Keys to College Success

[heytheredelilah]

Hmm ... I feel like the tips on the page the OP posted are only helpful if you're medicated. I only kind of skimmed through after seeing write notes on losel leaf paper.

The chances of me ending up with an actual collection of notes if I write on lose leaf paper is ... um, 0! I may forget my spiral notebook sometimes, but chances are I ll end up with about half the notes I need.

And cramming does work! The only three exams in my university career that I aced, I started studying for the night before (for two of them, I had never opened the textbook before)... and I remember everything I learned. I like to think it's all scarred into my brain because of how panicked, stimulated w/ coffee, and sleep deprived I was. There were a thousand alarms going on in my head.

[anonymouslyadd]

Originally Posted by karijoo90

what kinds of things do you guys request from your office of disabilities at your school? i don't even know where to begin on what kind of specific accommodations i'd like...

1. Tape recorder for lectures
2. Extra time for exams
3. Quiet area for exams

[brandon_g]

Well I am still a freshman in high school for another 12 school days... So this is not very helpful college wise... however it may come in handy for homework and such... I seem with my medication to be able focus for 30 or 40 minutes stright even with distractions... and about 60 to 85 minutes in a nice quiet enveriment such as a room with only me and a teacher. But defiently this helpful.

[Rikatah]

"Time management- DO NOT STUDY FOR MORE THAN 2 HOURS AT A TIME - Your brain really does shut down and any studying you do after that point is just a waste of time."

I've always wondered about this- I've always felt like my head shuts down after a while... never really understood why, this is very helpful for school in general. Will definetly try to remember it all for sophomore year.

Something I found out helps me at times is drawing pictures that I associate with what I'm learning- it kinda triggers my memory

[discplaced mind]

this is extreamly helpfull going to to refeer to this again

[ariannehowell]

I like the tips you shared and this will be very helpful to all students who really want to pass their college life. If you fail on the first time make sure that you will strive hard better and you should be motivated in your career path.

[ericmorgan]

Hi, its really awesome for success to college.. thanks for sharing this walllllllllllllllllllll my dear..

[hs_sci_teacher]

I freak out when I see a lot of text, too. Something that has helped me is copying text from a website into a word document. Sometimes I change the color and the font to sometime I and read more easily. This article has a lot of bullet points, so I generally just scan the first few words of each to see if I want to read on.

[tenet_]

Thanks for this
Hopefully this will be of some use

[seanmotive]

Being a Junior in college in information science with ADHD, I'd say most aspects of this article are what I absolutely hate hearing will help you succeed in college. As a student, obviously you should study every day and spread out your work, join every club and activity, get a 4.0, but none of these things are realistic.
A few things, I wish I was told going into college even throughout my first 2 years in college:

1. Start finding like you enjoy doing, this doesn't mean a specific job or major. There are so many majors I have never even heard of still going through college.

2. Try to take the classes that will apply to potential major early. Don't take all general educations because people tell you thats what freshman year "is."
After changing my major in sophomore year, I wasn't able to take all the classes I wanted because I now had different requirements than in the previous major.

3. Ratemyprofessor.com will save your life! It is a database of the reviews of most professors. Everyone says you will have bad professors but this should help you avoid them. I hated lectures, could never focus,d id I sit at the front and take every note? Nope, found teachers that engaged students and wanted to help. Going to a professor and asking for help will teach you far quicker and better than trying to take notes off a board for a hour. Still knowing what the professor went over and learning what I could on my own was also very important.

4. Networking is maybe the most important aspects of college I have found. This is both social and professional. But the people can meet in college will help you so much more than your GPA. I have taken classes that I didn't need, just to work with a certain professor. She was able to introduce me to so many people (Entrepreneurs, CEO's, previous students that excelled in my major) that can tell you what their mistakes, failures, and what they would change.

5. GPA is still important! Experience usually beats GPA for the most part, but you still must maintain a decent GPA. Be sure to do go in earlier classes because they probably the easiest classes you will take in all 4 years. Maintaining GPA is a lot easier than bringing it back up. Depending on major, this will vary. Getting internships and entry level jobs will look at your GPA since you probably have little or no experience. A 4.0 with leadership experience in a club or activity is definitely super impressive to a employer.

[Ken2013]

For those who are too impatient to read through pages of text, there's a spaced repetition program called "Anki".

Basically you make your own flashcards and the program determines how often it gets reviewed based on how easy you found it.

I only started using it in my final year of Med School, but I seriously wish I knew about it in 1st year. It would've reduced my overall stress levels as I would've been more organized from the start and not resort to cramming.

Maintenance is the key to remembering a lot of the information, so constant review of little flashcards will help you heaps in the long run.

The only bother is having to spend time to make the flashcards, but that's also part of the learning process.

I would recommend "Anki" for those who are studying subjects that involve a lot of rote memory, especially languages (vocabulary) and science (biology, chemistry, physics).

[Herose]

Well there are some new things for me to try though! I do like the article, but not all of them are helpfull. I don't have lecture tapes of some sort and sitting in front is not useful with our lecture halls, because most of the noise travels to the front and its quiet in the back.

[lvlover58]

What works for me is subject locations and Quizlet.
For some reason, any school work I consume won't stick to my memory. I usually have to find a connection between what I'm learning and "real world" examples.

When studying, I usually do so in the library.
- I wear a baseball hat to block any visual distractions.
- I wear Bose QC35 noise cancelling headphones to dampen anyone flipping the page of a book or any footsteps. I usually play recordings of a white noise machines to help me not get distracted by the sheer science these headphones bring.
- I have a specific spot in the library for each subject I study.
- I have an AppleWatch to remind me to move onto another subject or to take a break; I tend to loose track of time -- a side effect from the medications I take.
- I also use taste rewards; a method I developed in effort to help me learn new material. For example; when I'm teaching myself new material, after each and every sentence, bullet point or fact, I wet my finger tip, dip into a bag of sugar, then touch that sugar coated finger to the tip of my tongue. This method works very well.
- Quizlet is something every college student should check out if they haven't heard of it. it's an ADDers dream for studying large quantities of material.