College... Again
I've signed up for college again; I'm a senior by credit, sophomore by progress towards a degree, trying to get a mechanical engineering degree. I'm also on disability for Asperger Syndrome and depression. Thankfully the depression is under control right now.
The problem is with schoolwork, and my tendency towards perfectionism--an Asperger's trait, I think. It's not quite the typical sort of perfectionism; rather than anxiety-driven, it's more of a matter of not being quite able to decide where the proper balance between speed and accuracy is. For example, if I study a chapter for a quiz, I will probably read the chapter, outline it, summarize it, write down all the terms, and basically memorize every scrap of information in the chapter. This takes me maybe five times as long as it would take a typical student because I have difficulty figuring out which information is important and which isn't. It might be OK if my day were five times as long as everyone else's, but of course that's not true. (I have similar problems with housework, shopping, etc., but they're most pronounced with the highly-detailed task of doing schoolwork.)
And, of course, there are the obsessions to deal with: Strong, all-consuming hobbies that fascinate me and take up a lot of time. All it takes for me to fall behind on schoolwork is to become caught up in learning about some topic or other (recently I've been fascinated with child development and Nethack)... I become an expert on a narrow field, but everything else falls by the wayside! It's not very conducive to proper study habits. I don't know really how to control this, because when I'm involved in one of these, nothing else really seems important. I remember, for example, distractedly shutting off two alarm clocks that I had set to tell me it was time to go to a doctor's appointment. (I missed the appointment.)
I've gotten some minor accommodations from disability services at school; mostly things like being able to take tests in a quiet room by myself, extended time for tests, and being allowed to use lined notebook paper instead of the multicolored typing paper they usually give you for scratch paper. (You would not believe what a help the lines are to somebody with a very organized mind!)
Anyhow, there's the trouble: I want to get through school, but studying takes me so long that I often end up learning the first half of the material minutely, and the second half not at all. That problem gets compounded by the setbacks that happen whenever I'm involved in a special interest.
If I can get hold on both these tendencies, I know they can be turned to my benefit: Noticing details, learning things thoroughly, and hyperfocusing on a single topic could really make me a great engineer. Right now, though, they're controlling me. How do I change that?
The problem is with schoolwork, and my tendency towards perfectionism--an Asperger's trait, I think. It's not quite the typical sort of perfectionism; rather than anxiety-driven, it's more of a matter of not being quite able to decide where the proper balance between speed and accuracy is. For example, if I study a chapter for a quiz, I will probably read the chapter, outline it, summarize it, write down all the terms, and basically memorize every scrap of information in the chapter. This takes me maybe five times as long as it would take a typical student because I have difficulty figuring out which information is important and which isn't. It might be OK if my day were five times as long as everyone else's, but of course that's not true. (I have similar problems with housework, shopping, etc., but they're most pronounced with the highly-detailed task of doing schoolwork.)
And, of course, there are the obsessions to deal with: Strong, all-consuming hobbies that fascinate me and take up a lot of time. All it takes for me to fall behind on schoolwork is to become caught up in learning about some topic or other (recently I've been fascinated with child development and Nethack)... I become an expert on a narrow field, but everything else falls by the wayside! It's not very conducive to proper study habits. I don't know really how to control this, because when I'm involved in one of these, nothing else really seems important. I remember, for example, distractedly shutting off two alarm clocks that I had set to tell me it was time to go to a doctor's appointment. (I missed the appointment.)
I've gotten some minor accommodations from disability services at school; mostly things like being able to take tests in a quiet room by myself, extended time for tests, and being allowed to use lined notebook paper instead of the multicolored typing paper they usually give you for scratch paper. (You would not believe what a help the lines are to somebody with a very organized mind!)
Anyhow, there's the trouble: I want to get through school, but studying takes me so long that I often end up learning the first half of the material minutely, and the second half not at all. That problem gets compounded by the setbacks that happen whenever I'm involved in a special interest.
If I can get hold on both these tendencies, I know they can be turned to my benefit: Noticing details, learning things thoroughly, and hyperfocusing on a single topic could really make me a great engineer. Right now, though, they're controlling me. How do I change that?