Studying with ADHD or dyslexia: techniques and support that work

University makes heavy demands on exactly the functions that are difficult with ADHD and dyslexia: structuring your own weeks without external deadlines, reading large volumes of text, and sustaining long projects without immediate feedback. That is why many students who did well at upper secondary school hit a wall at university.

This is rarely about ability. It is about the default method, long independent reading over long stretches of time, being the worst possible design for these particular conditions. With different working methods and the right support, the picture looks completely different.

First: apply for study support

Every Swedish higher education institution has a coordinator for study support (samordnare för pedagogiskt stöd). The support is free and requires documentation of a lasting disability, such as an assessment or a doctor's certificate. The most common mistake is waiting until an exam has already gone badly. Apply well before term starts, since some adjustments must be decided before exam registration closes.

Common adjustments include:

Extended writing time on exams, often 50 percent extra. Sitting the exam in a small group or a separate room. Note taking support, where a coursemate is compensated for sharing their notes. Audiobooks through Legimus, which gives you your course literature narrated. Mentor support, meaning regular meetings with someone who helps you plan the week. And in some cases an alternative examination format, such as an oral exam instead of a written one.

Adjustments never lower the academic requirements. They remove obstacles that have nothing to do with the subject.

Strategies for ADHD

Externalise everything

Do not rely on working memory for planning. Everything that needs to happen should live outside your head: a calendar with times rather than just dates, a list of the next concrete action per course, and reminders that fire when something should be started, not when it is due.

Short sessions with clear endings

An unstructured two hour block rarely becomes two hours of work. 25 minutes with a timer and a break afterwards is far easier to start, see the Pomodoro technique. Many people find 15 minutes works better at first, and that is perfectly fine.

Work actively, never passively

Passive reading makes it especially easy to drift off. Write questions in the margin, answer them, say the answers out loud. Active methods provide constant feedback, and it is the feedback that holds attention. See active recall and the blurting method.

Use body doubling

Studying in the company of someone else who is also working, in the library or over video, makes an enormous difference for many people. It is not collaboration, just company, and it replaces the external structure that is missing at home.

Build routines around starting

Same place, same time, same first action. The more of the start that is automated, the less decision making is spent before the work has even begun. More on that in our article on procrastination.

Strategies for dyslexia

Listen instead of reading, or do both

Register with your library for Legimus, the service run by the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media, and get your course literature as audiobooks. Listening while following along in the text gives many people both faster reading and better comprehension than either mode alone.

Let technology do the heavy lifting

Text to speech for articles and PDFs, spell checking designed for dyslexia, and dictation instead of typing. These are standard tools today, and you are entitled to use them in examinations too once an adjustment has been granted.

Read strategically, not linearly

Never read a chapter front to back in one pass. Start with headings, the summary and the questions at the end, then read selectively for the answers. That cuts the volume of text dramatically without losing the content. Our guide to academic texts explains how.

Write in two separate passes

Producing content and spelling correctly draw on the same resources. Write all the content first without caring at all about spelling and sentence structure, and do the language in a pass of its own afterwards. Doing both at once is what makes writing feel impossible.

Note taking that works for both

Long running notes during lectures are hard with both ADHD and dyslexia, because you have to listen, understand and write simultaneously. Better options: record the lecture if your teacher allows it, note only keywords during the session, and build the structure afterwards when you can pause. The Cornell method suits that post processing well, and mind maps suit those who think in images rather than bullet points. See also taking lecture notes.

This is where AI tools genuinely earn their place: uploading a recording or a compendium to Memmo and getting back a summary, questions or a narrated version removes much of the mechanical work, leaving your energy for understanding the content.

If you do not have a diagnosis

Many people only have their difficulties recognised at university. Student health services are the right first contact: they can assess the situation, refer you for assessment, and support you in the meantime. Assessments take time, so start early if you suspect something. Meanwhile every strategy above is free to use, and none of them requires a diagnosis.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to tell my lecturer that I have ADHD or dyslexia?

No. You contact the study support coordinator, and your lecturer is only told which adjustments apply, not why. Your diagnosis is your own information.

Can I use text to speech and spell checking in exams?

Often yes, but it requires an approved adjustment in advance. Apply early, ideally at the start of term, since decisions are not made in the days before an exam.

Do adjustments apply at every institution?

The right to apply exists everywhere, but decisions are made locally and do not automatically transfer if you change institution. Contact the coordinator at the new institution well before term starts.

Does extra writing time really help?

For many students it is the single most important adjustment, particularly with dyslexia where reading the exam questions itself takes longer. The adjustment gives you time to show what you know. The requirements are unchanged.