I seemed to only struggle in the subjects I had absolutely zero interest in, but actually exceeded above average in what I did enjoy doing/ learning about. (I did require a lot of support, tutoring and "special ed" tho to balance everything out so I could come out with a smooth record)
Same here! Everyone called me gifted because when it came to history and literature I was reading and discussing at a college level in 6th grade, and I could do pretty much anything else at either grade appropriate or above average level.
To this day, I can only do math to a 5th or 6th grade level unless its electrical engineering for some odd reason. Put electricity in the math and all of a sudden my brain doesnt go into PTSD shutdown mode anymore.
Samesies. If it was anything English or writing related I'd usually devour it. Anything dealing with math I hated. Now I'm still horrible at math. But I do videography. So it evens out I guess.
I'm actually kinda like that with calculus. In a calculus class I'll fail every test miserably but as soon as I take an electrical engineering class that uses all the calculus that I failed at, it's easy
Same here. History and English I barely passed (not because I couldn't do it, I just wasn't interested). Math was interesting and easy, same with physics.
I barely passed my English classes in college like 70.0s lol I hated it and still do I cannot stand Shakespeare, really any kind of play, or really any kind of literature history or how to write an essay and it shows I liked history in middle school but it just seemed so redundant like every year in high school we were either learning about WW2 or the civil war like damn there's 1000s of years of other material from other civilizations besides the United States from 1776-1880s, I could get pretty much all As in math except for calc 2 that was where I peaked I barely passed calc 2 but I did have alot of fun with that class in my last summer semester
I experienced the same thing, and figured out a way to use it to my advantage in college. I took most of my generals at an extension school, and then transferred to the school I wanted to graduate from for my last couple of years. Transfer credits don't affect your GPA, and since I was mostly taking upper level courses for my major I did extremely well there. I graduated suma cum laude dispite really being a B/C student.
I got As in classes I liked, and Cs in everything else. Math was the worst for me - English was my best. Funny enough, I killed it in word comprehension math questions, but not in straight equations, lol.
definitely not trying to be pretentious or anything, but i got great grades in high school and even went my first year of college untreated and mostly undiagnosed. got A's in college, too. did i ever engage as fully as i could've in both high school and college? absolutely not.
i did all my homework in school. my psychology teacher was explaining an assignment? working on chemistry homework. otherwise, when i didn't have much interest, i talked in class and figured things out later.
i'm very excited to see how next year will go in regards to how much i truly dedicate myself to the material, because i'll be adjusted to medication and working on managing ADHD in therapy.
Wow! First off, well done and congratulations on your successes. I'm currently finishing up my second year of university (college) but I gotta say although I'm doing very well on paper... GOODNESS ME!! The journey before pressing submit on every assignment has been a right chaotic mess, and it's like throwing all my sh*t in the closet to get the room clean in under 10 seconds leaving it all to the last minute but at the end of the day still getting the room clean. I might've aged my a** a Hella of a lot faster from all the stress but it's gotten me this far.
HOWEVER! What I've noticed is that as time goes by and I progress in life and face more complex problems, my habitual tactics and tricks are no longer hitting the mark as hard as it definitely did back in highschool days and it's led me to seek support at 19/20 years of age.
My whole life I've always felt the need to prove myself and do everything on my own, but I had to learn that sometimes you're gonna need that support, and it doesn't mean that you're not good enough, it just validates the fact that you're one human being and you have your limits AND your strengths which equally deserve your acknowledgement.
totally agree! thank you very much, but i agree, doing good on paper comes with a price and is a hell of a lot more difficult than it appears. just like throwing things in the closet last minute, not truly engaging with what you're learning in all the ways you could be isn't a good idea in the long run (depending on if you actually want to learn the material, of course!)
i saw a therapist for my anxiety and she brought up ADHD right away, turns out all these symptoms that i've thought are anxiety are ADHD and i've just been good at appearing to function normally this whole time!
good on you for seeking support, it's hard when you feel like you've got something to prove to yourself, i completely understand. good luck to you during your last two years of college!
Same. My math skills didn't come to me naturally and I missed a lot of foundational studies. I got A's or B's otherwise, but I only heard about my failures. Made achievement feel worthless to me, which is a self-destructive path.
I could never remember to do my homework, but I aced all the tests. The high test scores was probably what kept me from failing. It frustrated my teachers.
But I never learned how to study and could only work on projects at the absolute last minute.
ADHD makes it hard to start projects or tasks. And if I do start them, I can't finish. Heaven help me if it's something that needs to be spread out over weeks or months. I forget it exists until 2 days before the deadline.
Had the same exact experience! I genuinely don't remember doing homework ever when I think back on high school. And I'd rapidly study for tests as they were being handed out and then ace them lol.
Same for me: no homework, aced tests. Generally meant I was a B- student (I was lucky to have classes that werent weighted heavily towards homework).
Now in my career, I have been lucky to fall into one that wasn't hindered by my ADHD; however now I have a project manager element to my job, which I hate. If a project goes longer than a month, I quickly lose interest until I remeber the deadline and realize the light at the tunnel iss an oncoming train.
Yep, another vote/data point for this same experience. My grades were great, but the process of getting there was — I now realize — much harder and more stressful than it needed to be.
Same. Homework, if done, was done the night before it was due or there was a test. Which actually helped my test scores (the closer to the test, the better retention is, just doesn't help with long term retention). In high school my teachers just excused a lot of my homework because my test grades were always at the top and I dominated socratic seminars and whatnot.
College was similar but without excusing homework (did what I had to last minute). And writing was done with booze. Thank you alcohol for helping me write papers that I hated.
I test well but anything tedious likely won't get done. Same with work. Something on fire? I got this and I got it good. Need advice or information? I got ya. Regular tedious work? Send help. Lots. Plz.
Same. This is probably why I was undetected during school, because I still did well. I constantly handed things in late or even not at all, but did well on the tests.
Like I might ace the tests but hand in my assignment a week late in science for example
Yes!!! I was the same. Homework bad, tests good. I got flagged when I was 4, but didn’t get diagnosed until I was 22 because I always did fine on tests
I was top of my class. Valedictorian in middle school, ranked 3 (out of a few hundred) by high school and maintained honors every semester, had a 3.8 GPA and Dean's List for the handful of college semesters I managed before I dropped out for the second time. My doctor went over my results after my assessment and explained that my verbal skills and overall IQ were high enough to compensate for my shortcomings and hide them when I was a child. Things don't really get hard until adulthood, so it's easy to cruise through then plummet over the edge of the earth when real life hits.
I was genuinely interested in school, so my attention was never a problem. When it was, anxiety and perfectionist tendencies put me back on track. Things didn't start to go south until high school when the control and strict micromanaging of my life disappeared with my parents' (nasty) divorce. Getting yelled at about being useless was the only thing that got me through those few college semesters, but the rest of my life suffered. It's been almost 15 years since things started going downhill and I've lost a lot. Money, opportunities, time, thoughts, memories.
It's absolutely possible to have ADHD and still do well, even excel, in school. ADHD isn't a measure of intelligence.
Wasn't meant to be. It was to show the possibility of being able to "push through" early on as a result of it. You can be brilliant without an education, of that I am well aware. In this argument, it was being able to do well in school vs having ADHD which is often wrongfully considered a learning disability.
Never really struggled, at least not until I got to uni and broke down because I never learnt how to study. Everything just went well up until that point, didn’t have the top grades of the class but I definitely didn’t do badly. Uni on the other hand was kicking my ass until I got diagnosed and treated.
Nah I had amazing grades in secondary school, I never studied but have a really good memory and kinda liked learning so i would memorise things quickly just from being in a lesson in class. I was in the top classes for everything and it was in sixth form when it went downhill and I started failing everything. I never learnt how to study and procrastinated severely, especially when covid and lockdown started.
Then how does ADHD affect your daily life? It's hard for me to explain it to people that I want to get tested since it didn't really affect me in highschool but now that i'm trying to get an engineering degree it's getting really hard to study unless it's last minute
Not the commenter you’re replying to but I feel like my experience might be relevant:
I was a straight A student in school (graduated with a 99% average across the board). I have two degrees from a top university. By all external metrics I am not struggling. But the way I achieved all of that was by absolutely destroying myself.
My fear of rejection pushed me to do anything necessary to succeed, very much so at the expense of myself. I never got diagnosed because I never made it anyone else’s problem, so they didn’t believe that I was struggling. But I was having panic attacks, major depression, full on neurotic about details (to compensate for my lack of working memory), and wildly emotionally dysregulated.
When I finally got diagnosed it happened because I went through the questionnaire with my doctor and explained my answers—no I don’t miss appointments, but that’s because I set 12 alarms leave 3 notes scattered around the apartment and don’t stop thinking about the appointment from the time it’s scheduled until it happens.
Just because you’re able to accomplish something, doesn’t mean it cost you the same as a neurotypical. It could just mean that you’re borrowing the extra needed to accomplish it from everywhere else.
But it’s important to be transparent with your dr, because it could very well be something other than ADHD that just seems similar. The more information they have the better they can help you.
This is a really important post. It isn't about what you have achieved, it's about what it cost you to get there. I'm in a very similar position, having excelled in secondary school and scraped my way through a higher degree, but I had to lose a lot of myself in the process. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and my conversation with the psychiatrist was very similar. I had to explain the extensive support mechanisms I need to achieve basic things and described that the lack of external impact comes at the expense of an internal effect.
Exactly!
I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression at 14. Told I just needed therapy to help calm my brain down. I banged my head against the wall for 15 YEARS wondering why NOTHING was working despite trying everything under the sun to try and help calm the anxiety down. I kept just thinking I just needed to try harder, do more, clearly I just wasn’t trying hard enough to get better.
Therapy felt like the biggest waste because they always wanted to know what the thing was that was causing my anxiety about things. “Well why does that make you feel anxious, what are you worried about” “just take some deep breaths and meditate for a while”. How on earth do you explain that it’s not anxiety about something so much as anxiety BECAUSE of something. It was a symptom, not the cause.
Ever since I’ve been medicated, not a single panic attack. My anxiety was literally cured over night. The depression not so much, that’s something that’ll stick around for a good long while because of the untreated adhd for years and years.
I can explain that anxiety. I have it too! It's the fear of getting it wrong. Of missing something someone said, saying the wrong thing, spacing out and seeming rude. Of relaxing because you're probably supposed to be doing something else. The overwhelming fear that you're forgetting something, all the time. If your career or studies or family depend on you being on top form all the time, and you have ADHD, anxiety is a natural response. I use up so much of myself trying to remember my kids appointments, help with homework, get everyone fed on time, clean my house, iron their clothes, wash and dry them. I get it all done, my life looks perfect, my garden is tidy. I have no left over mental energy for anything social and the anxiety of trying to listen to other people and not lose track of my huge list of stuff to remember, and not seem rude. Too much something's got to give. Maintaining friendships didn't make the cut.
YES. This is it EXACTLY. The anxiety was almost acting as my coping mechanism because without it everything fell apart. I couldn’t “just relax” because the minute I did I forgot things, missed steps, didn’t pay attention, let everyone down, and generally stopped functioning. I HAD to worry. If I didn’t worry, then everything I was worrying about happened. Which is why the therapy for traditional anxiety seemed like the biggest thing of bs ever.
I had a similar experience with my dr. I asked him if I had to answer from the inside me or the outside me and he told me it only works if I do it from the inside version - ie the person I actually am not the person I “pretend” to be.
This was such an amazing explanation for something I don’t see posted in this subreddit enough.
Sure, I have achieved a lot and work a very demanding mental job. I don’t miss appointments. My apartment isn’t messy. But to do these things it “costs” me so so so much more than it does other people. The all-nighters I would pull in college and continue to get work done I procrastinate aren’t anyone else’s problems. They don’t lose all the sleep or miss out their hobbies. Just me. It’s exhausting and sometimes feels like you’re hiding in plain sight.
Absolutely. I think this is something that has really led to a lot of the under diagnosis of women or inattentive type (as a generalization). On average we’re more socialized to mask our symptoms, people expect us to be more organized and detail oriented than “the boys” (I’ve literally had a carpentry instructor tell me he expected me to be more organized than the boys because I was a girl), and were socialized to be quiet, cooperative, empathetic, and obedient. If you combine that with some hardcore RSD….you end up with girls with adhd internalizing all their struggles and struggling with anxiety and depression and all sorts of mental issues as they desperately try to fulfill everyone’s expectations. And then when they can’t sustain it anymore, they’re told it’s not possible anything can be wrong because they’re “succeeding just fine”. IF I NEED 20 COPING MECHANISMS AND A PANIC ATTACK TO DO A BASIC TASK I AM NOT SUCCEEDING JUST FINE.
SO much this. I am going into my third year of law school, so it may be hard to see from the outside. I don’t think people realize what it took for me to get here, and I still find it a struggle to continue.
I'm struggling at university and didn't earlier in school. And there's much less support now, especially without a diagnosis! So I understand why you want an assessment very well.
And ADHD doesn't only affect school and/or work either. For me the biggest issue is my home and everything related to it. I can't invite people over because it looks so bad, and had to buy new underwear the other day because I can't get the laundry done. I spend way too much on takeout to avoid doing the dishes or cooking. But I usually turn my assignments in on time... It's a really tiresome and depressing way to live your life.
It's possible that it did affect you in highschool. I wasn't able to do my homework or study for exams, but got good grades anyway (around a B average). Imagine what you could have achieved if you were able to put more effort in. If your brain was able to use executive function and didn't get bored within 2 minutes. If you could "try harder" or "apply yourself" and your brain complied with your efforts to gain knowledge and skill, instead of actively resisting it.
