"Obsessive", special interests and results in school

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Did you have problems in school because of "special interests"?
Definately yes 27%  27%  [ 10 ]
Yes, but not very large 41%  41%  [ 15 ]
No 32%  32%  [ 12 ]
Total votes : 37

nca14
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03 Feb 2015, 11:17 am

Did you have problems in school because of having "special", obsessive interests or stereotyped, repetitive, restricted pattern of interests? I think that it may be some sort of problem in my secondary school and on the studies. Special interest about AS and similar conditions could have negative impact on my results in education when I was about 16 - 17 years old (I had even two unsatisfactory grades (1 in 1 - 6 scale used in Poland) in first half of school year when I was 17. One of them was from Maths, but nearly 18 monts later I wrote my "mature" exam from Maths at 100% at elementary level and I had above 90% in advanced level. I think that it allowed me to go on the studies on which I am now.

Now I have "cranky" interest about AS and similar conditions again. This semester on the studies was quite harsh for me. From 31.01.2015 to 2.02.2015 I do not search data about AS in the Internet, but now I read a lot of text associated with my "obsessive" interest. It may look somewhat "addicting". I had large average grade in last semester (above 4,6), but now I might have much lower (maybe even below 4).



Kiriae
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03 Feb 2015, 5:35 pm

My results in school were never affected badly by my interests because I was never cramming anyway so I had a bunch of free time to use on the interests.

I know my limits and I know how much study I need to get a decent grade - which isn't much, about 1h before a small test and a few days (a few hours a day) before a whole semester one.

I also never needed as much time as my peers to do homework - I was done with them really fast and I often didn't even realize it was a homework. I was often telling my parents that I got no homework because I either found it fun (math examples were always as fun as solving a sudoku to me) or I was done with it within a few minutes (most other subjects). The only exceptions were essays but they were a rare kind of homework.

I could never understand my peers complaining about how "much" homework we get. Perhaps I didn't see something? Were they perhaps preparing for each lesson despite teacher not telling us to do it and calling it a "homework" together with the real homework? I never did anything I was not instructed to. If there was no instruction like "a test coming, prepare for it" I was not preparing at all for the next lesson except peeking into the notebook to see if I put any "to do" instruction for the next lesson. Yes, I was checking for homeworks and test announces the day before the actual lesson. :lol:

I was getting an 4 just by using the info I remembered from lessons when an unexpected test came out so no hurt done even if I didn't prepare at all.

Of course, I could have had better grades if I actually spent some time cramming but I was totally fine with my easy 4,2-4,3 average grade. I always preferred to use my free time for something else instead of cramming for a perfect score.



goldfish21
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03 Feb 2015, 5:49 pm

My results in public school were OK, but I could have done better if I was more focused on my studies. My results in business school were decent, but again, in hindsight I could have done better if I wasn't distracted by a special interest/obsession. I still made it through everything, though, so I did alright in the end despite my distractions.


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Mpregangel
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04 Feb 2015, 1:03 pm

I was an honors student despite my obsessions but I never did home work or anything. My test scores kept me afloat. I marked no since I did fine when I was in public school. I don't need much time to learn something so practice work wasn't useful to me.



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04 Feb 2015, 1:44 pm

Special interest both helped and hurt me in school. I was interested in social studies type subjects; history, geography, civics (which was kind of like Junior High Political Science) and current events - but totally disinterested in everything else. So I would be a prodigy in my areas of interest and would just barely get by with everything else.


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nick007
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05 Feb 2015, 10:12 pm

My interests were unrelated to school. They were TV & video-games & they did distract me from doing homework & school stuff when I was home but I needed them to wind down when I got home because I was burnt-out & frustrated from being at school so even if I didn't have those interests distracting me, I would of found some other thing to avoid school sh!t.


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nca14
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12 Feb 2015, 3:37 am

Learning was easy for me at early grades. I wanted to have prizes at the end of school year. In elementary school I had them because of my high average grade (and I had not to cram (at least so much) to get them), but I was not at the top of my class. I think that my results in school were really good despite my poor grades from some subjects when I had about 17 years old.



Gaara
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12 Feb 2015, 7:50 am

Was a hindrence in school, always got bored of what I didn't like and never paid attention in class or bothered with homework. Home was me time. As a result they just labelled me lazy and ret*d since I only got diagnosed AS last year, competely ignored through childhood.



RubyWings91
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12 Feb 2015, 8:01 pm

I had multiple problems in school which could be linked to my AS but being distracted by my special interests was not one of them.



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13 Feb 2015, 12:59 pm

I definitely had trouble with subjects that did not catch my full interest (4th thru 12th grade). I did not have much energy left to study other topics after pursuing my main interests wholeheartedly. I managed to graduate high school and eventually get a master's degree. College was much easier - once I got past all the prerequesites.

I'm fairly certain my sensitivity to sound also caused problems. I could not concentrate if someone was talking or there was any background noise that was distracting (people chewing gum, whispering, noise in the hall, etc.). Also, just the amount of people and activity was overwhelming at times. On top of that I was trying to figure out how to navigate the social realm.

The first class that I nearly flunked was geometry. I was devastated because I was supposed to be a math whiz. Having to do proofs and explain my work was beyond me. I'm still deathly afraid of geometry.



nca14
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19 Feb 2015, 9:35 am

Now my "powerful" interests (especially "Aspie obsession") may be one of the factors which lowered my average grade on second semester of my Master Degree studies. I still did not make three projects. I "hate" them. I "hate" "forming own text".



Welsh_Wolf2015
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19 Feb 2015, 10:25 am

I got pretty decent results in school. But I know I could have done much better if I didn't have my video game, fantasy/science fiction and music obsessions. It was revision for exams that I failed with. I just couldn't bring myself to do school work in my own time when I had other more "important" things to do.



LocksAndLiqueur
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19 Feb 2015, 11:25 am

My interests caused very serious issues for me in school, but none of those issues were academic. Mostly, staff members would just write me off as a trouble maker because I would want to talk with them about the security flaws in the RFID chip readers used in the school.

I remember at one point I brought up the fact that all the door frames in the school are steel and all the doors were reenforced, but (as per the fire code) the doors open outward. Somebody trying to break in could easily take the door off it's hinges, but if somebody was trying to escape in an emergency they'd be screwed. I got sent to the principal's ofice all the time for pointing out things like that.

I actually got expelled a couple weeks into my sophmore year in high school for telling the class that the SWAT team was going to be coming. I thought that by warning them, I would prevent panic. Instead, the staff were freaked out because they thought I couldn't figure it out. It wasn't hard though. They conducted so many training exercises at the school the summer before that year. I also heard teachers talking about it.



nomoretears
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20 Feb 2015, 6:50 am

In grade school I did well, but I flunked college in part because I was reading so much.



ToughDiamond
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20 Feb 2015, 9:40 pm

Yes. My special interests were always much more fun than school work, and also they were easier to get right (although often very complicated) so I didn't feel very motivated at school. Wasn't the only problem, but it had its impact.



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21 Feb 2015, 8:35 am

Only when at home I might goof off instead of doing my homework or assignment work. If I can't understand the question I often 'take a break' that turns into my us 5 hr straight internet session...