Gah! Worst ADD of my life right now... any tips to stay focused?

[Lacipart]

I normally suck at concentrating, but these past few days have been torture! Started studying on Sunday, was managing 35 ExamKracker's pages in 4 hours (which in itself is pretty slow) but yesterday I struggled to get through 20 pages and today seems even worse.

I'm a really fast reader too, I just keep getting distracted every 20 seconds-2 minutes. I mean, I keep catching myself right when I loose it but after catching myself half a dozen times I'll slip and suddenly realize that for the past 15 minutes I was thinking about a dream I had two nights ago.

I tried doing the old 'set an alarm clock to go off every 5 minutes' so if it goes off and your not paying attention it will remind you, but it's really not working a whole lot for me :/

Any other tips?

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[dayumgina]

Hi, I have awful ADD myself and I've been managing 6 hour days. The biggest thing that's been helping me out is taking adequate breaks and setting short goals. For instance...the EK book. I'd tell myself that I will read up to the next section within the chapter (ending at the lecture questions), and will take a 2 minute break in between. And take notes, it keeps you occupied. In between your breaks, look at the notes you wrote or something mcat-related. I though originally that music would help, but it just makes it worse because I end up thinking about that.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

[jochi1543]

35 EK pages in 4 hours is not bad at all, especially if the subject is more or less new to you. Also, did you read them once or all 3 times? Because if you read them more than once, I think it's very impressive. I definitely remember having worse and better days. For example, I'm studying Orgo for an exam now, and while normally I'll get through at LEAST 20 pages in 4 hours, but yesterday I read like 5 and was so perplexed, I just put the book down and stared at the wall for 30 mins (I was at work, so nothing else to do besides study, since the work had all been done). Sometimes you just can't study for whatever reason. I know today I'll have to reread at least 3 out of those 5 pages anyway.

 

[Lacipart]

35 EK pages in 4 hours is not bad at all, especially if the subject is more or less new to you. Also, did you read them once or all 3 times? Because if you read them more than once, I think it's very impressive. I definitely remember having worse and better days. For example, I'm studying Orgo for an exam now, and while normally I'll get through at LEAST 20 pages in 4 hours, but yesterday I read like 5 and was so perplexed, I just put the book down and stared at the wall for 30 mins (I was at work, so nothing else to do besides study, since the work had all been done). Sometimes you just can't study for whatever reason. I know today I'll have to reread at least 3 out of those 5 pages anyway.

This is my first time through, and I just read through them once

 

[jace's mom]

I would recommend breaking up the reading with other study techniques. For example, my study sessions usually include:

1) Some reading...no more than 30 minutes at a time

2) Some sort of hands-on, "brain-on" activity to help me focus and reinforce what I've read. For example, I have these large sheets of paper that I use to make posters of what I've read (and believe me, I really can't draw!). If I'm reading about a complicated system, I'll try to sketch the system (from memory as much as possible) and label it, or make a chart about the system...etc. If I don't feel like I need to go to that much effort, I might just write a paragraph explaining the system to myself or talk about it aloud to make sure I understand it ("Today I studied the endocrine system, which includes...").

3) Answering some practice questions (from a real practice test if you have one or from old textbooks, etc. Anything that you can answer and have immediate feedback as to what you're misunderstanding).

I started out just reading text, but noticed a score jump (5-7 points) when I started using this more pro-active form of studying. I hope it helps!

 

[endofevangelion]

what about taking adderall?

 

[Gavanshir]

hahahahhaa.

 

[Lacipart]

what about taking adderall?

Pfft, too easy

In seriousness though, I don't want the addition to it, and my dad is actually a psychiatrist who gets asked for it from his patients, and he always tells me how he greatly disapproves of it's use.

I would recommend breaking up the reading with other study techniques. For example, my study sessions usually include:

1) Some reading...no more than 30 minutes at a time

2) Some sort of hands-on, "brain-on" activity to help me focus and reinforce what I've read. For example, I have these large sheets of paper that I use to make posters of what I've read (and believe me, I really can't draw!). If I'm reading about a complicated system, I'll try to sketch the system (from memory as much as possible) and label it, or make a chart about the system...etc. If I don't feel like I need to go to that much effort, I might just write a paragraph explaining the system to myself or talk about it aloud to make sure I understand it ("Today I studied the endocrine system, which includes...").

3) Answering some practice questions (from a real practice test if you have one or from old textbooks, etc. Anything that you can answer and have immediate feedback as to what you're misunderstanding).

I started out just reading text, but noticed a score jump (5-7 points) when I started using this more pro-active form of studying. I hope it helps!

Thanks, I like those ideas : D

 

[poly800rock]

yerba mate is and amazing drink.

 

[rcd]

I'm considering some "rhodiola rosea" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodiola_Rosea (with a grain of salt).

There's some information on it at SDN if you do a search.