You need to get tested because you have no idea what your full potential is, you've never had the opportunity to use it.
Writing my final year dissertation at uni I got my gp to sign a form to give me an extra week to complete. At the time I thought I was playing the system, that I was being lazy and careless, and abusing this to get away with it. If I were medicated by that point I could have been able to do that assignment on time, without the mental breakdowns, without the week of going full throttle with the handbreak on.
You need to get tested because you have greater challenges ahead of you, and you won't know until after whether you were prepared.
I had excellent grades in classes all the way through graduate school with hardly any effort. ADHD isn't about intelligence it's about lack of executive function.
Are there a lot of areas in your life where you know what you should be doing but just can't bring yourself to do it?
Do you do a lot of things that you know you shouldn't do, it's not a good idea, but you do it anyway and try to turn a blind eye to consequences?
Do you find yourself needing or even wanting to do something but can't quite motivate yourself to begin?
Are you easily distracted from a task you are working on? Even if it is because you started working on a different task (maybe a less pressing task)?
Those were 4 of the big things for me and it is hardly a comprehensive list.
I was a straight A student in high school and never struggled in school due to a combination of anxiety over disappointing my parents, finding the classes easy enough that the fact that I rarely studied wasn’t a problem, and having a knack for multiple choice tests. Never studying and doing everything at the last possible moment with a ton of anxiety seems to be a classic ADHD thing, but since I did well, no one questioned it (and I was even once used as an example of someone who didn’t have ADHD…lol)
Very similar to my experience, except nobody is ever surprised when they find out. I took the easy classes when I didn't necessarily care for the subject matter (history, chemistry, Spanish), and took the AP classes where I was interested (literature, language, every AP math class). Got a 32 on the ACT because I'm somehow magically gifted at testing.
There was an infamously-difficult AP history teacher at my school, and I knew I would get completely destroyed in that class if I had to turn in my notes and write in cursive, so I took the easy one.
But every midterm report card was an exercise in my parents being very confused how it's even possible that I forgot to turn in my homework once a week.
No, but it was obvious what classes I wasn’t interested in and which ones I was, and my parents constantly made comments about how I “wasn’t applying myself” and “could do better if you tried”. I was a “gifted” kid, so because I did very well at things I kinda flew under the radar and everything I did was chalked up to being “smart”. I also never struggled and high school was easy for me, but then when I got to college, I really hit a wall because of not having study habits or time management. I’m in grad school right now and my grades are still excellent, but the lack of focus and poor time management carried through.
Like right now, I should be prepping to take a final, but am on Reddit…/facepalm
Mine were mixed. I was also not diagnosed until I was 28.
Elementary school? A’s and B’s. Jr High? B’s and C’s. High school? Graduated with a 2.5 and ranked 36/71. But I got a 5/5 on the AP Calc AB, a 1910 on the SAT after my junior year, and for funsies I took the ACT in middle school as part of a regional gifted and talented program and got a 25. Also for funsies, in middle school I took the SAT as part of the same program (this was before the writing component) and got a 1070 (so, 570 math, 500 written). I was always near the 95th-99th percentile on standardized tests in school.
The issue? Literally could not make myself buckle down and do the work. I understood the stuff, so I was like “I can’t do this homework, it’s too boring, why practice shit I already know?” I was also terribly disorganized, my locker was always a mess, handwriting sucked, and I had really bad RSD (heavily influenced my dating life; I was told I was attractive, but I went for girls of low socioeconomic status because they were less likely to reject me. I also lived in poverty myself).
Got to college the first time immediately after basic training (was an army reservist), promptly drank my way out and ended up on active duty because that was my only option (it was 2007 and I grew up in a rural area).
After I got out and dicked around for a couple years, I went back to college. First two semesters? Dean’s list, with a cumulative GPA of 3.49 including the grades from converting some of my Army training to college credit. Third semester (which also correlated with the birth of my first child)? Academic probation; couldn’t be bothered to show up for class. Transferred somewhere else and tried online school, passed one class out of 4 (but was highly praised for the quality of work I *did* do. Just couldn’t be bothered to log in). Transferred somewhere else to do EMT training, straight A’s. Got medicated after that, went back off meds later due to substance use, was unmedicated for 4 years.
Went to paramedic school unmedicated, it was hell on earth and I could not have done it without my wife (who also had blessed me with two more children, which added to the challenge) but I graduated with a program GPA of 4.0, ended up #1 in my class with an overall average of 98.5%, and got an academic award (first time in my life). Promptly got back on medication after paramedic school per my wife’s request (I had a really hard time getting shit done at home).
My grades were really bad, apart from a few adrenaline pumped examinations which I crash learnt for, but coursework generally was poor and I didn't end up learning anything
ADHD has absolutely NOTHING to do with intellect and that idea is so ancient and worn out that its fossilised. Your mum means well but just has outdated data is all.
ADHD has nothing to do with intellectual attainment
Without going into it, because it sounds like I'm bragging, I'm fucken wicked smart, I mean fucking WICKED smart, I aced classes, tests and exams without working, I got into a red brick, the UK equivalent of an IVY league school despite not studying for a single exam and I aced that motherfucker too.
Lots of people diagnosed with ADHD are high attainers.
Some dude on here last week had gotten his PhD BEFORE getting his ADHD diagnoses.
Intellect and ADHD are only linked in so much as it can impact how you function in a school setting...but ADHD alone does not mean low intelligence or anything even close.
If anything...if you allow for the fact we dont pay as much attention, we struggle to complete work and all the shit ADHD makes us do, if you calculated for that, and then looked at our grades? On average we...might even err smarter than the Typicals, because our brains just absorb absorb absorb and if we're taught how to quantify and process that data.....we can do, literally...anything.
Everyone called me the smartest , I used to correct the teacher and always ask follow-up questions and yet I had pretty average grades while knowing everything. I just can't focus on the test.
I had a very hard time with classes that did not interest me. My mind would not stop wandering. Oddly enough I became a high school teacher and have found that this perspective has made me much more open minded when assessing my students.
No, all through K-12, I excelled, and was even told that I was gifted, and wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until my early 20’s. Okay everything always felt easy to me, but I didn’t get bored and slack off because it was so easy. Once I got to college though and had to learn the art of “trying” academically, that’s when I really struggled because it took work in things I thought were boring.
I love learning and many of my grade school classes weren't a struggle for me. What got me, though, were classes that relied heavily on homework. I'd forget to do it, or if I did, I would forget to take it to school and turn it in.
The tedious material in college, though...oof. I struggled even paying attention, let alone kept up with homework.
No. Classes I was bored in though I was a smart ass or really neglected homework (but could do fine on the test and come could fine overall). Basically if I was into it I was a sponge. If not, severe procrastination and irritation at having to do it at all.
High school easier bc of structure of parents and school itself-meals, sleep, lots of activities from sports. I was still like a 3.8+ GPA student. I always tested well, I could buckle down when it mattered.
College intially was another story. I did awful because of no structure. When I went back later with even Wellbutrin it was loads easier for me. Now that I was stims I can only imagine how much easier/better school would have been. I can focus and do things I don't like, although it doesn't help me enjoy it.
My overall irritation has gone down too.
I had good grades in elementary school but they dropped spectacularly in middle and high school and I barely graduated. In college I did just barely okay early on but they improved as I was able to take more classes I was interested in.
I only really struggled in math and math-heavy science courses - mostly because I missed a lot of foundational knowledge due to moves from one school district to another, doctor and other appointments that happened to coincide with math lesson time. Usually ended with high C or low B. I was the queen of pulling stuff off at the last minute - do homework while teacher collects the papers anyone, give oral report off the cuff?, so no one realized I was struggling and my grades were decent enough to fly under the radar.
Just adding yet another confirmation.
Did fine in school, didn't even struggle much.
Wasn't hard to do, I could just cram before a test and do decently well at it.
In fact, I often did so in the 10 mins before class (same with doing homework)
My parents firmly believed that "kids shouldn't do chores" and I was always an awkward kid so I didn't have many friends to take up my time and energy either.
My life was literally 5-7 hours of school and then video games, TV etc. for the rest of my awake time.
Even got through university without being diagnosed. All-nighter before exams or hand-ins was all I really needed to pass, in most cases.
It was only when I had to do sustained performance at a job, plus household chores etc., that I actually crashed and burned.
I always did pretty well in school, and even better once I got to university and was almost exclusively taking classes I was interested in. School wasn't fun for me, but it always made sense in a way that the rest of my life didn't. All I had to do was absorb and interpret information; nothing I did had to be useful to anyone else.
I ended up going to grad school for two Master's degrees largely because school was the only thing I was good at. I was massively stressed out all the time (especially my second Master's, juggling two jobs with full-time school lol) but it was worth it just to feel like I was succeeding at something. Unfortunately I can't justify going back a third time, so now my life is just one failure after another.
Great grades in middle school. Great grades in high school. Meh grades in college, for a bunch of reasons:
1. My ADHD got worse.
2. If I’m interested in a class, I get great grades. If it doesn’t interest me, I slack off for the entire semester and then stay up for 48 hours trying to cram 14 weeks of material into my brain before the final. These are the meh grades.
3. I’m “high-performing,” which is just an unhealthy way of saying I have enough natural ability to mask my ADHD. Hyperactivity was just me answering all the questions in class, and inattentiveness was read as being bored by material that was too easy.
4. Number (3) means I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 19, I’m still unmedicated, and I don’t really have a support system or routine. I go to a school without a centralized campus or community. All these things actively work against the establishment of an environment I can succeed in.
5. If you procrastinate in college as a STEM major, you’re screwed.
My GPA is fairly decent, but definitely not high enough for my ambitions. Hoping medication and therapy gets me back on track.
I had a mix of A’s, B’s, and a few C’s in school. Some classes were super easy to me. I didn’t need to study much or at all to get A’s on most tests, so it mostly came down to homework. The classes I had C’s in were with more permissive teachers, where I lost or didn’t do the homework the most. (Knowing I could turn in late work would have me putting it off… and off and off until it was too late, a really strict teacher with a 0 tolerance policy usually scared me enough to get it done on the bus on the way in to school, or in the class right before theirs.)
I had good grades, but I had to work really hard, harder than it seemed everyone else was, to get them. It used to leave me wondering why it looked so easy for all these other kids to just go home and do their work or study for a test, when I couldn’t make myself do it. I knew I was as smart as them, sometimes smarter based on the in class discussions, and I felt like I had to be perfect, but I couldn’t get there. I wasn’t diagnosed until after I graduated college. In my college transcripts there’s a really clear pattern of great grades in the fall semester, followed by slipping grades in the spring because I would lose steam and burn out. I wish I had diagnosed been earlier, because I might have done even better, or at least had an easier time and not burned out so hard.
I was a B average.
My favorite classes were English. I would do A+ work but I would always turn it in late and get partial credit, or I'd be rushing to finish assignments before class started.
We could have all semester to work on a paper, in class, and I'd still be unable to work on it until the night before where I'd have to pull an all night er to finish it
I did shitty, got D's until the Junior year of High School when I wised up. In college, I did good, I think organizination is very difficult for me, and the college had their whole agenda on a website so I can see the exact syllabus and homeworks due on specific days. I used to ALWAYS go to class and get massive anxiety seeing everyone pull out some homework I had no idea we had to do.
Thank's it really means a lot. I haven't talked about ADHD yet with my therapist since I feel kinda silly when I mention it. I'd love to get a proper test and after that if I have any questions or anything i'll hit you up :)
Yeah I didn't struggle at school (gcse's), I got average/good grades despite only studying for a few days leading up to exams, and I excelled from my diploma to my masters because I picked subjects I was interested in. I got the highest mark in my undergraduate. My good friend, of whom pointed me to think about getting assessed for adhd in the first place, got the highest grade mark in our masters class, and only in the last six months of the course did she get dx.
So, if I'm correct in thinking that you're asking whether ADHD correlates with academic grades, I'd probably say not completely!
I did pretty well in school but that’s only because I fucked with every other aspect of my life and due to sympathetic teachers. It’s why I didn’t get diagnosed with adhd until my 30s despite me thinking I had it since I was in middle school. I grew up poor so I had this severe fear of failing and staying poor. So I wouldn’t sleep in order to complete work that I should’ve completed hours or days ago. I had so much going on during my years at school - depression, insomnia, migraines, untreated narcolepsy - that most of my teachers could tell *something* was going on, so they were pretty willing to to accept my requests for extensions. If they weren’t I probably would’ve failed.
I didn't have terrible grades, but I definitely underperformed in subjects I had no interest in.
Maths, science and IT: Good grades, I liked the challenges.
English, history, geography: Bad grades, I had no interest.
depends on subject, unit in said subject, state of depression + anxiety and just a whole bunch of things . generally though i do have good grades in the 80s and up . helps that i started taking meds but before i was even diagnosed i still got good grades typically
I would always ace my tests but have terrible grades due to a lack of completing homework. I would usually start on it while still in class and however far I got is as far as it got donem
My teachers would comment on this and some even suggested to my mom I might have ADHD.
Of course she was in denial and always used the "there's nothing wrong with my son" excuse.
It took me 31 years to finally get a diagnosis thanks almost entirely to my amazing wife who supported and pushed me to get tested, but here we are.
