r/adhd_college

Turning the studying into a competition : don’t want to study before finals ? Ask a friend to design you tests, the novelty of the tests and knowing how good you're doing will make the tests interesting and having some tests in between the studying will help it stay engaging.

You could also ask people you know from your promotion to do tests with you so you can compete on getting the highest scores possible.

I don’t mean competing for finals, this is too far away for our brains to see the reward and be motivated to stay on it, I mean having buddy competitions in between studying sessions.

Plus, sometimes people might tell you stuff you missed during the courses or give useful advice.

I'm so mad at myself. My whole life till uni I was exceeding academically. I did million stuff at once, made time for everything and was still sane and content with myself.

Ever since starting uni I feel like a complete failure. From semester to semester it's getting worse. I tried therapy, then got my diagnosis. Now I'm on 30 mg medikinet, but it doesn't help me at all apart from making me clean my room and have some more energy.

I feel like I've hit a wall. I fail on the smallest stuff. Today I was the only person in my year that didn't pass an exam. I had time, I knew I had to do it, I had every opportunity to do it. The worst part is l'm in such a comfortable situation and I still struggle. I don't have to pay for housing, for education, anything, I just have to study. I have very supportive parents and good friends. People not even half as lucky do better than me. I feel so guilty for wasting my parents' money.

My task paralysis got so bad this semester I feel like I can't do anything college related. I can't bring myself to wash my hair or eat well. I don't sleep because I'm trying to make myself work, but I end up sitting thinking about it, distracting myself with anything possible. Even texting back people became so difficult.

I really really want to change things. I know I'm able to thrive on my major. I thought diagnosis and medication would help, but I'm only getting worse and worse. I don't know what to do I feel so stuck.

How do I get out of this? I can't go on like this. I hate what I've made of myself.

EDIT: I've managed to beat social anxiety after working on myself so hard. I stopped my disordered eating habits and turned my life for the better in so many ways yet this one thing is something I cannot overcome. I wish I could function normally. I can't stand feeling and looking like an idiot.

I have Autism and Anxiety but also suspecting ADHD. On top of the autism sensory issues and social interactions, I struggle greatly with procrastinating, time management, executive dysfunction, and being committed to things, even my own hobbies. I have many incomplete projects from my hobbies for example.

In lectures, I don't pay attention at all, I'm in my own world, it's been like this since forever in class settings. It's like a my brain puts a screensaver of random thoughts every 5 seconds, then I get sidetracked. Many knew me as the person who never finished their homework and the procrastinater with bad time management since childhood. Got many detentions and red "homework not done" stamps in my books, emails were being sent to my parents. I try to change, it's so difficult.

I try to force myself to be motivated and productive, it works for a bit then I burnout end of semester, can't suppress my executive dysfunction anymore, and then fail half of my finals. This cycle happens EVERY. SEMESTER.

I failed 4 classes so far. I redid 2 of them, passed one but failed the other one AGAIN. Right now, I feel that group mates and classmates look down on me because of all of this, plus my autism already makes me off-putting. Everyone around me is passing well except me. I keep failing, falling behind on everything in life. I cannot anymore.

im a 21f college student in what was supposed to be my last year of undergrad. ive struggled my whole life with consistency when studying. i was used to being the top student of my class everywhere up until covid hit and i lost all my well established routines. lockdown happened exactly on my two last years of high school and i was not able to attend a single zoom class. eventually my mom had to pay a lot of money out of pocket in order for me to graduate high school.

i thought i was getting somewhere then. even though i felt like a fraud (because i was), i applied for university and got in 3rd out of more than a thousand applicants. i love researching and learning absolutely everything, but for the love of god i cannot do homework outside my classes, which ends up in a spiral of procrastination and self blame. during the first two years of uni, i was able to get on the top 2% of my faculty despite my struggles and poor attendance, but now im flunking entirely and have been for the past year and a half.

im NOT depressed, my brain for some reason just refuses to cooperate and all external motivation that used to work in the past does NOT work anymore. i feel like i need someone to point a gun at me or else i will not get absolutely anything done. last semester i failed three classes. today i am close to failing four more.

