Autism and studying.

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I am studying for my 2nd year BSc Pharmacology exams now.

I ask, how does your autism affect your studying?

I find that I need a strict timetabled structure to the day. I also cannot make notes and learn best visually. I also need to have a nap for 45 minutes at midday in order to function. I have to prevent myself from staying in my bedroom for a week though, which involves forcing myself to leave the house sometimes.

What about you?

I just returned to study for my BA in Library Sciences and Media. All the classes are online so I take them on my time at work and home.

My biggest setback from AS is concentration when trying to study. I must have complete silence in the background which is difficult at home and next to impossible at work. If someone talks or a car passes by then I have to re-read the sentence I was on. If the library was closer then I would just bring my laptop there to study but that's not the case. So what I do is plan to do school work when I am alone and can make the house as quiet as possible.

make the best of being young, at 55 my brain function is deterioarating.

how do you remember the myriad of terms and 'labels' without written notes??

yes, i get incredible fatigue mid - late afternoon, i too nap for 30- 40 minutes... i work on my own and can do this.

good luck ! !

Thanks.

I use textbooks, and the British National Formulary book as a reference should I forget what a drug does. I have a pretty good rote memory so learning drug names isn't a problem.

I recently ordered a set of flashcards that the authors of my core textbook have made. It should arrive soon. I think the flashcards will help a lot.

I really struggle to make notes, as for me, all sentences in the textbooks are important and cannot be shortened or summarised.

I make spread sheet like charts that reorganize the info into several different ways. For my pharm course in med school I would have one set that organized the info by m.o.a. the next several collums would list drug name, site of action, decomposition rate and were/ how, ect. So I could the say that this mechanism had drugs x, y, z and then what each drug did interactions etc. then I would do that again and have a second sheet for drug class, a third sheet for interaction mechanisms etc. the importantthing for someone who has trouble summarizing is getting the info in a different form.

Draw pics for structures, make charts, etc.

Years ago I found that the best time for me to study and do homework was between midnight and 3-4 AM. I am a night person and that time is my most creative and the most productive. Different people have different times of the day when they are at their mental peak. Many like mornings, but for me that is the worst time for classes, or anything. Experiment to find your optimum time of the day.

Note taking was always hard for me, as I wanted to listen and not take notes. I loved those teachers who had prepared notes for all of their students. And as for homework, I found it best to start on it immediately, the same day if possible, even if it wasn't due for several more days or weeks. The extra time helped to solve those difficult problems, or to perfect written papers.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll see what I can do about diagrams.

I study well late at night because it's quieter.

Btw - my Dad loves Zorba the Greek. My Dad is a Greek Cypriot by birth.

I forgot to say, I've read elsewhere and agree with the routine that study works best in the first hour upon waking and the final hour before bed, or even ten or twenty minute sessions re 'lighter subjects'.

This!

I finish my first year studying BSc Biomedical Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, in 4 days. I've been trying lots of different techniques and struggling. I'm also a visual learner btw.

I tried taking notes but everything is important. I cannot summarise, no matter how hard I try. The uni tried giving me a note taker so that I could just sit and listen, but I'm not much of an auditory learner and I don't like reading notes in someone else's handwriting. Also, my rote memory used to be amazing, but not anymore, so just reading is difficult. I really don't know what to do next year, when it actually counts. I was thinking, maybe still have a note taker, but copy up their notes onto the slides after the lecture, so that it's in my handwriting, and hopefully they've only got the important information.

Revision is also a struggle - with regards to technique and memory. Technique is the same reason as above. Memory - if I revise too much in advance, I don't remember it later, so when I'm reading it again, it's like learning it all over again! No matter how well I understood it to start with, 2 weeks later I could tell you a couple of words and that's it.

I hate studying. I could never focus on it, and I didn't know where to begin on it. When I was in my last couple of months of school before I took all my important end-of-school-life exams, it was awful. I found it so hard to get motivated, and when I did start on studying at home I couldn't stay focused. Science was the worst one to study because it was too boring for me, and was too complicated. The periodic table just threw me, I've been learning it since I was 11 and I never did fully understand what the hell it really was. English was a bit easier to study, because I was good at spelling, although I struggled in some areas. And maths was out of the question, I was bad at maths all round, so I just thought I'd have to use my brain once I sit the exam. But it's revision of science exams that I really couldn't get on with.

I can relate.
I'm not completely uncapable of making notes, but I have a very hard time writing down things when someone is talking. This is why I hardly ever take notes.
I also learn best visually.

It has to be quiet. I can listen to music; but can't deal with distractions. I go to the library to study, which is meant to be quiet. It never is.

Breaks help too. Although that's not really Autism related.

I find studying hard; at the moment I am doing my AS exams, and teachers have given us the advice to study by making notes...BUT, I have always found this extremely hard.- Plus, 4 days from now, I have THREE exams in ONE day, yet I have idea whatsoever how I'm supposed to revise for them.

I find studying really difficult. I've had to rely on memory for nearly every exam I've done. The most success I've had is with just writing and rewriting my notes. If I don't do that, I just read and my eyes do the motions, but my brain doesn't take in anything. I remember a group discussion at uni, about 3 weeks before our final exam. Another student asked when he should start to study. There was a sharp intake of breath by nearly everyone in the room. The prof was shocked that he hadn't been studying all along. I kept quiet, as I hadn't started either and I might have lifted my notes a night or two before the exam, definitely no sooner than that. I did pass, however.

How are you taking notes? Are you just writing things down, or using mid maps?

I don't study.

I have no clue how to study, and find it extremely difficult to keep to any kind of study schedule. If the subject is an intense interest of mine, I will research stuff related to it for fun, but deliberate studying is pretty much impossible for me without extensive support.