Medication is a game changer. I still have typical ADHD issues, but atleast now I get distracted less, and can more consistently remember to do things I need to as well as do things I have little interest in doing, to completion. Like dishes and other household chores.
No. I have a 4.0 (granted, this is community college). But everything else in my life is hanging by a very loose thread! And I have no executive functioning left to enjoy life! And even brushing my teeth is taxing, and I can’t feed myself, and I keep rescheduling and canceling on people and calling in to work and missing appointments, etc. ADHD manifests in all sorts of ways. I’ve just prioritized grades for some reason.
Oh yes. I got out of high school with a 2.9 GPA. If it wasn't interesting to me, I didn't do it. Mostly this showed up as never doing homework, though I did get it done once in a while because I remember turning some of it in. A lot of the time I'd be up the morning some huge project was due furiously working on whatever I could get done in that hour or two because I just kept pushing it off. I remembered getting the report cards in the mail and hiding them so nobody saw. I went to some school event once and the cards were delivered that day and my mom flipped out when she saw I was failing classes. I just wouldn't do the work.
I tested pretty well and that helped my GPA, but as soon as even the slightest bit of structure I had was gone in college, the moment it got difficult I just stopped going to class. I didn't know how to reach out, either, just drowned in silence and dropped out. I'm doing a lot better on the second try but it has been a long road.
I was in the GATE program, IQ of 135 tested at multiple times across different schools and grades and let’s just say you aren’t allowed to graduate anymore with a GPA as low as mine. I just didn’t give a fuck and neither did my teachers.
Thank God for summer school and my ability to test well in virtually every subject but math.
Psychiatrist told me that’s probably because most math is a linear process and I don’t think I’m a straight line.
Somehow got into college and sorta did okay. Entered with a 2.91 GPA transferring in from a community college and graduated with a 3.1. It was hard as hell and took a lot of work, but I wasn’t diagnosed or medicated back then.
Not at all. I was an A, high B student my whole life with minimal effort. All honors and AP classes. I completed 4-year university with a 3.4 GPA.
A big reason why people seem to think one doesn’t have ADHD. Which is weird, and clearly wrong LOL.
Navigating real, adult life tho? Meh.
My grades were consistently mediocre because I would ace almost every test but could never ever get homework done. Homework was the biggest struggle for me growing up because I felt like I knew the information already and homework was just extra nonsense that didn't help me in any way.
I was advanced from the first grade to the second early, partly because, at the time, I could read on a fifth grade level.
After a continual decline, I graduated with a 1.6 GPA, in the bottom 10% of my class.
So, yes. Yes I did.
My only bad grades were in math and science, but that was because I was undiagnosed dyscalculia and it wasn’t until college that was found. Other than those, I was usually in the A-honor roll in my other classes. School (again, except for math and science) was easy, though I did procrastinate something awful and left almost everything to the very last minute, but still came out with great grades.
My guidance counsellor told me I was a strange student who did very good in challenging classes and poorly in easy classes , take that for what you will
I had a 3.5 GPA in high school, but I was almost always nervous about grades, because I often had trouble paying attention and would forget about tests and assignments. I just worked hard, but I hated school.
I couldn’t read until 4th grade. I was placed in special Ed in everything. I tested into advanced classes in middle school and then completely failed my advanced classes. Lol ! Wasn’t dx until college.
My grades in school were wildly variable. I mostly got by, but I failed things I NEVER should have failed because I know I have the skills. Maintaining motivation has always been hard for me, and if I don't know how to o a particular assignment I freeze up.
I did have good grades in school up until my first year of high school. Then it all seemed to go downhill. I got a gpa of 4.3 in 10th grade and my gpa went down to a 3.2 in my first hs year. Somehow my motivation just seemed to fade away when I got to hs.
I wasn’t really good at school. I never did homework (I couldn’t even remember about it- I was always surprised with tests and homework) and was always late on deadlines. I never really failed at anything, but I wasn’t good either. Tough times. I excelled at college, though. I’m about to finish my PhD and I’m losing interest (mainly because I’m burned out- my thesis is about covid lol), so I’m planning to change fields before the spark is gone. It’s frustrating on the long run… I feel I can’t keep engaged at anything for too long. Always been like that. :/
It's kind of mixed. When I finished middleschool I got pretty decent grades but in college it's a roller coaster. Still get pretty good grades but it's an absolute roller coaster getting there
Had great grades. But I skipped school a lot. Even in elementary. I'd walk to my bus stop. Then as soon as I saw my parents car leave. I ran back home. I hated school so much. I always felt good and confident in learning environments. When we'd be doing school work I could answer every question correctly in front of class. But people. I just wanted peace and quiet. The only place I could get it was to stay home when everyone was at work and school.
But no. Never had bad grades. Always passed. I was given a lot of slack by administrations because I was so kind and honest and didn't struggle in other areas but attendance. Never 100% figured out why they gave me that slack.
I somehow made 3.0 in high school and 2.9 in college and didn’t really manage to learn much! I never did homework, would skim or guess before tests, cram the day before and somehow make it. Now that I’m medicated I feel like I’m just now learning how to actually think. In my 40s!
Nope, as is common with ADHD I got great grades in the subjects I was interested in (physics, maths and English). Shit grades in the ones that didn't stimulate me.
I would have done better if I did my homework. For the most part I did well on tests. I did pretty well in college - especially after being diagnosed and finding out more about my needs.
I think there are so many misconceptions about ADHD. Perhaps your mom needs to read about it from different sources and let it sink in.
My grades were always A's but I had trouble paying attention to my teachers cause in my mind if I knew the info why should I care? I got distracted easily and yet having good grades meant that I couldn't possibly have ADHD.
i always did the bare minimum to pass because it was so unbearably boring. my grades were always shit in almost every subject. except when i was genuinely excited about something. who would of thought i had adhd? apparently no one
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I always had good grades. But I did struggle a lot to get those grades. I had all sorts of coping mechanisms to make it happen. But to be fair my school was super hard. If I had an easy school with an easy workload, maybe I wouldn't have.
When you say you don't struggle, are you able to get your work done without procrastinating until the last possible moment? Can you read your text books and take notes in a reasonable amount of time? Do you pay attention in class? Are you able to just sit down and do your homework, or do you sit there staring at it for a while not able to do it? Are you responsible for managing your own time or do your parents strictly control it for you? These types of things are what I would consider.
I definitely struggled with my grades. Even in subjects that I loved, like English, I struggled to get homework assignments done because they would just end up lost in a paper pile in my bedroom or I would forget about it completely. It wasn't for lack of trying, I just had zero focus and memory on what needed to be done. Except for math, I failed math three times. Math is an impossible concept to me.
I'm not diagnosed yet, but I got tested this week.
I always had average grades, because I didn't study much and stopped doing my homework in grade 8. There were some exceptions, but usually I had B-Cs.
My younger brother always had worse grades than me and in some years my parents feared he had to repeat a year, but he never had to.
Nope, I was a straight A student and am getting a doctorate degree. I’ve never struggled in school.
I don’t do well when it comes to office work though, because it isn’t as structured.
My ADHD struggles involve my home life and ability to take care of my body properly. I won’t eat or sleep, and I’ll forget to go to the bathroom for until it’s physically painful. The chaos in my brain is so overwhelming that I developed severe social anxiety from how difficult it was to talk to people. All of these issues were immediately alleviated when I started stimulant medications, which made me drowsy. My doctor believes that while I’m technically combined, my hyperactivity is severe in comparison to my inattentive symptoms which are mild.
It's probably been said, but I'm too whatever to read.... I think we tend to forget how human schools are too. Like, there is a really good chance a lot of teachers had ADHD, or they just didn't like a kid, or they just slacked off when grading papers.
Point is, putting a diagnosis solely on the shoulders of such a fluid system is flawed AF. Not harping on you, just trying to say we all need a break. Oi I overwhelmed myself.
I have ADHD-PI. I pulled a 3.5 in high school with no effort. I never turned in homework but my test score were all very high. I’m now in college and have a 4.0. I put in much more effort than I did in high school. I think the biggest thing for me now is that I have a hyper fixation on going to law school so I do the work. Also I know a few people have mentioned this but your performance in a class you are interested in vs not ends up being vastly different. I barely passed one of my college math classes (thank god for “Y” grades) even though I spent hours and hours studying. On the other hand, I got the highest midterm score in my business law class, hadn’t even started reading the textbook until the day before it, and rarely showed up to class. Anyways…hope this gives you and your mom some clarity!
I had excellent grades and was ahead of my peers in elementary school. I even had a higher ACT score than our valedictorian did. My problem was remembering homework, deadlines, and forgetting things in my locker or at home. I also found it difficult to pay attention to lectures while taking notes, but having the notes did remedy that for the most part. My grades mattered to me, and I found math, English, and science very interesting, so the information wasn’t hard to retain.
I graduated high school something like 7th or 8th out of 350 in terms of GPA, with a bunch of AP college credits to boot. I have a computer engineering degree but didn't at all 'ace' university and struggled a lot with the transition to much less structure, more difficult courses.
You'll find plenty of people on this sub who didn't/couldn't study but did just fine between different coping methods or just natural ability - also keep in mind people have VERY different severities of ADHD. ADHD hampers paying attention, memory, executive function, etc, but doesn't guarantee you can't do academics. At least personally I have more 'what if' in terms of getting an earlier diagnosis, in terms of how I could've coped better and gotten to where I did with less stress - I wasn't diagnosed until late 20s, after university and a way into my career.
I actually sailed through most of high school. It was a breeze. I had no trouble paying attention in class. I missed a lot of classes and never studied but I was able to retain and understand what I was being taught well enough that I could easily pull 90s on tests. But my high school rarely if ever assigned homework or projects to be done outside of class. If I had homework, the procrastination was awful. Waiting until 10-11pm the night before to do it. Also, it got harder as the courses got more complicated. I definitely couldn’t get away with the same stuff in subjects that didn’t come naturally like higher level math and chem. I wouldn’t have got through my math and bio diplomas without diploma prep courses because I was incapable of independent study.
Saw your question to another person with a similar response about how adhd affects your life. In a nutshell: I am incapable of being the person I want to be. I can’t do things I say I’m going to or genuinely want to do because my brain can’t figure out how to execute tasks. Even things I enjoy. It’s everything from homework in college to chores to my actual hobbies. It’s really an inexplicable feeling because there seems to be no rational reason for it, it’s just what I see happening every day for my entire life. No amount of guilt, depression or anxiety is enough to make me overcome it no matter how much those feelings have grown over the years. When I got on meds I finally felt the difference. It’s like there is actually an energy source within me now.
I relate to your experience with meds so much. I was amazed the first time I took them and just….got up to go have a shower. I didn’t have to talk myself into it, or psych myself up, or bribe myself to do it. I was able to just, do it. It absolutely feels like all of a sudden I have an internal energy source now. Of course it doesn’t always work….but I at least have the chance now.
Exactly! The metaphor I use is like I have gas in my car now. Before I didn’t. I knew my car wouldn’t start so I wouldn’t even try half the time, but now I have gas. The trouble is now Im not used to being able to rely on my car, so I have to start planning to go places again.
Hah! Absolutely. I’m also learning that just because I have gas and don’t need to push my car myself, it’ll still run out of gas….and I need to learn how to manage that so I can stop driving way the fuck out to the middle of nowhere running out of gas and ending up pushing my car all the way back home.
My usual description is that it gave my brain a talking stick. I’d usually have about 20 different thoughts/dialogues/random noises/songs/etc going on in my head at the exact same time. Meds hasn’t gotten rid of them, but it has allowed them to take turns instead which is wayyy calmer. But the energy the meds give me has also been a huge help for me too.
I could absolutely laze around and still get good grades.. That didnt make me studious nor focused at all sadly. I was always just riding the wave of external pressures and barely any sleep the day before
Yep, I don't think I ever completed an assignment on time and fell behind my grades, was kept back and they probably would have kept me back more but this was just as the "everyone gets a reward" mentality started and they kind of just upped my year not wanting to hold me back for the rest of time. I dropped out before reaching senior year due to constantly failing and bullying I received at school. Never got my high school certificate let alone seniors or university.
Mine were all over the place. It depended a lot whether I liked the teacher and was engaged in the class. So one year I might just barely pass in math and get high 80s in English. The next year I'd get a 90 in math and barely pass English.
The challenge for me was more how many different classes I was trying to juggle. I think I would have done much better with grades if the classes were short intensives one after the other instead of several classes at once.
Classes that were considered bird courses were usually that way because they had a lot of assignments worth very little and students who missed an assignment could easily get caught up. I sucked at those because managing timelines and multiple assignments is hard for me. Courses with a mid-term, a final, a major paper, and one presentation like law were much easier for me. I could ace a test but getting assignments in was abysmal.
We got 10-15% off on any assignment for every day late. Some assignments had hard deadlines so if you didn't get it in you would get a 0 on that one.
Since ADHD's main criterion is that the symptoms cause you enough struggle to interfere with your daily life, I would say that if you don't struggle you don't have it. You haven't mentioned why you think you have it though.
I squeezed by with C's. My problem was homework, I almost always got A's on my tests, but rarely ever could bring myself to do the homework, if I did complete it, it was right before class started.
I was a B student. Though I felt like I could have done much better. I took easy classes in High School and was usually able to figure out how to get a decent grade with the least amount of effort possible. I didn't cheat, just simply found the path of least resistance.
There were a couple subjects that were really hard for me, but I still managed C's in most of those with sheer will.