in the second week of classes this semester, i tried going to my uni’s counselor in hopes that i might be able to receive some help or actually, just to be heard. instead, that fucking balding man refused to acknowledge any concern i had because “the semester is just starting” and “well you said yourself you got to the top 2%, so you can do it again!”. i told him I suspected having adhd and they just dismissed me saying “If you had that, you wouldn’t even had been able to get into this university” ????? what the fuck

i was so fucking hopeless and that led me to search an external therapist who could help me. as the weeks went by, she said it’s likely that i have both adhd and autism. with this new information i went back to my uni’s counselor and they said “well in that case you could apply for this program that we have for disabled students ☺️☺️”.

that program was a whole scam. the lady that was following my case was extremely condescending and genuinely treated me like a r-word, slowing eeeeeveeryyy singggleee wordddd UGHHH and on top of that, she was NOT a licensed professional according to my country’s school of psychologists 😃 fucking hell

they said that in order for the university to accept my case and eventual accomodations, they would need my whole 40 page diagnosis and another document with a similar length written by myself about how my conditions affect me, in excruciating detail. after i submit all of that, they would get back to me in THREE WEEKS with an approval OR REFUSAL and that every consideration would only be taken after my admission into the disabled students program. so basically any chance of passing this semester is gone.

i am so frustrated with myself. ive always felt both stupid and smart at the same time but lately i realize that being smart and knowledgeable isn’t what gets you far in life. i know i sound incredibly privileged with the fact that im able to pursue an education, and i know i am, which just makes me feel worse. i wish i could give my life to someone else who would actually make the most out of it.

I'm mostly looking for tips on how to get the motivation to go to class. Term starts late August, and I'll be living on campus, but I have a LOT of trouble getting the drive to go to class. I know others have had this issue, and wanted to know if anyone had advice.

I tried college in fall 2025, and it went well, but somewhere along the line I lost motivation, and I couldn't seem to get to classes, and had to withdraw to avoid having my GPA tank. I'm trying again this fall, and I'm worried about going down the same road again.

Alarms dont help much, and I'm going to be getting into therapy the second I get into town before school, and that'll continue on campus. I have a remote, self scheduling job, so I don't have the excuse of calling off class because I "might have work." Other than that, I'm open to any suggestions or tips.

Hi everyone, I recently found out I am twice exceptional (with ADHD) and I am currently suffering a lot because of my university career. I've watched a ridiculous amount of videos on study methods, read posts on reddit and quora, read articles on the web and still I still haven't figured out how I should study certain subjects that aren't strictly conversational. So I ask you for advice on how to do this and how I could compose my study method.

To make it short I'm studying medicine and I haven't figured out how to study for almost 3 years: I've passed some exams but I'm extremely behind my peers (I have to study for my 2nd year exams and by some miracle I passed those first).

While I was at school, I simply had to read and understand, and I excelled in subjects like philosophy and history (while I had very little education in mathematics and physics, both for external and internal reasons, and even today I don't know how to study them).

The pattern I'm experiencing is also very similar to the one I experienced in high school with these last two subjects: no matter how much I read and reread, it's as if my brain physically refuses to acquire and try to understand. The point is that I really enjoy medicine, and clinical reasoning in particular (in some internships, I performed well despite having studied certain subjects less than others).

To be more precise about my reading problems: when I find myself reading a text it is as if the content were completely disconnected and thrown away for no reason. For example, I'm studying neuroanatomy and when I find myself studying a part of the brain (for example the amygdala) the book gives me a brief introduction and then throws anatomical details and other things at me that seem genuinely out of context. It's as if he didn't give an introduction to the topics: the feeling I get is that of starting to watch a film and starting from a random scene where characters appear one after the other and in the meantime I have to explain the protagonists and the plot.

A recent intuition I had is to approach certain sentences by always asking myself the causal and finalistic reason for what I am trying to understand and to look for the logical thread even at the cost of reading completely random pages of the book. Furthermore, I always try to draw a mental map in the meantime to keep track of what I understand.

