate my school's Disability Office.

McTavish: is that statistic from that book "The neurobiology of attention", or something like that?

The study of Attention is pretty frikkin complicated. (All that neuroscience and brain chemistry stuff is: which is why i'm not in a Masters program. OMG.)

:eyebrow: hope all is going well for you xxx hows the studes going??

McTavish: is that statistic from that book "The neurobiology of attention", or something like that?McT is actually quoting Barkeley when he talks about the different "types" of attention.

In the study of attention from a behavioral & neuropsych perspective, we divide it into 3.


The study of Attention is pretty frikkin complicated. (All that neuroscience and brain chemistry stuff is: which is why i'm not in a Masters program. OMG.)Yes, it's a MESS. I've taken several courses that are SPECIFIC to attention and still feel that the field is convoluted. We don't even agree on how all the terms are defined.

But, the behavior of attention is even more complicated than the neuro-stuff, IMO. The Neuroscience behind it is actually pretty straight-forward.

so the output ofve the brain so what dose it refer two????.......dose it mean serten things dont get remberd????.....or iam i misssing it lol be greatfulll to know more cynde was very helpfull with lots ifno an helpet my understand greatley ;.))) thanks dorm

If I'm interpreting mctavish's post correctly, the "output" refers to what your brain is producing.
Being ADHD, our brains have difficulty with the function of persevering (persisting).

The "input" refers to what our brains are taking in.

Does that help?

in what way peresveing the info????,,,,,ie such as meanony an things like that....or dose it refuer to the way info is incoded in the brain an azassscad by the frintly lobs...ofve the brain heres a qutisons the servants who lack a galngels in the brain have great meoneys but see things in diff ways....ist add .adhd very close to deyliacxa cos alot dyx have the same things as add/adhd in the way porceing is done an intreatceions with other pepole??.....and i also wounder with e numbers becaoue its allways cos me truble and iam shore meany others as well HERES A QUTIONE FOR EVERYONE HOW MEANY HERE HAVE MIXING OFVE THE SENCES IE HEARING TASTS TOUCH VISION AND THE WAY IT CAN COMBINE TOGTHOUER IE HEARING A TONES THAT YOU CAN TAST AN SEMELLS YOU CAN FEEL ETC ETC how meany here on the site have this mixing an do you think more add/adhd have it more i ref to the thread on mater minds on the site have look you might find it intrtesing anyways be intrested to know ;.))) dorm

Lack of ability to persevere means that people with ADHD have difficulty following through. Many of us tend to have numerous projects that we started but didn't finish due to lack of persevering. We start a project and either become bored or distracted by something else and don't finish the first project.

Ok..is this normal for ADD?
Example: In grade 10 I was in a math class and although I am not good at math at all, we were learning something new that I understood well. Not just well, PERFECTLY! I never did anything wrong with it. We spent a couple days on it then were sent home with homework and a quiz the next day. I did all the homework correctly, and when I went to class the day later I was asked to do a question on the board before the quiz, which I also did quickly, eaisly, and correctly. Then the quiz..I failed it.
I read somewhere that ADDers can understant something but still not do too well on tests...but is something like that normal for ADD? I find this happens with everything, I don't even bother studying for tests anymore, but that is an extreme example I will never forget. I am blown away by this..does anyone else experience this?
This happenes to me ALOt I understand something so perfectly I am shocked at myself, I build confedense, do it right for a day and then BAM a test comes and I get a 35 as usual. XD I HATE That, I wopnder whyit happenes

Lack of ability to persevere means that people with ADHD have difficulty following through. Many of us tend to have numerous projects that we started but didn't finish due to lack of persevering. We start a project and either become bored or distracted by something else and don't finish the first project.
:faint: Oh, that's why! Lol, I think this is very true. I have tried to write a few stories but I never am able to finish them XD

I have this problem to. I know that I am smart, but I get low marks. When it comes to oral work I am excellent, but when it comes to writing things down I suck. The only reason I do good on test is because I have a good memory. Thank God!! Because I can`t study. It is too time consuming. It takes me a long long time to write essays and reports because when I am half way through I get a better idea and I start over. This probably has to do with the fact that I have mild OCD.

hello disordoerlover like me i know iam smart but my spelling an greammers dont reflt that an so we get judge on this an not on being us also knowing an doing is 2 diff things we can know everything bit but useing that knowdge we have is very diff thing working morry an so on are need an iam beting a wole lot more good luck an let us know how yoou go dorm

People were always trying to get me to study more, in high school, college, and especially in Naval Nuclear Power School (which I was auto-dropped from due to my GPA being only 3.66 out of 4.0). That's a way-long explanation that I won't get into right now. Anyway, it's amazing that I graduated high school and college, considering that I did no homework in HS and no reading in college.

You see, I didn't need to study, I didn't need to do repetitive problems to understand a concept. If it was taught, and I was in class and paying attention (BIG caveat!! I skipped a lot of lectures in college and even when I was there, I was off in lala land - a droning professor in a giant lecture hall with 500 other students isn't going to capture the attention of your average ADDer) then I understood it.

If you look at my transcripts from either HS or College, you can easily tell which ones had little or no homework and took all the test materials from the lectures given in class (all A's), and which ones had different degrees of required reading not covered in class and what emphasis homework was given in the final grade. (everything less than an A, depending on the degress mentioned above.) My best classes were always the ones with just midterm and final exams and maybe one paper (if you can't tell, I like to write).

But anytime I wasn't doing well in a class, teachers always assumed I wasn't understanding the material, and assigned more work. Which made me do worse in the class, which led to more assignments...you see where this is leading. It was the worst in Power School, where they made us do all our work in the school building and eventually forced me to stay in the school for over 120 hours a week doing extra work I didn't need, because I understood the material.

Anyway, I am rambling, as always.

Here's the point - from the ages of 14-36, I was off of ADHD meds, Ritalin from ages 6-14 and Adderall XR now. All of my school-related issues happened during this treatment-less time. But those of you still in school have a chance to do better than I did. You have been diagnosed and are in treatment (I assume) and if you get on top of your ADD now, you can use those much-touted positive attributes to turn your academic career around.

Good luck.

yeah I have severe adhd too and I am having a hard time in my core classes...electives are A's so Im not worried about them.