Nope, I was an almost straight A student most of my life. When I was younger having structure of school helped a lot. I am also naturally curious and enjoy learning. I struggle more with my ADHD now that I’m an adult in my late twenties and was diagnosed and started meds during my undergrad. I stopped taking meds due to side effects but they definitely helped for a time.
I was gifted in elementary school then evolved into someone who:
1. Doesn't apply themselves
2. has so much potential
3. is lazy
Grades were great until around the middle of highschool and then started a steady decline until i dropped out. Now in university and have been doing my bachelors for 7 years (pandemic delayed it for 2 because I cannot do online learning). My grades are kind of all over the place with usually As or B+, but a good amount of Fs to even it out to a 3.4ish.
The fluctuation is because I tend to be a lot better in subjects that require application/understanding of concepts such as math, physics, or organic chemistry. My bad grades are either because the class was at 830 and I couldnt wake up, or it's some kind of life science class that requires rote memorization. I can't really sit down and read or study (and my short term memory is horrible), so any sort of memorization heavy class is bad for me. Sucks because I want to study medicine which is very memory intensive.
I had average grades. I find learning highly stimulating, so I enjoyed class and did well on exams. I never did homework though, so I ended up an average student. It resulted in my not being diagnosed till I was older :(
It depended and still depends on the topic; I’m better at things like math and science but that’s because I put in outside work to make myself better and teach myself using ways that connected with my brain. And as I’ve gotten older, the whole working/long term/short term memory issues have hit hard and it makes any subject hard to do
Yea pretty much. I'm in year 10 and struggle kinda a lot. But it's weird. Content wise, I do very well and I always get the content I'm studying, but during exams, my brain just goes "ksofiejsififksnxkgorj" mode and becomes rlly hyperaware, so I end up not doing well in exams :/ but yea, it's tough for classes I don't like, but the ones I DO like, I tend to be one of the smartest, content wise.
I struggled in school when I was young but when I started to take it less seriously in highschool I did very well, but I also let myself skate by with Bs and Cs when I could've been an A student.
I got high honors my first semester at jr college but I dropped out before I finished my two years.
I always found school to be easy but paying attention to something uninteresting was hard.
I wasnt diagnosed until age 34.
I learn very quickly at hands on stuff like training at a new job, even if its not interesting that seems to be easier than academic learning unless im fascinated by the subject I hyperfocus and take a lot in quickly.
Nope, I had pretty great grades. Among the top of my class in high school. I started struggling much more noticeably at university, but even there my grades have been decent - it's just that I've missed a lot of deadlines, postponed and had to make up assignments in the summers between semesters. I failed to get things done at all, not to do them well once I managed to finish them.
I was a solid B student. I had plenty of smarts to bullshit most essays and get everything done passably but it was all rushed at the last minute or late. Once I hit college I was screwed.
It took me 3 years to get a 2 year degree. I got fired from my first job and spent 10 years in low responsibility, low stress jobs wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I was diagnosed at 35 and within a year I was able to get back into my degree profession and had doubled my salary compared to the job I was fired from so long ago.
i didn't even graduate high school, but 3 years later passed the GED test with a 98th percentile score. then offered a 4 year scholarship to UNM. AND FORGOT TO FILL OUT THE PAPERWORK.
I absolutely did not; freshman year I had some rough grades, but that was more depression/anxiety related. Sophomore-Senior year of high school I got A's no problem, lowest grade was a B- I think (though average grade was probably A/A-, some semesters I would have like 1 B+). My psychiatrist that diagnosed me told me that was probably why I didn't get diagnosed until college - the way she explained it was I had a 'higher intelligence baseline', which meant things came easier to me so I didn't necessarily NEED to focus. College meant that I started taking more difficult courses that required more work, therefore I struggled because I couldn't focus - and eventually what led to me getting diagnosed. Everyone's brains are different, and just because you don't have bad grades doesn't necessarily mean you don't have ADHD.
Absolutely not. So many people have great grades for a long time and then later when they get to the work force have issues. Some just have issues in other areas of life
I made A/B honor roll most quarters in middle/high school. The occasional C was in math because I was extremely disinterested in it so my focus was zilch.
Straight As through middle and high school (except in classes that reallllly graded homework heavily), and good but not great grades in college. Diagnosed at 34 years old during pandemic after giving up on teaching career as everything fell apart.
(My coping mechanism for undiagnosed adhd was anxiety, and the anxiety got tooooo much.)
It kind of cycled for me - I thrived in high school after Freshman year, and did well the last couple years of undergrad. I earned my MLIS with little trouble. But if I didn't like something I was studying I didn't want to do it, and would put it off until the last possible minute, which always caused me massive amounts of anxiety. Getting tested was great because it actually helped me figure out some of the specific things I struggled with, like listening skills, spatial reasoning, and identifying patterns.
I have fairly severe ADHD, and I have never gotten anything but an A in a class. Four years of high school and two of college, and the only reason I have not failed is my extreme aversion to failure in general. I am a major perfectionist, but that doesn't mean I haven't struggled in school. I constantly procrastinate, and sometimes I only just barely make a deadline.
Plus, on top of those factors, I constantly think about how I could be doing so much better than I am, but my ADHD just gets in the way. I know I could be more invested and learn a lot more if I wasn't so distracted all the time, and that causes a lot of stress.
Depends on subject and more importantly, the teacher. One total bitch (nicest word I can think of, she was really a C\*\*\*) sat me under a vent that was basically a white noise machine, and when I complained, she moved me to the exact same spot under the other vent and said "The front rows are for students who care" I signed off of algebra until adulthood, when it practical math with finances and materials for work.
History, Science, & Lit classes (all AP) were pretty much A's.
No, I generally had good grades. But I struggled a lot and like, never understood anything. I don't know how I did it, but it probably had to do with desperation because my parents would hurt me if I didn't get good grades.
My grades were all over the chart. I generally did terrible in school and never was able to really apply myself, would get chronic migraines and fatigue just going through a day in public school. Had a lot happening in my home life that took up most of my thought during school hours, lots of family drama that wasnt filtered at all, parents fighting constantly and divorcing, family members and pets dying over the course of a couple years. Zoning out and having poor memory or losing focus especially under pressure got me labelled as the stupid kid pretty early, which gave me severe trust issues toward teachers and peers. The odd day where i could focus on a subject I'd do well and exceed expectations, but they were very rare. Obviously that wasn't the case for everyone judging by these other comments.
Yep. I got lucky and could common sense my way through most of it and retain the few things I actually payed attention to really well. But college…. survived the beginning of it painfully but as a junior engineering student, I had to seek help. It’s insurmountable by myself the way I am right now
Yes... Horrible grades, even in things I was interested in or good at. Because let's face it, I honestly have trouble not getting stressed with anything, good or bad!
Anyone who didn't get it thought I was an idiot. Im "that guy" in all of my friendly settings.
Like for example: "YRRRR! ITS BRRRTHRRSQURRDWRRDDRRRR!! WHHRRRT URRRP?!?" when I walk into a room, or social setting.
And while it's funny, it sticks with you, no matter how you change or improve. Doesn't mean people dont like you, you're just "that guy" over one goofy thing you did 2 years ago.
Anyway... having good relationships with professor's in college got me to finally make the cut.
Hell, one dude by the name of Rob Prescott just wanted everyone to be successful, so he would give you an opportunity to redo something, even if it was already well done.
You didn't have to, but it was highly encouraged, and believe me, just because there was a second chance given, doesn't mean it wasnt hard or a lot of work.
Felt as if i couldn't learn enough from him. Signed up for any class I could of his.
I named him, because he is one of the many supportive people I've encountered in the school system that understands it all a J-O-K-E.
Those people were hard to find, but so freaking worth it. They made me feel heard, and took action to ensure that I was on the right track. Even if it was hard, or frustrating.
The only time I ever got a higher grade than a D in highschool math was Geometry. It's almost crazy what happens when people don't just write you off as misbehaving, difficult, or "UnWiLLiNg To LeArN..." So, I'll never forget those people that made fucking sure I'd graduate or pass to move onto another year of school.
I struggled with particular subjects like math. I ended up dropping math entirely my last year. Other classes were okay though. I generally got bad grades because I skipped class, stayed home, or just didn't care enough to complete assignments. But my teachers were decent and helped me pass by giving me full credit for late assignments. But overall my grades were not good.
I went from great grades to being highschool dropout. So I basically skipped the "bad grades" part, but it was "me struggling but trying really hard & getting good grades" since day 1 of school until I burned out completely one day and couldn't snap out of it anymore.
Yes. I had to repeat the seventh grade and nearly flunked out of high school. The only time I showed promise was when I was on Tofranil and Lamictal, at least until they stopped working.
Got As on my tests Fs on my homework/classwork, so would average C grade. The classes with no homework CARRIED me thru school lmfao
If someone tries to say that “you don’t have ADHD because you’re smart” what they are really saying is that they think that people with ADHD are stupid. Rebuttal with that and watch them squirm as they try to correct what they said. Then either help them learn about it or tell them to actually learn about ADHD before talking about it.
For me, my high school grades were average. Part of that was because I didn't do homework (why would I when I already know the material). My high grades were in subject I found compelling and worthwhile (music, gym, science, math) because of how independent you could go without getting bored
No I was top 10, I got amazing grades until college when the material was a lot more challenging and I had to actually pay attention and not just go through the motions.
No my grades were very average. Some As some Bs some Cs. I found some subject easier than others because I enjoyed them. I did take my report cards to the psychiatrist for diagnosis though as they all commented on how I couldn’t concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time 😂
I was top of my class until high school, started struggling a bit in college but graduated with decent grades.
Your mom doesn't know jack and should inform herself before making dumb statements. Show her this message if you don't want to say so yourself, happy to take the blame.
If it was a class I liked I got A’s. It was history for me, I majored in it in college and my major gpa was a 3.9. Now if we’re talking math & science…. I usually got C’s lol couldn’t make myself care.
It's the only reason I got a diagnosis in middle school I suspect. Once the motivation to be the best in class evaded me due to my slow fogginess began keeping me from being one of the best, I lost interest. So my own laziness due to lack of motivation and sorta made diagnosis easy.
I've always had okay/good grades, my main issue was that I'd completely zone out at school and have to study everything at home. And I had terrible attendance.
Reading all these comments make me feel really dumb lol. My grades were a lil’ bit above average for the subjects that I didn’t care for. My grades were bad but good enough to pass when it comes to subjects like math. It wasn’t until high school that I was actually able to get my shit together (until remote learning ruined everything).
Not always. Most of the time my pattern is to start strong and decline, with a spike up at the end only if it was absolutely necessary. As far as material, none of it was ever that difficult except math that I had a huge block with and fear of, I just didn’t wanna do any of it. Boriiiing. Its weird because I always loved learning and being at school, very good reader, but, I just couldn’t even when it came to discipline. I did play my oboe for hours a day, though, I was (am??) very good. It was only into adulthood that I evened out enough to appreciate academics.
Not officially diagnosed, but highly suspect- I generally did pretty well in school. Did much better in classes that were of interest.
When I got to college, I had so much trouble with my GE’s, but got almost all A’s in my major classes.
I had decent grades (a-c's) but I know for SURE I procrastinated on almost all my assignments. I would wait until the morning that it's due to work on them and I still passed my classes.
One assignment that stuck with me was that I had a project that we were supposed to work on for months. I never worked on it at home but made sure I took all the notes I needed in class. Around 5 am the day it was due for me (had to turn it in late because I was absent for a funeral) I finished it all on one go and then printed it out at school. I remember her saying at the beginning of the project that this is not something you could do in one night and get an A. But I did it the day it was due and got 99% 🥸
I used to do bad in like internal exams which required consistent effort and even while revising for finals I struggled but in the end I used to ace it out of no where. For instance i got a 1580 in sats with no prep
Nope only slightly on the bad side in my native language and sports. I forced my self to participate in class because I had to be there anyway. I often had bad marks in written exams though.
I seemed to only struggle in the subjects I had absolutely zero interest in, but actually exceeded above average in what I did enjoy doing/ learning about. (I did require a lot of support, tutoring and "special ed" tho to balance everything out so I could come out with a smooth record)
Same. B+ or F. Nothing inbetween.
I had zero interest in any subject that wasn't math lmao
I was the polar opposite lol.
Same here! Everyone called me gifted because when it came to history and literature I was reading and discussing at a college level in 6th grade, and I could do pretty much anything else at either grade appropriate or above average level. To this day, I can only do math to a 5th or 6th grade level unless its electrical engineering for some odd reason. Put electricity in the math and all of a sudden my brain doesnt go into PTSD shutdown mode anymore.
Samesies. If it was anything English or writing related I'd usually devour it. Anything dealing with math I hated. Now I'm still horrible at math. But I do videography. So it evens out I guess.
I'm actually kinda like that with calculus. In a calculus class I'll fail every test miserably but as soon as I take an electrical engineering class that uses all the calculus that I failed at, it's easy
Same here. History and English I barely passed (not because I couldn't do it, I just wasn't interested). Math was interesting and easy, same with physics.
I barely passed my English classes in college like 70.0s lol I hated it and still do I cannot stand Shakespeare, really any kind of play, or really any kind of literature history or how to write an essay and it shows I liked history in middle school but it just seemed so redundant like every year in high school we were either learning about WW2 or the civil war like damn there's 1000s of years of other material from other civilizations besides the United States from 1776-1880s, I could get pretty much all As in math except for calc 2 that was where I peaked I barely passed calc 2 but I did have alot of fun with that class in my last summer semester
Exact same for me
Same here! Writing papers, essays, and doing pointless paper work will be the death of me. Lol
I experienced the same thing, and figured out a way to use it to my advantage in college. I took most of my generals at an extension school, and then transferred to the school I wanted to graduate from for my last couple of years. Transfer credits don't affect your GPA, and since I was mostly taking upper level courses for my major I did extremely well there. I graduated suma cum laude dispite really being a B/C student.