Thank you for reading this far, I wish you a wonderful day.

I woke up right at the moment my final exam closed. I immediately emailed my professor and told him what happened but it’s already nearing the end of the day and I am still waiting for a response. I’ve just been teetering on my chair waiting but things are looking bleak. I just can’t believe it. The course closes TOMORROW. I was doing super well in the class too…I really don’t want to fail over one mistake. FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK MYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY LIFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Update: Professor was understanding. I just wish he would have responded earlier! All is well.

I've recently just started proper revising a couple months ago and I have to say it is really,really difficult. I have just gotten my exams back and I have done really badly on them even though I spent 8 hours a day revising for 4-5 weeks. The way I revise is I watch videos/read textbooks and absolutely note everything down in a big notebook then do some questions on it, but for some reason it hasn't worked at all and now I have another exam coming up in 2 days and I just don't know what to do at all because if I don't write everything down I feel like I'll forget?? I try to do revision on my laptop or phone but nothing ever gets in. I seriously don't know what to do, any breakdowns or tips?

Ok to preface this, I got my ADHD diagnosis in May, and I’ve been medicated for a little over a month now. Truly it feels so good to finally stop worrying about what is wrong with me, and spiraling over the question of why can’t I function as well as everyone else around me haha.

School has always been a mess for me. It was really showing in high school and it's been even worse in college. In particular, there's a lower level programming class that I’ve failed three times and withdrawn from once. (Yes, I know that’s terrible. Most people would take that as a sign to move on.)

They're offering it as an online class this summer. I’m at the point where I’m sick of this fucking class but I am adamant on passing it because I don’t want to just give up when I haven’t tried. I ended this past spring semester really shitty and I was just beside myself about it. I took two summer classes at the beginning of this summer and got A’s. (thank god for meds) So I don’t feel terrible about trying this class again.

There's a PhD student who is an instructor for the class and I just know I'm in his nightmares. Today I stumbled upon a Reddit comment he posted on a thread asking professors what teaching issues need to be addressed. His reply was: “Schools should kick students out if they fail a class more than 3 times. I have a student taking my class for the *sixth* time.”

I’m not mad at the instructor, I too would probably be irritated if I had a student continuously adding to my withdraw/fail rates. Seeing that comment though definitely fucks with my head a bit. I obviously was already embarrassed to be in this class a *fifth* time. And it's lovely knowing that the guy grading my assignments thinks I should be like banished from university for eternity. 😭😭

I was in a depression and overwhelmed. I work for my mom and I was scared to create a boundary. She would change my work days to catch up for study days when we had already agreed to a schedule. Iended up losing structure over when I work and when I study and both ended up getting negatively affected.

This triggered a depression and adhd paralysis. I haven't been this way ever since getting on meds but it became so bad that I submitted my assignments 3 days late. Which means a 15% penalty.

To make it worse, my mom asked if I submitted on time and I lied. I'm so scared that I failed both my modules. Before treatment, I was in this same situation and she almost kicked me out.

I’m completely lost on what to do. I need to hear about someone else experience because nobody irl is struggling the way I am.
My story: 5 years, no degree, only a handful of classes finished across different degrees, and I’m fighting for my life. I’m starting to think maybe I’m not built for university????

Started med school -> stopped -> started one engineering degree -> stopped -> switched to another engineering degree.

And now I’m struggling to finish ONE fucking course in my engineering degree.

I was able to write down everything I’ve struggled with all these years, and it seems like NOBODY in real life has these same struggles as me. I don’t get it:

* University moves too fast, and it triggers my anxiety so badly that even just being on campus makes me dizzy and overwhelmed.

* The classes that you take (which are 4 classes or SEMESTER) are such broad subjects that you have no way of actually learning. This triggers my autism and OCD A LOT. I once finished a class and didn’t even feel like I had studied or learned the topics, and it sent me into a spiral.

