Structure

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Structure at school was a big problem for me. I left 3 years ago but I just wondered if anyone else had the same issue? It's something that sticks out to me more at secondary school but was still an issue in primary school too. Basically, I found years 7-9 and GCSE's (years 10 and 11) a hell of a lot easier than sixth form. Not just for obvious reasons; the work being academically harder but because in the former there was structure, there was a frame work. It was; here's a hoop jump through it. The answers were essentially there you just had to pick the right one. Sixth form and A levels were a lot different which is one of the reasons I ended up failing massively and having to drop out and re-start the following year. Thinking about it, I ended up switching from regular A levels to a Btec which actually is a lot more similar to the structure and framework provided by GCSE's. There were still aspects I really struggled with, one of them being the As level I picked to do alongside the Btec. It's not like I was exceptionally gifted in any particular subject, though I was near the top for all of them but say for example, in maths there is mostly a definitive answer you are looking for and something can be marked as right or wrong and I liked that, I oculd cope better with that. In something like english though it's far more subjective, there aren't such clear cut margins. Sit me down in front of some maths work and I'd just sit there and work methodically through it. Sit me down in front of some english work and it would be a different story. It's not that was actually bad at it, as I said I got good grades but it would and still does just send me into a panic. It's like if you ask me a question and give me options I could easily give you the answer but ask the same thing in an open ended question and you get pretty much the opposite. I just wondered if anyone else could relate?

I'm not diagnosed but it has recently been suggested to me and I'm currently just trying to figure things out a bit more.

I'm not in the UK but I can relate. I dropped out of 2 different Universities. It was before I was aware of autism or Aspergers at all let alone that it might be the reason I felt so different and overwhelmed. I definitely have a hard time with the advanced executive functioning skills and lack of structure in adult life. Plus my expectations of what University would be like vs the reality caused me to be very angry and overwhelmed. Part of my anger was because I was classified as gifted and always frustrated by the lack of challenging course work in primary and secondary school and was told by teachers that once I got to college it would change. That was partly not true and then in undergrad work at college, I was told it would be challenging in graduate school but by then I couldn't take the lack of structure and felt like I couldn't trust any of my advisors. In hindsight if I'd known about my possible AS, I would have sought out supports but also if I'd had better guidance counselor a at high school, they must have steered me towards Universities more suited to me and also scholarships and such.

Anyway, you aren't alone in feeling this way.