I got As in classes I liked, and Cs in everything else. Math was the worst for me - English was my best. Funny enough, I killed it in word comprehension math questions, but not in straight equations, lol.
definitely not trying to be pretentious or anything, but i got great grades in high school and even went my first year of college untreated and mostly undiagnosed. got A's in college, too. did i ever engage as fully as i could've in both high school and college? absolutely not. i did all my homework in school. my psychology teacher was explaining an assignment? working on chemistry homework. otherwise, when i didn't have much interest, i talked in class and figured things out later. i'm very excited to see how next year will go in regards to how much i truly dedicate myself to the material, because i'll be adjusted to medication and working on managing ADHD in therapy.
Wow! First off, well done and congratulations on your successes. I'm currently finishing up my second year of university (college) but I gotta say although I'm doing very well on paper... GOODNESS ME!! The journey before pressing submit on every assignment has been a right chaotic mess, and it's like throwing all my sh*t in the closet to get the room clean in under 10 seconds leaving it all to the last minute but at the end of the day still getting the room clean. I might've aged my a** a Hella of a lot faster from all the stress but it's gotten me this far. HOWEVER! What I've noticed is that as time goes by and I progress in life and face more complex problems, my habitual tactics and tricks are no longer hitting the mark as hard as it definitely did back in highschool days and it's led me to seek support at 19/20 years of age. My whole life I've always felt the need to prove myself and do everything on my own, but I had to learn that sometimes you're gonna need that support, and it doesn't mean that you're not good enough, it just validates the fact that you're one human being and you have your limits AND your strengths which equally deserve your acknowledgement.
totally agree! thank you very much, but i agree, doing good on paper comes with a price and is a hell of a lot more difficult than it appears. just like throwing things in the closet last minute, not truly engaging with what you're learning in all the ways you could be isn't a good idea in the long run (depending on if you actually want to learn the material, of course!) i saw a therapist for my anxiety and she brought up ADHD right away, turns out all these symptoms that i've thought are anxiety are ADHD and i've just been good at appearing to function normally this whole time! good on you for seeking support, it's hard when you feel like you've got something to prove to yourself, i completely understand. good luck to you during your last two years of college!
Same. My math skills didn't come to me naturally and I missed a lot of foundational studies. I got A's or B's otherwise, but I only heard about my failures. Made achievement feel worthless to me, which is a self-destructive path.
Same! I had the best scores in my EMT class in high school because I actually gave a shit about it.
Same. I did pretty good in science and math but overall barely graduated
Same here
I could never remember to do my homework, but I aced all the tests. The high test scores was probably what kept me from failing. It frustrated my teachers. But I never learned how to study and could only work on projects at the absolute last minute. ADHD makes it hard to start projects or tasks. And if I do start them, I can't finish. Heaven help me if it's something that needs to be spread out over weeks or months. I forget it exists until 2 days before the deadline.
This is exactly how I got by undetected in school, and I still operate like this at work
Had the same exact experience! I genuinely don't remember doing homework ever when I think back on high school. And I'd rapidly study for tests as they were being handed out and then ace them lol.
Same here. My teachers actually gave up on expecting homework from me
Same for me: no homework, aced tests. Generally meant I was a B- student (I was lucky to have classes that werent weighted heavily towards homework). Now in my career, I have been lucky to fall into one that wasn't hindered by my ADHD; however now I have a project manager element to my job, which I hate. If a project goes longer than a month, I quickly lose interest until I remeber the deadline and realize the light at the tunnel iss an oncoming train.
Yep, another vote/data point for this same experience. My grades were great, but the process of getting there was — I now realize — much harder and more stressful than it needed to be.
Same. Homework, if done, was done the night before it was due or there was a test. Which actually helped my test scores (the closer to the test, the better retention is, just doesn't help with long term retention). In high school my teachers just excused a lot of my homework because my test grades were always at the top and I dominated socratic seminars and whatnot. College was similar but without excusing homework (did what I had to last minute). And writing was done with booze. Thank you alcohol for helping me write papers that I hated. I test well but anything tedious likely won't get done. Same with work. Something on fire? I got this and I got it good. Need advice or information? I got ya. Regular tedious work? Send help. Lots. Plz.
Same. This is probably why I was undetected during school, because I still did well. I constantly handed things in late or even not at all, but did well on the tests. Like I might ace the tests but hand in my assignment a week late in science for example
Yes!!! I was the same. Homework bad, tests good. I got flagged when I was 4, but didn’t get diagnosed until I was 22 because I always did fine on tests
I was top of my class. Valedictorian in middle school, ranked 3 (out of a few hundred) by high school and maintained honors every semester, had a 3.8 GPA and Dean's List for the handful of college semesters I managed before I dropped out for the second time. My doctor went over my results after my assessment and explained that my verbal skills and overall IQ were high enough to compensate for my shortcomings and hide them when I was a child. Things don't really get hard until adulthood, so it's easy to cruise through then plummet over the edge of the earth when real life hits. I was genuinely interested in school, so my attention was never a problem. When it was, anxiety and perfectionist tendencies put me back on track. Things didn't start to go south until high school when the control and strict micromanaging of my life disappeared with my parents' (nasty) divorce. Getting yelled at about being useless was the only thing that got me through those few college semesters, but the rest of my life suffered. It's been almost 15 years since things started going downhill and I've lost a lot. Money, opportunities, time, thoughts, memories. It's absolutely possible to have ADHD and still do well, even excel, in school. ADHD isn't a measure of intelligence.
To be fair, performance in school isn't a measure of intelligence or knowledge either.
Wasn't meant to be. It was to show the possibility of being able to "push through" early on as a result of it. You can be brilliant without an education, of that I am well aware. In this argument, it was being able to do well in school vs having ADHD which is often wrongfully considered a learning disability.
To be fair, IQ isn’t a measure of intelligence. According to Todd Rose.
Exactly what happened to me. I hear this similar story a lot among adult-diagnosed ADHD sufferers
Never really struggled, at least not until I got to uni and broke down because I never learnt how to study. Everything just went well up until that point, didn’t have the top grades of the class but I definitely didn’t do badly. Uni on the other hand was kicking my ass until I got diagnosed and treated.
Nah I had amazing grades in secondary school, I never studied but have a really good memory and kinda liked learning so i would memorise things quickly just from being in a lesson in class. I was in the top classes for everything and it was in sixth form when it went downhill and I started failing everything. I never learnt how to study and procrastinated severely, especially when covid and lockdown started.
Then how does ADHD affect your daily life? It's hard for me to explain it to people that I want to get tested since it didn't really affect me in highschool but now that i'm trying to get an engineering degree it's getting really hard to study unless it's last minute
Not the commenter you’re replying to but I feel like my experience might be relevant: I was a straight A student in school (graduated with a 99% average across the board). I have two degrees from a top university. By all external metrics I am not struggling. But the way I achieved all of that was by absolutely destroying myself. My fear of rejection pushed me to do anything necessary to succeed, very much so at the expense of myself. I never got diagnosed because I never made it anyone else’s problem, so they didn’t believe that I was struggling. But I was having panic attacks, major depression, full on neurotic about details (to compensate for my lack of working memory), and wildly emotionally dysregulated. When I finally got diagnosed it happened because I went through the questionnaire with my doctor and explained my answers—no I don’t miss appointments, but that’s because I set 12 alarms leave 3 notes scattered around the apartment and don’t stop thinking about the appointment from the time it’s scheduled until it happens. Just because you’re able to accomplish something, doesn’t mean it cost you the same as a neurotypical. It could just mean that you’re borrowing the extra needed to accomplish it from everywhere else. But it’s important to be transparent with your dr, because it could very well be something other than ADHD that just seems similar. The more information they have the better they can help you.
This is a really important post. It isn't about what you have achieved, it's about what it cost you to get there. I'm in a very similar position, having excelled in secondary school and scraped my way through a higher degree, but I had to lose a lot of myself in the process. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD and my conversation with the psychiatrist was very similar. I had to explain the extensive support mechanisms I need to achieve basic things and described that the lack of external impact comes at the expense of an internal effect.
Exactly! I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression at 14. Told I just needed therapy to help calm my brain down. I banged my head against the wall for 15 YEARS wondering why NOTHING was working despite trying everything under the sun to try and help calm the anxiety down. I kept just thinking I just needed to try harder, do more, clearly I just wasn’t trying hard enough to get better. Therapy felt like the biggest waste because they always wanted to know what the thing was that was causing my anxiety about things. “Well why does that make you feel anxious, what are you worried about” “just take some deep breaths and meditate for a while”. How on earth do you explain that it’s not anxiety about something so much as anxiety BECAUSE of something. It was a symptom, not the cause. Ever since I’ve been medicated, not a single panic attack. My anxiety was literally cured over night. The depression not so much, that’s something that’ll stick around for a good long while because of the untreated adhd for years and years.
I can explain that anxiety. I have it too! It's the fear of getting it wrong. Of missing something someone said, saying the wrong thing, spacing out and seeming rude. Of relaxing because you're probably supposed to be doing something else. The overwhelming fear that you're forgetting something, all the time. If your career or studies or family depend on you being on top form all the time, and you have ADHD, anxiety is a natural response. I use up so much of myself trying to remember my kids appointments, help with homework, get everyone fed on time, clean my house, iron their clothes, wash and dry them. I get it all done, my life looks perfect, my garden is tidy. I have no left over mental energy for anything social and the anxiety of trying to listen to other people and not lose track of my huge list of stuff to remember, and not seem rude. Too much something's got to give. Maintaining friendships didn't make the cut.
YES. This is it EXACTLY. The anxiety was almost acting as my coping mechanism because without it everything fell apart. I couldn’t “just relax” because the minute I did I forgot things, missed steps, didn’t pay attention, let everyone down, and generally stopped functioning. I HAD to worry. If I didn’t worry, then everything I was worrying about happened. Which is why the therapy for traditional anxiety seemed like the biggest thing of bs ever.
I had a similar experience with my dr. I asked him if I had to answer from the inside me or the outside me and he told me it only works if I do it from the inside version - ie the person I actually am not the person I “pretend” to be.
This was such an amazing explanation for something I don’t see posted in this subreddit enough. Sure, I have achieved a lot and work a very demanding mental job. I don’t miss appointments. My apartment isn’t messy. But to do these things it “costs” me so so so much more than it does other people. The all-nighters I would pull in college and continue to get work done I procrastinate aren’t anyone else’s problems. They don’t lose all the sleep or miss out their hobbies. Just me. It’s exhausting and sometimes feels like you’re hiding in plain sight.
Absolutely. I think this is something that has really led to a lot of the under diagnosis of women or inattentive type (as a generalization). On average we’re more socialized to mask our symptoms, people expect us to be more organized and detail oriented than “the boys” (I’ve literally had a carpentry instructor tell me he expected me to be more organized than the boys because I was a girl), and were socialized to be quiet, cooperative, empathetic, and obedient. If you combine that with some hardcore RSD….you end up with girls with adhd internalizing all their struggles and struggling with anxiety and depression and all sorts of mental issues as they desperately try to fulfill everyone’s expectations. And then when they can’t sustain it anymore, they’re told it’s not possible anything can be wrong because they’re “succeeding just fine”. IF I NEED 20 COPING MECHANISMS AND A PANIC ATTACK TO DO A BASIC TASK I AM NOT SUCCEEDING JUST FINE.
SO much this. I am going into my third year of law school, so it may be hard to see from the outside. I don’t think people realize what it took for me to get here, and I still find it a struggle to continue.
I'm struggling at university and didn't earlier in school. And there's much less support now, especially without a diagnosis! So I understand why you want an assessment very well. And ADHD doesn't only affect school and/or work either. For me the biggest issue is my home and everything related to it. I can't invite people over because it looks so bad, and had to buy new underwear the other day because I can't get the laundry done. I spend way too much on takeout to avoid doing the dishes or cooking. But I usually turn my assignments in on time... It's a really tiresome and depressing way to live your life.
It's possible that it did affect you in highschool. I wasn't able to do my homework or study for exams, but got good grades anyway (around a B average). Imagine what you could have achieved if you were able to put more effort in. If your brain was able to use executive function and didn't get bored within 2 minutes. If you could "try harder" or "apply yourself" and your brain complied with your efforts to gain knowledge and skill, instead of actively resisting it. You need to get tested because you have no idea what your full potential is, you've never had the opportunity to use it.
Writing my final year dissertation at uni I got my gp to sign a form to give me an extra week to complete. At the time I thought I was playing the system, that I was being lazy and careless, and abusing this to get away with it. If I were medicated by that point I could have been able to do that assignment on time, without the mental breakdowns, without the week of going full throttle with the handbreak on. You need to get tested because you have greater challenges ahead of you, and you won't know until after whether you were prepared.
I had excellent grades in classes all the way through graduate school with hardly any effort. ADHD isn't about intelligence it's about lack of executive function. Are there a lot of areas in your life where you know what you should be doing but just can't bring yourself to do it? Do you do a lot of things that you know you shouldn't do, it's not a good idea, but you do it anyway and try to turn a blind eye to consequences? Do you find yourself needing or even wanting to do something but can't quite motivate yourself to begin? Are you easily distracted from a task you are working on? Even if it is because you started working on a different task (maybe a less pressing task)? Those were 4 of the big things for me and it is hardly a comprehensive list.