* The assignments and being bombarded with deadlines trigger my anxiety. Even when I start in good time, because I don’t understand the topic well enough, I fucking struggle.

* The really crowded spaces trigger both my anxiety and my autism and ADHD. I get so overwhelmed by all the people and taking general courses where there are 200+ students.

The different platforms and layouts. I fucking hate how all the professors do everything differently. Some have their own website, and some use our university platform. LIKE WHY CAN’T THEY ALL JUST CHOOSE ONE??? Every semester is a battle finding out where material is.

The requirement of staying organized while being thrown so many documents is insane.

The social atmosphere and the FOMO you get from being around everyone and not being able to experience what they are doing because you’re overwhelmed, tired, and not able to connect as fast.

I can’t see how all of this is healthy for the nervous system for 4+ years. In my case, I took breaks in between my switches, but I just wanted to ask if anyone with anxiety or ADHD might be able to relate. THINGS GO BY WAY TOO FAST???

And then there are the courses that are non-related.

All of this is coming from someone who graduated from a small high school in Europe with the highest GPA.

Has anyone experienced this? I’m in limbo hell with university. I have only finished one engineering class, and I still have to take so many advanced math classes while my peers are already onto the software/hardware part..

Wtf I’m just so confused on how everyone just finishes a degree. It’s a puzzle and a battle for me.

I really want to know if anyone has been in a similar position and how they got out of it. I'm a second semester nursing student in an ABSN program. For some context, I got pushed back a semester because I had to be hospitalized for two weeks after a spontaneous pneumothorax. I came back with a fire and determination to succeed, even though it wasn't necessarily the most healthy or consistent motivation. I passed 6 classes first semester with all As and Bs.

Now, it's second semester and I'm not sure what happened but my mental health has gone in the gutter. Nothing in particular has happened, I just feel... Tired constantly, embarrassed to exist and having the urge to isolate constantly. It's not exclusive to nursing school either, I just feel like I wasn't made to survive in this world. Even family and close friends, I avoid because I feel so much shame. For what? Maybe because I'm extremely behind in life and a socially anxious loner with no life.. Or maybe not I'm really not sure, because nothing has really changed from last semester. I manage to get myself up to go to class everyday, but I find myself distracted, and when I get home I do nothing.. Maybe the bare minimum studying if that, and my assignments I do extremely last minute. I've been getting low 70s on exams so far, which is a massive fall compared to how I was performing last semester (and is considered failing for my program. 80 percent minimum to pass). It doesn't help that there have been multiple administrative changes at my school so everything is so disorganized.

I have struggled with ADHD and severe anxiety my whole life, and for nearly a decade now I've had depression. I want this so so badly, for the first time in my life I know exactly what I want. I even started taking medication despite how averse I am to psych meds and it hasn't been helping at all. I got pushed back a semester already due to reasons completely out of my control, I just don't want to be set back again. I do not know what to do, or where to turn. I feel paralyzed in my own mind and like my future is slipping away from me. Please, is there anyone who has gone through something similar? If so, how did you get out of it?

I’m facing a huge problem right now with studying and I have for a very long time. I study so slowly bc I keep zoning out I cannot stop zoning out at all and I am fighting for my life every time I study taking over an hour for just one page.i just keep reading a few words then looking at the ceiling then trying to get back again 100x per hour.im never ready for an exam my scores are just barely passing and no matter how much I study to compensate for this it doesn’t work (since I take a whole hour or more for one page)

I am on antidepressants rn and I feel fine.like just normal.i got diagnosed with adhd specifically attention deficit and I’ve been on meds for almost 2 months with no results at all.like not even slightly. I am still taking them both the adhd meds and the antidepressants. I took a second opinion from another psychiatrist who says she doesn’t think I have adhd since the meds aren’t working.my original psychiatrist says the problem is my study method but it feels so much more than that.like all my friends study like this just reading through underlining and repeating it a couple times.but I take an hour on one page bc of the constant zoning out

I’m literally so afraid I’ll either fail this year or the next.i probably won’t have a summer break either. I’m hardworking my English is great I understand all the content but I keep zoning out and the time just flies I’m so done

I can never seem to get ready for exams on time because of the way I organize things. Basically, either:

1- I underestimate how long things take: I might spend an hour on a single page, but for some reason, in my head, I think it’ll only take... 30 minutes, so I end up getting through just a third of what I’d planned.

