Studying techniques for aspergers

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Hi,

I just discovered 2 weeks ago that I have some form of autism, I will soon introduce myself in the get to know eachother section.

I know understand much more of the difficulties I have while studying, I started uni in the field of psychology but it wasn't easy to start, I'm now in 2nd grade.

I now understand my main problems while studying, those are:

- A lot of difficulty to focus while reading

- An obsession when I don't memorise what I read to read it over and over again or to write it over and over again to try to memorize it, which is a big problem because at uni it is nearly impossible to memorize everything you read as the quantity is really huge

- A lot of difficulty while making summaries, I have never been able to make a complete summary of a lesson because when I summarize I'm always scared I leave important information behind

- Great difficulty to stay focussed while attending a class

- An extreme frustration of the slowness of the process of learning

My memory is mainly pictural, I like maps, graphics and schemes which I tend to memorize better than whole sentences.

I am quite competitive so I figured if I would play games with myself with flashcards and so I could memorize better.

Anyone experiencing these lkinds of problems and who has found solutions or techniques to be able to learn better his own way?

Grtz

i kind or relate; although my memory is more vocal/audio then pictural.
what helped for me is explaining the material to someone else, preferably someone that doesn't understand himself; like a housemate doing a different course or perhaps your parents.

taking notes can be made easier using mindmapping techniques; these rely on making pictures and diagrams to help you remember things.

Exercise is supposed to help, not when studying though. And balance exercises. Things that stimulate motor control. I recommend learning to juggle. It is a lot easier than it looks.

My memory's mostly pictorial too. I did horribly in university cause I never really knew how to study and there was way too much material than one person could ever learn and we were supposed to "skim," which I still don't know how you're supposed to do.

One thing that did help: in language classes, drawing pictures representative of new vocabulary.

I absorb lectures well if I don't take notes. If I try to take notes, I focus too much on that process, and zone out on the lecture.

I had to take a huge 300 person course, and I had a hard time with it. I found out that a local private tutor shop would sell me a subscription to a printout of the text of every lecture fairly inexpensively. I didn't attend another lecture, just read everything, and got an A.

I have to get things done early. I never stay up late studying the night before a test. In fact, I try to get all my studying done the previous night, and rest the night before the test.

Perhaps, trying to understand the underlying logic behind the dry factual / encyclopedic knowledge may help. It is not simple, since it requires the ability to separate the important from the unimportant filling, and what important is not always obvious, but with practice it improves fast. You have to establish models in your mind, and you should not be afraid to do it on your own way (e.g. visualizing models, I'm used to doing it). Sometimes memorizing the structure of lists or the first letters of the items that a list is comprised of can help to rote memorize them. Identifying the similarities and differences of models that you are supposed to know and the way they changed / evolved historically can help to cope with overlapping knowledge.

Thinking of what the authors of the curriculum materials must have thought when they prepared them may help too.

I don't know that exercise does anything for the underlying neurology of autism but my personal experience has been that is a great help in managing agitation and depression. Exercise helps deplete stress hormones, keeps your general health higher and has been proven to help cognitive functioning. So yeah. A good exercise plan would likely help. Be careful not to get too obsessed with exercise or you can end up with injuries.

I had horrible experiences with college in general.

The first thing I would point out is that, as you've already touched on, alot of classes really don't want you to memorize everything. Rather they want you to figure out what the teachers want, and then supply it..... A veritable AS Nightmare right thar..... You can try to memorize everything they throw at you as a means to do this, but again as you've already mentioned, theres ALOT of information you're going to have to try to memorize to do that. The thing Ive seen more college students do to beat this is to work together. Everything from forming study groups to down right copying each other. Again, an AS Nightmare in my opinion, and I certainly was never very good at it either.

The second thing I would point out is to really ask yourself, while you're taking the classes, if the major you're pursing what you really want to do with your life, rather then just an obsession or a special interest. Its one thing to be interested in a topic and have a thirst for more knowledge about it, and quite another to decide to dedicate a large part of your life to actually practicing it. There can even be other factors involved in this, from parental pressure, to worry about 'Having a good paying job' at the end of college. But even if it has the ability to pay well, doesn't mean it will if you're so miserable actually doing it that you end up hating it or yourself as a result. Its ok to switch majors at any point, and I highly suggest playing to your strengths (A pictorial memory for instance is a strength IMHO, though Im sure you have plenty of others that may or may not apply well in the field of Psychology). In the end, I ended up taking lots of different classes almost all of which were very interesting, but nothing I could really see myself doing for a living.