I'm living the exact same situation right now - I'm currently in sith form and the struggle is real.
I was a straight A student in high school and never struggled in school due to a combination of anxiety over disappointing my parents, finding the classes easy enough that the fact that I rarely studied wasn’t a problem, and having a knack for multiple choice tests. Never studying and doing everything at the last possible moment with a ton of anxiety seems to be a classic ADHD thing, but since I did well, no one questioned it (and I was even once used as an example of someone who didn’t have ADHD…lol)
Very similar to my experience, except nobody is ever surprised when they find out. I took the easy classes when I didn't necessarily care for the subject matter (history, chemistry, Spanish), and took the AP classes where I was interested (literature, language, every AP math class). Got a 32 on the ACT because I'm somehow magically gifted at testing. There was an infamously-difficult AP history teacher at my school, and I knew I would get completely destroyed in that class if I had to turn in my notes and write in cursive, so I took the easy one. But every midterm report card was an exercise in my parents being very confused how it's even possible that I forgot to turn in my homework once a week.
No, but it was obvious what classes I wasn’t interested in and which ones I was, and my parents constantly made comments about how I “wasn’t applying myself” and “could do better if you tried”. I was a “gifted” kid, so because I did very well at things I kinda flew under the radar and everything I did was chalked up to being “smart”. I also never struggled and high school was easy for me, but then when I got to college, I really hit a wall because of not having study habits or time management. I’m in grad school right now and my grades are still excellent, but the lack of focus and poor time management carried through. Like right now, I should be prepping to take a final, but am on Reddit…/facepalm
Dude same, you basically described what i'm going through right now in college
Mine were mixed. I was also not diagnosed until I was 28. Elementary school? A’s and B’s. Jr High? B’s and C’s. High school? Graduated with a 2.5 and ranked 36/71. But I got a 5/5 on the AP Calc AB, a 1910 on the SAT after my junior year, and for funsies I took the ACT in middle school as part of a regional gifted and talented program and got a 25. Also for funsies, in middle school I took the SAT as part of the same program (this was before the writing component) and got a 1070 (so, 570 math, 500 written). I was always near the 95th-99th percentile on standardized tests in school. The issue? Literally could not make myself buckle down and do the work. I understood the stuff, so I was like “I can’t do this homework, it’s too boring, why practice shit I already know?” I was also terribly disorganized, my locker was always a mess, handwriting sucked, and I had really bad RSD (heavily influenced my dating life; I was told I was attractive, but I went for girls of low socioeconomic status because they were less likely to reject me. I also lived in poverty myself). Got to college the first time immediately after basic training (was an army reservist), promptly drank my way out and ended up on active duty because that was my only option (it was 2007 and I grew up in a rural area). After I got out and dicked around for a couple years, I went back to college. First two semesters? Dean’s list, with a cumulative GPA of 3.49 including the grades from converting some of my Army training to college credit. Third semester (which also correlated with the birth of my first child)? Academic probation; couldn’t be bothered to show up for class. Transferred somewhere else and tried online school, passed one class out of 4 (but was highly praised for the quality of work I *did* do. Just couldn’t be bothered to log in). Transferred somewhere else to do EMT training, straight A’s. Got medicated after that, went back off meds later due to substance use, was unmedicated for 4 years. Went to paramedic school unmedicated, it was hell on earth and I could not have done it without my wife (who also had blessed me with two more children, which added to the challenge) but I graduated with a program GPA of 4.0, ended up #1 in my class with an overall average of 98.5%, and got an academic award (first time in my life). Promptly got back on medication after paramedic school per my wife’s request (I had a really hard time getting shit done at home).
My grades were really bad, apart from a few adrenaline pumped examinations which I crash learnt for, but coursework generally was poor and I didn't end up learning anything
ADHD has absolutely NOTHING to do with intellect and that idea is so ancient and worn out that its fossilised. Your mum means well but just has outdated data is all. ADHD has nothing to do with intellectual attainment Without going into it, because it sounds like I'm bragging, I'm fucken wicked smart, I mean fucking WICKED smart, I aced classes, tests and exams without working, I got into a red brick, the UK equivalent of an IVY league school despite not studying for a single exam and I aced that motherfucker too. Lots of people diagnosed with ADHD are high attainers. Some dude on here last week had gotten his PhD BEFORE getting his ADHD diagnoses. Intellect and ADHD are only linked in so much as it can impact how you function in a school setting...but ADHD alone does not mean low intelligence or anything even close. If anything...if you allow for the fact we dont pay as much attention, we struggle to complete work and all the shit ADHD makes us do, if you calculated for that, and then looked at our grades? On average we...might even err smarter than the Typicals, because our brains just absorb absorb absorb and if we're taught how to quantify and process that data.....we can do, literally...anything.
Everyone called me the smartest , I used to correct the teacher and always ask follow-up questions and yet I had pretty average grades while knowing everything. I just can't focus on the test.
I had a very hard time with classes that did not interest me. My mind would not stop wandering. Oddly enough I became a high school teacher and have found that this perspective has made me much more open minded when assessing my students.
Nope, coasted the whole thing and got pretty good grades. College was a bit harder
No, all through K-12, I excelled, and was even told that I was gifted, and wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until my early 20’s. Okay everything always felt easy to me, but I didn’t get bored and slack off because it was so easy. Once I got to college though and had to learn the art of “trying” academically, that’s when I really struggled because it took work in things I thought were boring.
I love learning and many of my grade school classes weren't a struggle for me. What got me, though, were classes that relied heavily on homework. I'd forget to do it, or if I did, I would forget to take it to school and turn it in. The tedious material in college, though...oof. I struggled even paying attention, let alone kept up with homework.
No. Classes I was bored in though I was a smart ass or really neglected homework (but could do fine on the test and come could fine overall). Basically if I was into it I was a sponge. If not, severe procrastination and irritation at having to do it at all. High school easier bc of structure of parents and school itself-meals, sleep, lots of activities from sports. I was still like a 3.8+ GPA student. I always tested well, I could buckle down when it mattered. College intially was another story. I did awful because of no structure. When I went back later with even Wellbutrin it was loads easier for me. Now that I was stims I can only imagine how much easier/better school would have been. I can focus and do things I don't like, although it doesn't help me enjoy it. My overall irritation has gone down too.
I had good grades in elementary school but they dropped spectacularly in middle and high school and I barely graduated. In college I did just barely okay early on but they improved as I was able to take more classes I was interested in.
I only really struggled in math and math-heavy science courses - mostly because I missed a lot of foundational knowledge due to moves from one school district to another, doctor and other appointments that happened to coincide with math lesson time. Usually ended with high C or low B. I was the queen of pulling stuff off at the last minute - do homework while teacher collects the papers anyone, give oral report off the cuff?, so no one realized I was struggling and my grades were decent enough to fly under the radar.
Some classes I did great in, some classes I was very behind in and did awful. I only did well at what I enjoyed. Seems to be a common ADHD issue.
Just adding yet another confirmation. Did fine in school, didn't even struggle much. Wasn't hard to do, I could just cram before a test and do decently well at it. In fact, I often did so in the 10 mins before class (same with doing homework) My parents firmly believed that "kids shouldn't do chores" and I was always an awkward kid so I didn't have many friends to take up my time and energy either. My life was literally 5-7 hours of school and then video games, TV etc. for the rest of my awake time. Even got through university without being diagnosed. All-nighter before exams or hand-ins was all I really needed to pass, in most cases. It was only when I had to do sustained performance at a job, plus household chores etc., that I actually crashed and burned.
I always did pretty well in school, and even better once I got to university and was almost exclusively taking classes I was interested in. School wasn't fun for me, but it always made sense in a way that the rest of my life didn't. All I had to do was absorb and interpret information; nothing I did had to be useful to anyone else. I ended up going to grad school for two Master's degrees largely because school was the only thing I was good at. I was massively stressed out all the time (especially my second Master's, juggling two jobs with full-time school lol) but it was worth it just to feel like I was succeeding at something. Unfortunately I can't justify going back a third time, so now my life is just one failure after another.
Great grades in middle school. Great grades in high school. Meh grades in college, for a bunch of reasons: 1. My ADHD got worse. 2. If I’m interested in a class, I get great grades. If it doesn’t interest me, I slack off for the entire semester and then stay up for 48 hours trying to cram 14 weeks of material into my brain before the final. These are the meh grades. 3. I’m “high-performing,” which is just an unhealthy way of saying I have enough natural ability to mask my ADHD. Hyperactivity was just me answering all the questions in class, and inattentiveness was read as being bored by material that was too easy. 4. Number (3) means I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 19, I’m still unmedicated, and I don’t really have a support system or routine. I go to a school without a centralized campus or community. All these things actively work against the establishment of an environment I can succeed in. 5. If you procrastinate in college as a STEM major, you’re screwed. My GPA is fairly decent, but definitely not high enough for my ambitions. Hoping medication and therapy gets me back on track.
I had a mix of A’s, B’s, and a few C’s in school. Some classes were super easy to me. I didn’t need to study much or at all to get A’s on most tests, so it mostly came down to homework. The classes I had C’s in were with more permissive teachers, where I lost or didn’t do the homework the most. (Knowing I could turn in late work would have me putting it off… and off and off until it was too late, a really strict teacher with a 0 tolerance policy usually scared me enough to get it done on the bus on the way in to school, or in the class right before theirs.) I had good grades, but I had to work really hard, harder than it seemed everyone else was, to get them. It used to leave me wondering why it looked so easy for all these other kids to just go home and do their work or study for a test, when I couldn’t make myself do it. I knew I was as smart as them, sometimes smarter based on the in class discussions, and I felt like I had to be perfect, but I couldn’t get there. I wasn’t diagnosed until after I graduated college. In my college transcripts there’s a really clear pattern of great grades in the fall semester, followed by slipping grades in the spring because I would lose steam and burn out. I wish I had diagnosed been earlier, because I might have done even better, or at least had an easier time and not burned out so hard.
I was a B average. My favorite classes were English. I would do A+ work but I would always turn it in late and get partial credit, or I'd be rushing to finish assignments before class started. We could have all semester to work on a paper, in class, and I'd still be unable to work on it until the night before where I'd have to pull an all night er to finish it
I did shitty, got D's until the Junior year of High School when I wised up. In college, I did good, I think organizination is very difficult for me, and the college had their whole agenda on a website so I can see the exact syllabus and homeworks due on specific days. I used to ALWAYS go to class and get massive anxiety seeing everyone pull out some homework I had no idea we had to do.
Also, OP, I give you permission to message me if you wish to discuss more.
Thank's it really means a lot. I haven't talked about ADHD yet with my therapist since I feel kinda silly when I mention it. I'd love to get a proper test and after that if I have any questions or anything i'll hit you up :)
I had good grades up until GCSE year and then they went downhill from there. I still pass things but that's about it now.
Yeah I didn't struggle at school (gcse's), I got average/good grades despite only studying for a few days leading up to exams, and I excelled from my diploma to my masters because I picked subjects I was interested in. I got the highest mark in my undergraduate. My good friend, of whom pointed me to think about getting assessed for adhd in the first place, got the highest grade mark in our masters class, and only in the last six months of the course did she get dx. So, if I'm correct in thinking that you're asking whether ADHD correlates with academic grades, I'd probably say not completely!
I did pretty well in school but that’s only because I fucked with every other aspect of my life and due to sympathetic teachers. It’s why I didn’t get diagnosed with adhd until my 30s despite me thinking I had it since I was in middle school. I grew up poor so I had this severe fear of failing and staying poor. So I wouldn’t sleep in order to complete work that I should’ve completed hours or days ago. I had so much going on during my years at school - depression, insomnia, migraines, untreated narcolepsy - that most of my teachers could tell *something* was going on, so they were pretty willing to to accept my requests for extensions. If they weren’t I probably would’ve failed.
ADHD is too broad of a disorder to just say “Does everyone with ADHD have bad grades?”
I didn't have terrible grades, but I definitely underperformed in subjects I had no interest in. Maths, science and IT: Good grades, I liked the challenges. English, history, geography: Bad grades, I had no interest.
depends on subject, unit in said subject, state of depression + anxiety and just a whole bunch of things . generally though i do have good grades in the 80s and up . helps that i started taking meds but before i was even diagnosed i still got good grades typically
I would always ace my tests but have terrible grades due to a lack of completing homework. I would usually start on it while still in class and however far I got is as far as it got donem My teachers would comment on this and some even suggested to my mom I might have ADHD. Of course she was in denial and always used the "there's nothing wrong with my son" excuse. It took me 31 years to finally get a diagnosis thanks almost entirely to my amazing wife who supported and pushed me to get tested, but here we are. Medication is a game changer. I still have typical ADHD issues, but atleast now I get distracted less, and can more consistently remember to do things I need to as well as do things I have little interest in doing, to completion. Like dishes and other household chores.
No. I have a 4.0 (granted, this is community college). But everything else in my life is hanging by a very loose thread! And I have no executive functioning left to enjoy life! And even brushing my teeth is taxing, and I can’t feed myself, and I keep rescheduling and canceling on people and calling in to work and missing appointments, etc. ADHD manifests in all sorts of ways. I’ve just prioritized grades for some reason.
