Concentration

[puppylove]

I have been having such a hard time concentrating. I have so much work for homebound schooling because I missed so much and I'm trying so hard to get it done but my brain will not cooperate. It took me forty minutes to read ten pages of a book and I wasn't even comprehending what I was reading. So frustrating. Then I end up staying up late trying to finish assignments, which doesn't help my symptoms of course. Any advice?

[jangle]

Puppylove, the way I dealt with this throughout college is I took everything one week at a time.

Like each semester your college courses pile so much work on you that it can get overwhelming. But the way to manage it is to know that everything you need to get done can get done in one week. So what you do is you look to the next week and see if you have any exams/papers to write. Always give yourself a week to study/work on the assignment and work everyday of the week towards that goal. Breakup your assignments, you shouldn't ever work too long for one period of time. Your mind learns better reading in increments than trying to do everything once. For instance, reading 5 30 minute increments is better than reading for 2.5 hours at once.

Although I recall I read an entire semester of biology in 5 days. Read the chapters 16 hours a day. Ah the memories.

[roxie]

I wish I had an answer for ya, puppy. I have the same problem. My dr is having me try carnitine this weekend for energy and from what I've read it can help with cognitive stuff, too. I pray it does.

Before this we tried a b complex & that only helped a little.

Does yours extend into nausea & this wierd loopy/dizzy feeling? Its such a bummer because if I could deal with it better i could stay occupied with small things most of the time and feel so much happier.

[bunny]

Between anorexia & POTS, I managed to make my way through undergrad & some grad school. I took advantage of the good moments and cranked through as much work as possible when I was feeling good. If I suddenly got a burst of energy at 3am, I was going to take advantage of it for as long as I could carry it. This is one of those luxuries you have with college that you most likely wouldn't have anywhere else in life. Breaking up tasks into smaller bite-size tasks was also quite helpful. If I only had the concentration for one page at a time, that's what I did. Not the most efficient studying, but it gets the job done.

Another trick was to learn how to be efficient with studying. Not everything was worth putting effort into. I used to group things into "guideposts" and would only learn enough to recognize points A, D, G and be able to extrapolate points B,C, E, F based on A, D, and G. By intentionally NOT studying parts of the material, I was able to study these guideposts in-depth. In doing so, I'd actually understand the material rather than just read & regurgitate it, hence the parts I didn't study would become obvious. I think it'd be safe to say I probably spent more time finding ways to avoid studying everything than I did actual studying. It also helps to figure out what the professor/teacher's focus is on and how that'll influence exam questions and assignments. No use studying it if the prof isn't into it. However, if the prof's research passion happens to be the same field as Chapter 13, you know he's going to be asking every question under the sun about it. Even standardized tests have biases.

Last but not least, do work as you can without worrying about time. Realistically speaking, it took me 10 years from the time I first took a college course to the time I got my degree. I took a few classes at a time, as my body and finances would allow for. At the end of the day, I still am a college grad and in many ways have done more & am better-off than many of my high school classmates who did the traditional 4-year route. As an added bonus, I paid for college in cash. Never having a single student loan to worry about: priceless.