Reply to GT/LD college-aged son struggling academically

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DS is a college freshman and has struggled both semesters so far academically.

He has adhd, executive dysfunction and some anxiety. He is GT/LD with an IQ in the mid 130s. He had a 504 plan in his public middle and high schools, which included extra time, small testing spaces, etc. He did very well academically in that setting, including always performed strongly on AP and other standardized tests.

In college he met with the accomodations office and was granted extra time and small test settings there. So those aren’t the issues.

He has been doing poorly on his exams in a variety of social science and humanities classes (these are his main subjects of interest and always did very well in history, social studies etc in HS).

Consistently he is getting the same feedback from professors on these exams - from philosophy to political science to sociology classes - that he clearly knows the material, but is not applying it / analyzing it well.

He’s very discouraged and his confidence is knocked. He preps hard for the exams and knows the material. I don’t know what to tell him.

I’m hoping the kind folks on this board can give me some ideas for ways to help him work on this defecit - or is there some possible LD we should look into besides the generalized conditions I mentioned at the start of my post (I don’t care about labels at all as we’re past that point of his life, but I want to know how to help him learn to compensate, study differently, etc. for whatever part of “how he learns” gives him trouble in this regard).

I’d appreciate any and all advice and suggestions. Thank you.

(He’s got his usual organization, time management etc struggles, too, but he and we are familiar with those and he knows techniques to help him stay on top of those struggles- but this wrinkle is new to him, and it is consistently coming up in all sorts of non-stem subjects.)

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My own experience as a history and international studies major is that exams were hard. More is more. You are given a ton of reading to skim and synthesize. If a professor gives sample test essay questions, I'd have him do one to study and then see if the professor would review it to give him some tips. Make sure he goes to any sort of test review the professor offers. Also, I would make sure that whatever he is writing is from a politicial point of view that the individual professor will agree with (even if you don't have the same views, just pretend). Tests are not the time for your kid to get creative or to offer up a hot take. [/quote]

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