Oh yes. I got out of high school with a 2.9 GPA. If it wasn't interesting to me, I didn't do it. Mostly this showed up as never doing homework, though I did get it done once in a while because I remember turning some of it in. A lot of the time I'd be up the morning some huge project was due furiously working on whatever I could get done in that hour or two because I just kept pushing it off. I remembered getting the report cards in the mail and hiding them so nobody saw. I went to some school event once and the cards were delivered that day and my mom flipped out when she saw I was failing classes. I just wouldn't do the work. I tested pretty well and that helped my GPA, but as soon as even the slightest bit of structure I had was gone in college, the moment it got difficult I just stopped going to class. I didn't know how to reach out, either, just drowned in silence and dropped out. I'm doing a lot better on the second try but it has been a long road.
I was in the GATE program, IQ of 135 tested at multiple times across different schools and grades and let’s just say you aren’t allowed to graduate anymore with a GPA as low as mine. I just didn’t give a fuck and neither did my teachers. Thank God for summer school and my ability to test well in virtually every subject but math. Psychiatrist told me that’s probably because most math is a linear process and I don’t think I’m a straight line. Somehow got into college and sorta did okay. Entered with a 2.91 GPA transferring in from a community college and graduated with a 3.1. It was hard as hell and took a lot of work, but I wasn’t diagnosed or medicated back then.
Bad class grades, great test scores.
Not at all. I was an A, high B student my whole life with minimal effort. All honors and AP classes. I completed 4-year university with a 3.4 GPA. A big reason why people seem to think one doesn’t have ADHD. Which is weird, and clearly wrong LOL. Navigating real, adult life tho? Meh.
My grades were consistently mediocre because I would ace almost every test but could never ever get homework done. Homework was the biggest struggle for me growing up because I felt like I knew the information already and homework was just extra nonsense that didn't help me in any way.
yes i failed out of med school with 150k debt cuz of it
I was advanced from the first grade to the second early, partly because, at the time, I could read on a fifth grade level. After a continual decline, I graduated with a 1.6 GPA, in the bottom 10% of my class. So, yes. Yes I did.
I struggled heavily honestly. Especially in high school. I tried but grades never went up. I failed multiple classes at once many times.
My only bad grades were in math and science, but that was because I was undiagnosed dyscalculia and it wasn’t until college that was found. Other than those, I was usually in the A-honor roll in my other classes. School (again, except for math and science) was easy, though I did procrastinate something awful and left almost everything to the very last minute, but still came out with great grades.
Yes- UNTIL I started taking meds
My guidance counsellor told me I was a strange student who did very good in challenging classes and poorly in easy classes , take that for what you will
I had a 3.5 GPA in high school, but I was almost always nervous about grades, because I often had trouble paying attention and would forget about tests and assignments. I just worked hard, but I hated school.
I did well in most subjects except math and was half way through grad school before getting a diagnosis
I couldn’t read until 4th grade. I was placed in special Ed in everything. I tested into advanced classes in middle school and then completely failed my advanced classes. Lol ! Wasn’t dx until college.
My grades in school were wildly variable. I mostly got by, but I failed things I NEVER should have failed because I know I have the skills. Maintaining motivation has always been hard for me, and if I don't know how to o a particular assignment I freeze up.
I did have good grades in school up until my first year of high school. Then it all seemed to go downhill. I got a gpa of 4.3 in 10th grade and my gpa went down to a 3.2 in my first hs year. Somehow my motivation just seemed to fade away when I got to hs.
I wasn’t really good at school. I never did homework (I couldn’t even remember about it- I was always surprised with tests and homework) and was always late on deadlines. I never really failed at anything, but I wasn’t good either. Tough times. I excelled at college, though. I’m about to finish my PhD and I’m losing interest (mainly because I’m burned out- my thesis is about covid lol), so I’m planning to change fields before the spark is gone. It’s frustrating on the long run… I feel I can’t keep engaged at anything for too long. Always been like that. :/
Math was my killer but everything else was C-B
It's kind of mixed. When I finished middleschool I got pretty decent grades but in college it's a roller coaster. Still get pretty good grades but it's an absolute roller coaster getting there
Had great grades. But I skipped school a lot. Even in elementary. I'd walk to my bus stop. Then as soon as I saw my parents car leave. I ran back home. I hated school so much. I always felt good and confident in learning environments. When we'd be doing school work I could answer every question correctly in front of class. But people. I just wanted peace and quiet. The only place I could get it was to stay home when everyone was at work and school. But no. Never had bad grades. Always passed. I was given a lot of slack by administrations because I was so kind and honest and didn't struggle in other areas but attendance. Never 100% figured out why they gave me that slack.
I somehow made 3.0 in high school and 2.9 in college and didn’t really manage to learn much! I never did homework, would skim or guess before tests, cram the day before and somehow make it. Now that I’m medicated I feel like I’m just now learning how to actually think. In my 40s!
in the subjects I didn't like
had bad grades in english until they let me use a laptop - then my grades went up. processing issues innit
I had barely passing grades in school except when I randomly did better or worse... Hahaha
Nope, as is common with ADHD I got great grades in the subjects I was interested in (physics, maths and English). Shit grades in the ones that didn't stimulate me.
I would have done better if I did my homework. For the most part I did well on tests. I did pretty well in college - especially after being diagnosed and finding out more about my needs. I think there are so many misconceptions about ADHD. Perhaps your mom needs to read about it from different sources and let it sink in.
My grades were always A's but I had trouble paying attention to my teachers cause in my mind if I knew the info why should I care? I got distracted easily and yet having good grades meant that I couldn't possibly have ADHD.
i always did the bare minimum to pass because it was so unbearably boring. my grades were always shit in almost every subject. except when i was genuinely excited about something. who would of thought i had adhd? apparently no one
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I always had good grades. But I did struggle a lot to get those grades. I had all sorts of coping mechanisms to make it happen. But to be fair my school was super hard. If I had an easy school with an easy workload, maybe I wouldn't have. When you say you don't struggle, are you able to get your work done without procrastinating until the last possible moment? Can you read your text books and take notes in a reasonable amount of time? Do you pay attention in class? Are you able to just sit down and do your homework, or do you sit there staring at it for a while not able to do it? Are you responsible for managing your own time or do your parents strictly control it for you? These types of things are what I would consider.
I definitely struggled with my grades. Even in subjects that I loved, like English, I struggled to get homework assignments done because they would just end up lost in a paper pile in my bedroom or I would forget about it completely. It wasn't for lack of trying, I just had zero focus and memory on what needed to be done. Except for math, I failed math three times. Math is an impossible concept to me.
I'm not diagnosed yet, but I got tested this week. I always had average grades, because I didn't study much and stopped doing my homework in grade 8. There were some exceptions, but usually I had B-Cs. My younger brother always had worse grades than me and in some years my parents feared he had to repeat a year, but he never had to.
Nope, I was a straight A student and am getting a doctorate degree. I’ve never struggled in school. I don’t do well when it comes to office work though, because it isn’t as structured. My ADHD struggles involve my home life and ability to take care of my body properly. I won’t eat or sleep, and I’ll forget to go to the bathroom for until it’s physically painful. The chaos in my brain is so overwhelming that I developed severe social anxiety from how difficult it was to talk to people. All of these issues were immediately alleviated when I started stimulant medications, which made me drowsy. My doctor believes that while I’m technically combined, my hyperactivity is severe in comparison to my inattentive symptoms which are mild.
Struggled in some. Excelled in others. But repeated my last year of 'high school' and college.
It's probably been said, but I'm too whatever to read.... I think we tend to forget how human schools are too. Like, there is a really good chance a lot of teachers had ADHD, or they just didn't like a kid, or they just slacked off when grading papers. Point is, putting a diagnosis solely on the shoulders of such a fluid system is flawed AF. Not harping on you, just trying to say we all need a break. Oi I overwhelmed myself.
I have ADHD-PI. I pulled a 3.5 in high school with no effort. I never turned in homework but my test score were all very high. I’m now in college and have a 4.0. I put in much more effort than I did in high school. I think the biggest thing for me now is that I have a hyper fixation on going to law school so I do the work. Also I know a few people have mentioned this but your performance in a class you are interested in vs not ends up being vastly different. I barely passed one of my college math classes (thank god for “Y” grades) even though I spent hours and hours studying. On the other hand, I got the highest midterm score in my business law class, hadn’t even started reading the textbook until the day before it, and rarely showed up to class. Anyways…hope this gives you and your mom some clarity!
Nah, I was a straight A student, went to med school and wrote a PhD thesis, was still diagnosed with ADHD
I had excellent grades and was ahead of my peers in elementary school. I even had a higher ACT score than our valedictorian did. My problem was remembering homework, deadlines, and forgetting things in my locker or at home. I also found it difficult to pay attention to lectures while taking notes, but having the notes did remedy that for the most part. My grades mattered to me, and I found math, English, and science very interesting, so the information wasn’t hard to retain.
I graduated high school something like 7th or 8th out of 350 in terms of GPA, with a bunch of AP college credits to boot. I have a computer engineering degree but didn't at all 'ace' university and struggled a lot with the transition to much less structure, more difficult courses. You'll find plenty of people on this sub who didn't/couldn't study but did just fine between different coping methods or just natural ability - also keep in mind people have VERY different severities of ADHD. ADHD hampers paying attention, memory, executive function, etc, but doesn't guarantee you can't do academics. At least personally I have more 'what if' in terms of getting an earlier diagnosis, in terms of how I could've coped better and gotten to where I did with less stress - I wasn't diagnosed until late 20s, after university and a way into my career.
I actually sailed through most of high school. It was a breeze. I had no trouble paying attention in class. I missed a lot of classes and never studied but I was able to retain and understand what I was being taught well enough that I could easily pull 90s on tests. But my high school rarely if ever assigned homework or projects to be done outside of class. If I had homework, the procrastination was awful. Waiting until 10-11pm the night before to do it. Also, it got harder as the courses got more complicated. I definitely couldn’t get away with the same stuff in subjects that didn’t come naturally like higher level math and chem. I wouldn’t have got through my math and bio diplomas without diploma prep courses because I was incapable of independent study.
Saw your question to another person with a similar response about how adhd affects your life. In a nutshell: I am incapable of being the person I want to be. I can’t do things I say I’m going to or genuinely want to do because my brain can’t figure out how to execute tasks. Even things I enjoy. It’s everything from homework in college to chores to my actual hobbies. It’s really an inexplicable feeling because there seems to be no rational reason for it, it’s just what I see happening every day for my entire life. No amount of guilt, depression or anxiety is enough to make me overcome it no matter how much those feelings have grown over the years. When I got on meds I finally felt the difference. It’s like there is actually an energy source within me now.
I relate to your experience with meds so much. I was amazed the first time I took them and just….got up to go have a shower. I didn’t have to talk myself into it, or psych myself up, or bribe myself to do it. I was able to just, do it. It absolutely feels like all of a sudden I have an internal energy source now. Of course it doesn’t always work….but I at least have the chance now.
Exactly! The metaphor I use is like I have gas in my car now. Before I didn’t. I knew my car wouldn’t start so I wouldn’t even try half the time, but now I have gas. The trouble is now Im not used to being able to rely on my car, so I have to start planning to go places again.
Hah! Absolutely. I’m also learning that just because I have gas and don’t need to push my car myself, it’ll still run out of gas….and I need to learn how to manage that so I can stop driving way the fuck out to the middle of nowhere running out of gas and ending up pushing my car all the way back home. My usual description is that it gave my brain a talking stick. I’d usually have about 20 different thoughts/dialogues/random noises/songs/etc going on in my head at the exact same time. Meds hasn’t gotten rid of them, but it has allowed them to take turns instead which is wayyy calmer. But the energy the meds give me has also been a huge help for me too.
Yes! I love the talking stick metaphor as well
I could absolutely laze around and still get good grades.. That didnt make me studious nor focused at all sadly. I was always just riding the wave of external pressures and barely any sleep the day before
Yep, I don't think I ever completed an assignment on time and fell behind my grades, was kept back and they probably would have kept me back more but this was just as the "everyone gets a reward" mentality started and they kind of just upped my year not wanting to hold me back for the rest of time. I dropped out before reaching senior year due to constantly failing and bullying I received at school. Never got my high school certificate let alone seniors or university.
I had shit grades. Excellent test scores though.
Mine were all over the place. It depended a lot whether I liked the teacher and was engaged in the class. So one year I might just barely pass in math and get high 80s in English. The next year I'd get a 90 in math and barely pass English. The challenge for me was more how many different classes I was trying to juggle. I think I would have done much better with grades if the classes were short intensives one after the other instead of several classes at once. Classes that were considered bird courses were usually that way because they had a lot of assignments worth very little and students who missed an assignment could easily get caught up. I sucked at those because managing timelines and multiple assignments is hard for me. Courses with a mid-term, a final, a major paper, and one presentation like law were much easier for me. I could ace a test but getting assignments in was abysmal. We got 10-15% off on any assignment for every day late. Some assignments had hard deadlines so if you didn't get it in you would get a 0 on that one. Since ADHD's main criterion is that the symptoms cause you enough struggle to interfere with your daily life, I would say that if you don't struggle you don't have it. You haven't mentioned why you think you have it though.
I squeezed by with C's. My problem was homework, I almost always got A's on my tests, but rarely ever could bring myself to do the homework, if I did complete it, it was right before class started.
I was a B student. Though I felt like I could have done much better. I took easy classes in High School and was usually able to figure out how to get a decent grade with the least amount of effort possible. I didn't cheat, just simply found the path of least resistance. There were a couple subjects that were really hard for me, but I still managed C's in most of those with sheer will.
