How can an Aspie remember a long, uninteresting read?

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Back in college now, I'm already finding an old nemesis of mine: Remember boring and/or inane assigned readings. Is there ANY way an Aspie can read and basically memorize a multi-multi-page text that defies his own sense of logic? That last one is the key phrase, because Aspies, more than NT's, don't accept illogical statements.

While I'm reading something I'm assigned to read, I can actually sense my brain NOT recording certain illogical sentences. I can read a whole page, and sense a big zero in my brain the whole time -- because it hasn't come across any assimilatable data. As I get older, I increasingly translate, or reduce, all life experiences into raw data. Progressively, I can no longer memorize things I don't understand. And I don't understand nonsense. So how do I get through college???

I have the exact same problem. Sometimes what helps me is if I sing out the page. I know it sounds weird, but it sometimes works. Good luck!

Maybe I have a useful suggestion. I have a degree in nursing, and am currently working on a masters in nursing. I am (as we speak) procrastinating on reading for an assignment due tomorrow. Why? Because all the reading is either boring or badly written or TMI.

So how do I do it? I don't. I don't ever do all the reading. I figure out what the assignment/question is, then go through the reading to figure out the answers. I never sit down and read an entire chapter unless it's compelling. For tests, I can usually figure out the right answers. This only works for subjects for which you have a natural ability or interest. But my point is, go backwards. Figure out what questions you need answered, and find the answers.

If you have to memorize, like anatomy, that's a whole different strategy.

Rewrite what you are reading. As you are reading, type it out or write it down, and put it in your words. Then use your words as a study tool. That was the only way I could get thru certain literature.

Instead of trying to remember "Sally was sad as she walked to the store to pick up her groceries. The long list in her hand was a costly list." I just write down "Sally went to the store. She had a long list."

Well, that would be good, except the boring/irrelevant stuff I have trouble memorizing is that right brain stuff I misinterpret when rewriting.

I forgot to add that I sang, sometimes shouted the words to myself, sometimes read sentences five times in a row -- the problem is, my brain has gotten VERY good at filtering out what it doesn't want, no matter how it's packaged. In part, I blame our advertizing-saturated culture. It trains you to tune ANYTHING out.

This is going to sound weird but... If I come across something that's illogical that my brain doesn't want to process, I create a new logic and justification for it. Then I apply my new logic system to the old logic in the text and kind of blend them, until I see what the point is. It's getting me through English and Abnormal Psychology class as we speak.

This works most of the time for me, but not always, for example Geography class where I couldn't read the book or listen to the instructor (all he did was drone on and on about the stats without integrating the information and I hate that).

I also draw diagrams> Sometimes on paper, sometimes in my own mind. If I can visualize it I can usually grasp it.

The same way everyone else does it: Note-taking, high-lighting, dog-earing, and general hard work.
I think that's simple enough?

Small notes are always easier to remember than big chunks of text. When I'm studying for History exams I write out little skeleton essays written in bullet-point form. These take a long time to produce, but they seriously helped me in my last exams.

Stick to science and philosophy. The former is logical and the latter expects you to challenge its logic.

Yes. And simply the act of condensing the material helps understand it. Plus the mechanical act
of writing it is tremendous reinforcement. It is really time consuming though.

The way I get through long readings is outlining the chapter or reading. Yes, it takes a little longer, but the act of outlining them forces me to read every word, and putting it in my own words helps me remember what I need to remember.

As far as being impatient with illogical nonsense, well... I had to take a philosophy class, and I groused about it every day because the premise of the class was unsupportable. But I still passed it - I call the process "drinking the Kool-Aid." For the entire quarter, each time I was asked a question about the material, I reframed it in my head as "IF so-and-so's contention were supportable, THEN [question]?" It made it possible for me to pretend that the basis of the class didn't have to be logical.

Granted, I wrote a lot of bullsh*t essays for that class... but I passed it with an A-, and I don't believe a word of what I wrote or read for it. It can be done.

Last edited by Gryph on 27 Mar 2007, 2:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Writing all the time works. And though it doesn't seem so, it's also a very fast way to learn.

I have the exact same thing. It's especially painful when I try to read an advanced math book filled with boring formulas.

To be dead honest I am too lazy to rewrite stuff and when I try to summarize something it always comes out as a very long summary. I wish I could will myself out of the laziness, I've even tried to, but I just can't come up with the energy.

Learning is work. If you don't want to do the work, you shouldn't be taking those classes. Find something easier. Mathematics (and Philosophy BTW) rather require that one carefully follow the formulae, and play with them a bit. Anything less is just a sham - might get you through, but you're not learning anything.