Finally, try to learn about the teachers/proffessors you end up with from any source you possibly can. Ask your advisers about them (Though realize that they tend to shade towards the teachers), other students (This can be the most accurate or inaccurate depending), and look around online for mentions of them. There are even sites that quietly "review" college professors if you go digging. Nothing will change your learning experience like the person trying to teach it to you. Some teachers try to honestly help and understand you as a student and work for/with you. Others just throw books at you and expect you to figure out how to pass their class. It might take you out of your safe zone to do this, but ask them questions, about anything. Anything you don't understand, or want clarified, or even for help if you're overwhelmed by what their asking you to do, their responses will often give you clues about what they're looking for, and about their teaching methods in general. Some teachers are down right bastards, others are saints and will do anything a student asks of them. Most are in the middle somewhere. The point to college is to get through it, and there are many avenues to do this. Asking teachers about what they want/expect, or for help is one avenue thats worth trying in almost every class at least once. Talking with other students is another. The little yellow books I can't remember the name of (Perhaps someone else here can fill in my blank, most college stores will even stock these, even though by most high school standards they'd be considered cheating), that summarize books and lessons are GREAT resources for getting through otherwise insurmountable amounts of text.

Hope this helps, Thanks for reading if you have

Aldran, I think you're referring to 'Cliff Notes'.

Well i always struggle in focusing when i need to study, but recently i've found that playing classical music in the background helps a ton. You would think it's distracting, but the way you can listen to it without having to process each part of it, just let it flow in, sort of blocks out other distractions. It's not like music with words where i want to process what is being said, or anything with super obviously different instruments (like, bass guitar vs piano sound, the two stand out from each other), all the sounds flow together like water. I think by subconciously focusing on the solidness of the music, my alert mind can focus on the details of my reading.

It's like putting ear plugs in, but i can't stand ear plugs because I feel really vulnerble and scared I'll miss some important sound or get a fright by not hearing someone approach me.

I've also considered getting one of those computer pens that record sound and notes so you can put it on a computer. You might look a little nerdy, but I think having a visual AND audio can be really useful after lectures.

Good luck!

Mine, it seems, is a little visual and more kinesthetic. Actually doing things after seeing them done. So, like I can watch videos of something, but then I need interaction. Khan Academy has been a great resource for me to supplement my class material with. It's interactive and lets me practice until I get everything right. I always use it with the math and hard sciences, and am currently reviewing the algebra basics. Algebra was pretty easy, but I've had to take Calculus 2 times. I don't always see the extra steps needed to break down a problem before solving it. Even with my dyslexia and Asperger's, I've managed to get a good GPA so far. A lot more time is required for any reading, though, as my comprehension has always been poor.

We're all different.

My biggest weaknesses are
I read s l o w, about half the pace of the average reader.
I cannot skim texts.
If I'm not interested in the subject it's difficult to focus.

On the flip side
I remember everything I read.
I'm a perfect proof-reader.
If I'm interested in the subject, I will tirelessly absorb everything about it.

In school, I learned 90% from lectures or other spoken ways of teaching.
I agree that trying to explain something to others helps with understanding it.
One trick I used in High School was to make notes on a really small piece of paper to smuggle into the examination room. But I'd never bring it, just forcing me to fit the important stuff on the small note was enough for me to remember.

/Mats

Crikey, that sounds almost exactly like me when I was at the secondary school. Only difference is that you've been able to describe the problem very well. All I could figure out at the time was that I couldn't follow the work, and that maybe I had some kind of brain damage. I pieced together more of the details some years after I'd left school.

My "solution" was simply not to go to university. I found I did much better with an actual job where I was doing something instead of just trying to take in a great load of information. Obviously not a very attractive solution for somebody who's already started university, though it might be worth bearing in mind if there's no other fix. In darker moments I've sometimes wondered whether I've kind of wasted my life, but overall I think I probably did the right thing. I had no idea I had ASD and there probably wasn't any help for it in those days.

Looking back, I think I'd have done better at learning if I'd had some kind of a method that forced me to learn actively rather than passively listening / reading and expecting it to somehow sink in. I still get almost nothing out of listening to a lecture, unless I'm extremely interested in the subject. It's easier with reading because I can slow down to a pace I can keep up with. The only way that worked for me with reading was to write my own summary as I went along. That forced my brain to do something active which gave the processing something like the necessary depth to understand and retain the material. Of course it's slow.

One of the problems was that the information I was expected to absorb was pretty much random, and as I have great trouble learning anything I'm not naturally very interested in, not surprisingly most of the stuff didn't stick. But I did notice that once I'd managed to absorb something of a subject, my brain would begin to "adopt" it as a matter of interest, so once I'd broken through that first barrier I'd begin make better headway. That also worked well with a fiction book I was trying and failing to read - I mapped out all the characters on paper, and then I did a lot better.

It might be worth trying to get help from the university for the condition. Some of them won't want to know and will try to fob you off with little or nothing, but maybe others will be more co-operative. Can't hurt to ask, and if they drag their feet, I've known one case where applying repeated, strong pressure on them to make the right adjustments has saved the day.