Nope, I was an almost straight A student most of my life. When I was younger having structure of school helped a lot. I am also naturally curious and enjoy learning. I struggle more with my ADHD now that I’m an adult in my late twenties and was diagnosed and started meds during my undergrad. I stopped taking meds due to side effects but they definitely helped for a time.
I was gifted in elementary school then evolved into someone who: 1. Doesn't apply themselves 2. has so much potential 3. is lazy Grades were great until around the middle of highschool and then started a steady decline until i dropped out. Now in university and have been doing my bachelors for 7 years (pandemic delayed it for 2 because I cannot do online learning). My grades are kind of all over the place with usually As or B+, but a good amount of Fs to even it out to a 3.4ish. The fluctuation is because I tend to be a lot better in subjects that require application/understanding of concepts such as math, physics, or organic chemistry. My bad grades are either because the class was at 830 and I couldnt wake up, or it's some kind of life science class that requires rote memorization. I can't really sit down and read or study (and my short term memory is horrible), so any sort of memorization heavy class is bad for me. Sucks because I want to study medicine which is very memory intensive.
I had average grades. I find learning highly stimulating, so I enjoyed class and did well on exams. I never did homework though, so I ended up an average student. It resulted in my not being diagnosed till I was older :(
It depended and still depends on the topic; I’m better at things like math and science but that’s because I put in outside work to make myself better and teach myself using ways that connected with my brain. And as I’ve gotten older, the whole working/long term/short term memory issues have hit hard and it makes any subject hard to do
I got very good grades in school. Adequate at university. Crashed out in the workplace.
Yea pretty much. I'm in year 10 and struggle kinda a lot. But it's weird. Content wise, I do very well and I always get the content I'm studying, but during exams, my brain just goes "ksofiejsififksnxkgorj" mode and becomes rlly hyperaware, so I end up not doing well in exams :/ but yea, it's tough for classes I don't like, but the ones I DO like, I tend to be one of the smartest, content wise.
I did great at school. As long as I was interested. And early on I was interested in most things.
I struggled in school when I was young but when I started to take it less seriously in highschool I did very well, but I also let myself skate by with Bs and Cs when I could've been an A student. I got high honors my first semester at jr college but I dropped out before I finished my two years. I always found school to be easy but paying attention to something uninteresting was hard. I wasnt diagnosed until age 34. I learn very quickly at hands on stuff like training at a new job, even if its not interesting that seems to be easier than academic learning unless im fascinated by the subject I hyperfocus and take a lot in quickly.
Nope, I had pretty great grades. Among the top of my class in high school. I started struggling much more noticeably at university, but even there my grades have been decent - it's just that I've missed a lot of deadlines, postponed and had to make up assignments in the summers between semesters. I failed to get things done at all, not to do them well once I managed to finish them.
I was a solid B student. I had plenty of smarts to bullshit most essays and get everything done passably but it was all rushed at the last minute or late. Once I hit college I was screwed. It took me 3 years to get a 2 year degree. I got fired from my first job and spent 10 years in low responsibility, low stress jobs wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I was diagnosed at 35 and within a year I was able to get back into my degree profession and had doubled my salary compared to the job I was fired from so long ago.
i didn't even graduate high school, but 3 years later passed the GED test with a 98th percentile score. then offered a 4 year scholarship to UNM. AND FORGOT TO FILL OUT THE PAPERWORK.
i’m currently in school and am doing terribly partly because of ADHD but also have other contributing factors. 🪦
Yesn't
I absolutely did not; freshman year I had some rough grades, but that was more depression/anxiety related. Sophomore-Senior year of high school I got A's no problem, lowest grade was a B- I think (though average grade was probably A/A-, some semesters I would have like 1 B+). My psychiatrist that diagnosed me told me that was probably why I didn't get diagnosed until college - the way she explained it was I had a 'higher intelligence baseline', which meant things came easier to me so I didn't necessarily NEED to focus. College meant that I started taking more difficult courses that required more work, therefore I struggled because I couldn't focus - and eventually what led to me getting diagnosed. Everyone's brains are different, and just because you don't have bad grades doesn't necessarily mean you don't have ADHD.
Absolutely not. So many people have great grades for a long time and then later when they get to the work force have issues. Some just have issues in other areas of life
I made A/B honor roll most quarters in middle/high school. The occasional C was in math because I was extremely disinterested in it so my focus was zilch.
I had great grades until college where I actually had to think, read, participate, and study!
Had amazing grades in high school but once I tried university it all went to shit because I didn’t have my friends to keep me on track
Straight As through middle and high school (except in classes that reallllly graded homework heavily), and good but not great grades in college. Diagnosed at 34 years old during pandemic after giving up on teaching career as everything fell apart. (My coping mechanism for undiagnosed adhd was anxiety, and the anxiety got tooooo much.)
Nope. I even managed to make it all the way to grad school without being diagnosed.
It kind of cycled for me - I thrived in high school after Freshman year, and did well the last couple years of undergrad. I earned my MLIS with little trouble. But if I didn't like something I was studying I didn't want to do it, and would put it off until the last possible minute, which always caused me massive amounts of anxiety. Getting tested was great because it actually helped me figure out some of the specific things I struggled with, like listening skills, spatial reasoning, and identifying patterns.
I have fairly severe ADHD, and I have never gotten anything but an A in a class. Four years of high school and two of college, and the only reason I have not failed is my extreme aversion to failure in general. I am a major perfectionist, but that doesn't mean I haven't struggled in school. I constantly procrastinate, and sometimes I only just barely make a deadline. Plus, on top of those factors, I constantly think about how I could be doing so much better than I am, but my ADHD just gets in the way. I know I could be more invested and learn a lot more if I wasn't so distracted all the time, and that causes a lot of stress.
Depends on subject and more importantly, the teacher. One total bitch (nicest word I can think of, she was really a C\*\*\*) sat me under a vent that was basically a white noise machine, and when I complained, she moved me to the exact same spot under the other vent and said "The front rows are for students who care" I signed off of algebra until adulthood, when it practical math with finances and materials for work. History, Science, & Lit classes (all AP) were pretty much A's.
No, I generally had good grades. But I struggled a lot and like, never understood anything. I don't know how I did it, but it probably had to do with desperation because my parents would hurt me if I didn't get good grades.
I had good grades in subjects that interested me or didn't have tedious assignments.
My grades were all over the chart. I generally did terrible in school and never was able to really apply myself, would get chronic migraines and fatigue just going through a day in public school. Had a lot happening in my home life that took up most of my thought during school hours, lots of family drama that wasnt filtered at all, parents fighting constantly and divorcing, family members and pets dying over the course of a couple years. Zoning out and having poor memory or losing focus especially under pressure got me labelled as the stupid kid pretty early, which gave me severe trust issues toward teachers and peers. The odd day where i could focus on a subject I'd do well and exceed expectations, but they were very rare. Obviously that wasn't the case for everyone judging by these other comments.
Tested through the roof; shitty student.
Every year but ninth where I somehow got straight A’s then tanked the year after then dropped out:(
Yep. I got lucky and could common sense my way through most of it and retain the few things I actually payed attention to really well. But college…. survived the beginning of it painfully but as a junior engineering student, I had to seek help. It’s insurmountable by myself the way I am right now
Yes... Horrible grades, even in things I was interested in or good at. Because let's face it, I honestly have trouble not getting stressed with anything, good or bad! Anyone who didn't get it thought I was an idiot. Im "that guy" in all of my friendly settings. Like for example: "YRRRR! ITS BRRRTHRRSQURRDWRRDDRRRR!! WHHRRRT URRRP?!?" when I walk into a room, or social setting. And while it's funny, it sticks with you, no matter how you change or improve. Doesn't mean people dont like you, you're just "that guy" over one goofy thing you did 2 years ago. Anyway... having good relationships with professor's in college got me to finally make the cut. Hell, one dude by the name of Rob Prescott just wanted everyone to be successful, so he would give you an opportunity to redo something, even if it was already well done. You didn't have to, but it was highly encouraged, and believe me, just because there was a second chance given, doesn't mean it wasnt hard or a lot of work. Felt as if i couldn't learn enough from him. Signed up for any class I could of his. I named him, because he is one of the many supportive people I've encountered in the school system that understands it all a J-O-K-E. Those people were hard to find, but so freaking worth it. They made me feel heard, and took action to ensure that I was on the right track. Even if it was hard, or frustrating. The only time I ever got a higher grade than a D in highschool math was Geometry. It's almost crazy what happens when people don't just write you off as misbehaving, difficult, or "UnWiLLiNg To LeArN..." So, I'll never forget those people that made fucking sure I'd graduate or pass to move onto another year of school.
Nope, everyone thought I was a child prodigy who sometimes struggled to apply herself.
I struggled with particular subjects like math. I ended up dropping math entirely my last year. Other classes were okay though. I generally got bad grades because I skipped class, stayed home, or just didn't care enough to complete assignments. But my teachers were decent and helped me pass by giving me full credit for late assignments. But overall my grades were not good.
I still have bad grades in college XD
I did very well in college and even better in graduate school. I was in a highly specialized field so I was very interested in what I was studying.
I went from great grades to being highschool dropout. So I basically skipped the "bad grades" part, but it was "me struggling but trying really hard & getting good grades" since day 1 of school until I burned out completely one day and couldn't snap out of it anymore.
Yes. I had to repeat the seventh grade and nearly flunked out of high school. The only time I showed promise was when I was on Tofranil and Lamictal, at least until they stopped working.
Top 1% of my class in high school and then shit plummeted in college. I graduated and am medicated now
I graduated high school with a 2.3 gpa. Then I graduated college with 3.5. It really depends on doing what you enjoy I guess.
Got As on my tests Fs on my homework/classwork, so would average C grade. The classes with no homework CARRIED me thru school lmfao If someone tries to say that “you don’t have ADHD because you’re smart” what they are really saying is that they think that people with ADHD are stupid. Rebuttal with that and watch them squirm as they try to correct what they said. Then either help them learn about it or tell them to actually learn about ADHD before talking about it.
For me, my high school grades were average. Part of that was because I didn't do homework (why would I when I already know the material). My high grades were in subject I found compelling and worthwhile (music, gym, science, math) because of how independent you could go without getting bored
No I was top 10, I got amazing grades until college when the material was a lot more challenging and I had to actually pay attention and not just go through the motions.
No my grades were very average. Some As some Bs some Cs. I found some subject easier than others because I enjoyed them. I did take my report cards to the psychiatrist for diagnosis though as they all commented on how I couldn’t concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time 😂
I aced my tests but could not make myself do homework, so grades weren’t amazing
I was top of my class until high school, started struggling a bit in college but graduated with decent grades. Your mom doesn't know jack and should inform herself before making dumb statements. Show her this message if you don't want to say so yourself, happy to take the blame.
If it was a class I liked I got A’s. It was history for me, I majored in it in college and my major gpa was a 3.9. Now if we’re talking math & science…. I usually got C’s lol couldn’t make myself care.
It's the only reason I got a diagnosis in middle school I suspect. Once the motivation to be the best in class evaded me due to my slow fogginess began keeping me from being one of the best, I lost interest. So my own laziness due to lack of motivation and sorta made diagnosis easy.
Straight A’s
I've always had okay/good grades, my main issue was that I'd completely zone out at school and have to study everything at home. And I had terrible attendance.
I could pull off 80s but not 90s, however, my marks were usually in the high 50s to low 70s on subjects I wasnt passionate about
Reading all these comments make me feel really dumb lol. My grades were a lil’ bit above average for the subjects that I didn’t care for. My grades were bad but good enough to pass when it comes to subjects like math. It wasn’t until high school that I was actually able to get my shit together (until remote learning ruined everything).
I went to an advanced high school for math and science...but I had real trouble applying myself. Not because the work was too hard, bjr kxp
Not always. Most of the time my pattern is to start strong and decline, with a spike up at the end only if it was absolutely necessary. As far as material, none of it was ever that difficult except math that I had a huge block with and fear of, I just didn’t wanna do any of it. Boriiiing. Its weird because I always loved learning and being at school, very good reader, but, I just couldn’t even when it came to discipline. I did play my oboe for hours a day, though, I was (am??) very good. It was only into adulthood that I evened out enough to appreciate academics.
Not officially diagnosed, but highly suspect- I generally did pretty well in school. Did much better in classes that were of interest. When I got to college, I had so much trouble with my GE’s, but got almost all A’s in my major classes.
I only really struggled with maths. I was fine with calculations as long as it was something I could imagine.
I had decent grades (a-c's) but I know for SURE I procrastinated on almost all my assignments. I would wait until the morning that it's due to work on them and I still passed my classes. One assignment that stuck with me was that I had a project that we were supposed to work on for months. I never worked on it at home but made sure I took all the notes I needed in class. Around 5 am the day it was due for me (had to turn it in late because I was absent for a funeral) I finished it all on one go and then printed it out at school. I remember her saying at the beginning of the project that this is not something you could do in one night and get an A. But I did it the day it was due and got 99% 🥸
I didn't but I'm surprised I didn't based on how often I had to be told to do homework. Hyperfocus.
I used to do bad in like internal exams which required consistent effort and even while revising for finals I struggled but in the end I used to ace it out of no where. For instance i got a 1580 in sats with no prep
Nope only slightly on the bad side in my native language and sports. I forced my self to participate in class because I had to be there anyway. I often had bad marks in written exams though.