2- I get anxious. When I see a packed study schedule (even a well-structured one), I get anxious and either don't start at all or can't stick to it. And yet, it’s the best approach for me. I don't know what to do; I keep making impossible plans that I fail to follow, even though having a plan is essential for me.

(I study in Europe, not America. My exams rely heavily on memorization, and I have to prepare for about two exams every two months. I’m a slow worker, so organization is crucial.)

Hi, I recently failed a class for the second time and I have one try left or else I am going to be exmatriculated and that is it, 4 years of uni for nothing. This past semester I have been trying to get it together, got my offical ADHD diagnosis (5 days after I failed the exam, at 24 y/o) and did all the things like „this pretty bottle will fix it, I will be able to focus when I drink more“ or „I need to have this pen, this will solve it“(didn’t work, who could have guessed) and tried over and over to „start over“ with new plans, which I couldn’t stick to for more than 2 days.

I am often stuck and feel like I can not start, even though I know I not only should, but need. Part of that is me being afraid to fail or that I am not smart enough, too stupid to understand the material.

Also I find it hard to stick to it. It feels like I have no energy, etc. It’s a vicious circle, I know…"I can’t get myself to study" leads to "I feel stupid" leads to "I will fail this again“ leads to „I failed“ leads to „I am stupid“ leads back to „I can’t get myself to study (bc I am afraid to fail)“

I feel too overwhelmed during lectures, my notes don’t make any sense after, yet I feel like just sitting there and trying to listen drains all my energy for the day.

Main problem: this lecture in particular is an online lecture with other units online too work through before the lecture (they are basically taped lectures) and I really tried, but never got through the material before each lecture in question.

So in the coming semester I need to get it right. I need to find a way to stay on track and to stick with it. I can’t fail another time. I don’t want to fail another time. I already feel like a huge disappointment to my boyfriend (long distance due to uni for most of the week) and my parents.

Does anyone have any ideas or advice on how to do that? Staying on track? Or any study hacks in general? Things that worked? Any methods?

I really need it. Thank you in advance :)

Hello I am 27M studying BS in Data Science Online Degree First Semister i am currently struggling to stay consistent studying i spend all my day scrolling saying i would start later but i don't and if i do i only study for 30 mins max then try to do something else i am not currently behind the schedule but if i take things lightly i might fall behind any tips for not fucking it up?

Also my primary procrastinators are youtube and daydreaming i dont take any meds or in any therapy.

I tried blocking apps but i just uninstall or skip them i dont have any discipline when it comes to studying idk wut to anymore feel like i am broken for academics

Thanks for reading!

So I'm in my 4th year of Data Science, and I've struggled with Math, mostly Calc, but generally with the subject. I switched from Computer Science to this degree since I was a bit better at Data Analytics, and I've succeeded much more than I did in Data Science, but Math is still my weakness.

I'm not on meds nor plan to be immediately (I took meds when I was first diagnosed with ADHD in 2024, but the side effects were so severe that I opted out of them). I might plan on it, but I'm still debating it.

I'm planning to try supplements like L-theanine and have tried Ginkgo biloba, but I want to hear any and all tips from people on how they study math (Specifically stats, linear algebra, and Calculus).

What I've done is usually use ChatGPT as a tutor, upload my materials, and have it teach them to me while also helping me answer questions like those in my lecture notes.

(Advices allowed)

I (21F) started suspecting that I had adhd since two or three months ago, after doing a lot of research on it when a friend mentionned it to me. I felt like I finally found answers to my issues and it felt freeing.
However, I’m in the process of getting a diagnosis and I don’t know how long it will take.

