I don't know if this has been asked before but how do you deal with school subjects that require a ton of reading? I tend to space out and forget what I just read or read without really understanding anything, and screen readers don't really work for me. It's even harder when the subject in question has so many time-sensitive assignments 😭 so I really wanna know if you have tips for this
Ask a university student with ADHD: ”Reading tips and tricks”
You can check out this post for some general study advice but I’ll focus a little bit more on reading lots of texts in this one!
Luckily for you buddy I happen to be an expert on cramming lots of reading with the brain capacity of a 1980s fax machine! I'll do my best to help!
1. Look up some helpful tools 🛠
You can search for dyslexic aids even if you’re not dyslexic (though it’s very common with ADHD so consider it a possibility if you haven’t already). There a lots of different tools that can make reading feel easier. Keep trying different ones if it’s not working for you.
Reading strips/reading rulers - I find these to work 50% of the time and the other 50% they are more distracting than helpful, it depends on my mood and the formating of the text.
Print your texts - You mentioned screen readers don’t work for you, well let me tell you I find text to be especially difficult to read if it’s on a screen, but the same text printed on paper? Totally fine. Consider borrowing a printer at the library or school to test if reading on paper is easier or not.
Audiobooks - Here’s something most teachers won’t tell you: Audiobooks are totally fine! I have used audiobooks for over 70% of my work, as long as you can get a digital/physical copy for when you need to cite your sources/quotes, it’s all good in the hood. You don’t even have to tell the teacher in case they make a big deal out of it. There are lots of good places to get free audiobooks on the internet such as;
Youtube - (no, really! It’s saved me so many times!)
Librivox.org - (they also got an App!)
Remember to check with your school/institution if they have any accomodations available! My university offers text reading programs, digital texts, computer rooms, small quiet study rooms for people who get easily distracted. Have a look about, not just at your school, but your local library/area, there are so many things available you might never have thought of. the key here is finding out what works for you.
One thing I do is set timers every 30-60 minutes depending on how I’m feeling that day. If reading feels super hard one day, I might only set a 15 min timer, and after it runs out I can take a break if I want to - but what usually happens is that I actually want to keep reading because I’m in the zone. It’s one of the most helpful things I do. Getting started is usually the hardest part
Depending on your teachers, you may have been told skimming is bad - well I'll tell ya it's not. Skimming is a valuable skill that my university teachers have been encouraging us to learn. Now personally I find skimming really hard because I can’t really focus on the text and focus on how i'm reading at the same time. Again, this is a skill you have to build, but it will be a major help once you get the hang of it, it will give you an overlook of the text and once you've skimmed it once, you can go back and take notes on the important bits.
A trick my mentor taught me is to read the beginnings and ends of paragraphs because they usually give an overview of or summarise the content.
I love taking notes and making my notebooks all neat and organised, its fun for me so it doesnt feel like work, however I can't do all that when I've got a short deadline because reading a single page and taking notes can take up to 30 minutes if i'm not catreful.
This depends on what works for you, but I've tried two methods to combat this.
The first is really easy. Whenever you read something you feel like you should take note of, just take one of these bad boys
(picture: info index/those small sticky notes you put in books)
And put it right there, now you know where you need to look later for important information. (Dont overdo it though! It gets expensive real quick! )
Remember "important" and "interesting" is not always the same thing. If you have the energy for it, you can even use different colours for different things.
A few cathegory examples:
Important themes/topics/people
random stuff that really stuck with me,
things I want to ask questions about
explainations that really helped me understand the subject better
It's by no means neccessary but nevertheless, the sticky notes will help you note important passages without having to spend lots of time taking notes.
Method #2 Is to limit the amount of notes you take.
For example say you can only take one note per page or every three pages, this will prevent you from getting stuck in note-taking swampland like I usually do because you can't write down everything like you might want to.
Some general tips include exercising before you study/exercise more in general, practice meditation/mindfullness and learn some CBT.
That’s all for now! I hope it was helpful to you in some way! Again make sure to check my other posts for more study tips.
Good luck reading ADHD peeps! 📖
