I'm a second year medical student and was diagnosed with dyspraxia, working memory deficit and dyslexic tendencies just before Christmas (so still haven't received much support as my DSA hasn't come through yet...) and I was wondering if anyone could give me any tips on how to cope with the workload at university and learning/revision strategies in general?
Because of the nature of my course, I have 9-5 lectures Mon-Fri and examinable self directed study on top of that and I just haven't been able to keep up with notes and reading (I avoid academic reading if at all possible). I have exams in May and have already started revising but I'm finding identifying and organising all the topics and planning how much time I need to spend on them (and then sticking to it) really difficult!
I'm a massively visual learner and have started making mind-maps and posters for notes, using lots of colour. My lecture notes are all in mindmap form, which I find speeds up the revision process massively but I'm so badly organised I'm missing a good chunk of them!
So yeah, if anyone has any advice or pointers in what to try I'd be HUGELY grateful! xxx
Using mind maps and posters (or post-it notes) to help you revise are definitely good things to do if you've got dyspraxia. Getting work organised is often particularly difficult for people who have dyspraxia, but it will make your revision much more effective if you can get your notes into order. This is easier said than done, however. I had massive problems organising my notes during A levels and at University so completely understand how hard it can be (it wasn't such an issue at GCSE level as all my notes were conveniently there in the relevant exercise books). Although I did well at A level, I often think I would have done even better (and had more time for other things, such as a social life) if my work had been organised. As this was something I really struggled with, I think the thing that would have made the biggest difference to me would have been to have had a family member or friend (or even a teacher) go through my folders and help me to organise my notes into relevant topics. Someone else might have been able to quickly make sense of my notes and then he or she could have prompted me to organise them accordingly.
When organising your notes, try to put different topics in different folders if possible, then make sure each folder has a label on the spine which clearly shows what information the folder contains. You should also use coloured dividers inside the folders, making sure you label each one. If you find it difficult to stick to a timetable, I would suggest that you at least make a tick sheet of the topics you need to revise and decide on the minimum number of times you must spend revising each one (if you have time, of course you could do more than the minimum on each, but this should help to ensure that nothing gets left out) - put the sheet up somewhere prominent to make sure you stick to it.
I don't know if this applies to you, but one of the things which made my life at University a lot harder was that my room looked like a bomb had just hit it most of time! This was of course very unhelpful when I was trying to get work done, as I would waste time trying to find things. Tidying my room was something I found hard as my visual processing problems meant it was difficult to make sense of everything I saw in front of me and then sort it out. If your room's as messy as mine was, it might be worth asking a friend or family member to help you get it in order.
I would make enquiries about what's happening regarding your DSA- if they don't sort it out soon you won't see the benefits from it this academic year. As you've been formally diagnosed, you ought to be entitled to extra time in your written exams- it might be a good idea to see if you can speak to someone from Disability (Student) Services at your University for advice on this.
A methord that I used at unie was using the clander synced to my phone (this is easy if you have a mac and a i phone but there are ways if you don't) therefor you clanders are updated and on you all the time.
With clanders I cloure coded them i.e. one cloure for work to do and when, one for lectures, lessions etc so you dont get confused.
Use the clander to plan and schudal how much of one subject you will focus you time to at one day - e.g. subject x for 3 houres, subject z for 4 hours etc.
Are you drawing mind maps by hand or using softwere? - If your doing it by hand then when your DSA allowance is sorted you are lickly to get or can get Inspration mind mapping softwere - this really helps and speeds up mind mapping and organising etc.
xxx