Currently I’m in vacation. My 2nd year at law school ended and so we have time off before returning again in september.
Since the begining of these vacations, I’ve been awfully tired. All these years (since middle school, high school and the begining of my University years) I used shame and stress to work. I would think about how disappointed in myself people and I would be if I failed, how shamefull of me it was to lay there or do anything but work, and how stupid it was for me to want to do something but failing. Then, I would wait for the stress to kick in to start any given task: house chores, homeworks, hobbies with deadlines, etc.

Now, stress and shame stopped working. It was gradual. First I started noticing that no matter how hard I would be on myself, I would get nowhere. So I stopped shaming myself (before thinking about adhd). Then, when deadlines were approaching, I would stop stressing as much as I used to, then it completely stopped. Or I would stress but not enough to start working or having better executive functions. So my last exams were crammed.

Also, I would count on the stress (of knowing that my mom would be upset) to do the household chores when I had to. Now, I don’t even care enough.
When I’m asked to do things I know I can’t do because my brain wants but not my body, I become a little agressive. I just lay in bed all day, either playing games on my phone or sleeping or watching tiktoks. I have requests for refunds to do but somehow I won’t do it, I have administrative documents to find to renew my passport before it expires, and yet I won’t do it. I can’t do shit.

I am extremely tired. It could be that making everything worse. But anyways: shame and stress stop working so now I feel like a lost cause.
How will I force myself to do anything ? I sometimes feel like a failure when I had stopped feeling that way. Guess that new found self worth wasn’t that solid after all.

Edit: me not doing the tasks are causing arguments with my family. My mom knows that I’m seeking a diagnosis but she doesn’t understand how I could have adhd nor how can it make tasks difficult for me.

I'm writing this sleep deprived cus of ADHD meds so I apologize in advance if this ends up making no sense. I'm 22, recently diagnosed and medicated for ADHD, and in my senior year of undergrad studying a major I fervently resent. I'm actually a super senior due to several leaves of absence and a poor mental health. I'll briefly summarize some important background to my main spiral to prevent this post from becoming too bloated. I come from a conservative family of a Middle Eastern origin and was pretty much forced to go to university right out of high school. It's worth quickly mentioning that my dad is abusive and is still a presence in my life. I still have nightmares about him after any simple interaction with him. At 18, I was directionless, immature, and unprepared to navigate life outside the authoritarian one I was familiar with. Of course, I was still financially dependent on my parents which meant I couldn't take liberty in what I wanted to study. Essentially, I settled for something in closer proximity to my future aspirations that they could approve of with as minimal convincing as possible (however, they don't explicitly know what I want to do after graduation because they're generally critical of anything outside of Medicine).

The major I settled for is too monotonous for my preference (I wanted to study English instead) but I was too preoccupied with my parent's potential reaction to let myself pivot. If I were to pivot, I'd only be able to do so in secret. This obviously led to many academic disasters as I couldn't for the life of me tolerate my assignments. It has reached to a point where it has become physically painful to do anything major-related so I ended up just coasting. My executive dysfunction is severe and I've tried everything. I've tried convincing myself that it's just what I have to get through since it's too late for me to switch. I've talked myself down over how this is just for the sake of getting a degree and then I can move on with my life. I did therapy, I got better, I matured and became more responsible. But that all collapses when it's time to finish my major requirements. I thrive in my fall through electives and become enriched by the learning process, which are two things I didn't feel for years in college. Unfortunately, I was too nihilistic and depressed to think of meaningful solutions; I blindly accepted that I was meant to stay trapped in order to minimize my parents' scrutiny. As a result, I ended up not only disappointing them for wasting their money (they threatened to force me to quit school and live with them back in my home country when I mentioned I was struggling multiple times), I had also disappointed myself.

I don't believe I deserve much sympathy as I'm privileged to be financially supported through college, therefore I am not asking for that. I guess I'm wondering if anyone relates or if I'm indeed as incompetent of a person as I think I am. I'm just frustrated with how my ADHD brain won't let me go through tasks I find painful even for the sake of others. I've messed up so much and god knows if I have any remaining strength to graduate. I desperately want to graduate.