Top tips and ways of working for students with ADHD

AAT president Lucy Cohen and Karen Feltham MAAT, AATQB explain how ADHD has affected their studies, how they combatted these issues, and their advice for students.

NHS England estimates that more than 2.5 million people in England have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Around 741,000 of these people are aged between four and 24, with many still waiting to be formally diagnosed.

This was the case for AAT president Lucy Cohen and Karen Feltham MAAT, AATQB, who were both formally diagnosed after studying towards their AAT qualification. The pair found parts of their academic life hard and wondered how peers could easily dive into a textbook.

Managing your studies with ADHD

Karen Feltham MAAT, AATQB, who owns Aligned Accounting Ltd based on the Isle of Wight, was diagnosed with ADHD in 2023. During her AAT qualification, she felt as if there was a ‘one size fits all’ approach which made it difficult to succeed.

“I think I’ve had to learn that just because everybody else studies between nine and 11 or three and five, that doesn’t mean that I have to do the same thing,” she said. “I just needed to understand when I work best at focus-type tasks. I’ve had to learn how to structure my day.

“Of course, working at any time goes against everything that all the experts tell you, but I did this because that’s how I work best. There are lots of different methods to try, like short bursts of study, but I found that none of those worked for me, and it was more about being quiet, calm and to not put too much pressure on myself.”

Using AI to form healthy study habits

While AI wasn’t an available tool for Lucy when she studied AAT, she found it incredibly useful later in life when working towards her post graduate qualification. Since her student days, Lucy has become an award-winning entrepreneur and co-founder of Mazuma, spending nearly two decades at the forefront of the UK accounting industry.

She said: “I have real problems seeing things in pictures, so I’m actually much better with an essay or written words. I also process information differently. If it’s something I’m interested in, reading it is 100% the way to go for me because I can keep that concentration. If it’s something I’m not too bothered about, I’ve actually found that listening to it works.

“Sometimes I will use AI to transcribe information and read it back to me so I can pretend that it’s a podcast when I’m driving. That’s been really helpful, along with using technology to turn the inputted information into a conversation with two people speaking about its key highlights.

“To my brain, that makes a boring thing interesting because I get a different stimulus. I’ve got different voices and I’m listening to it more like a podcast. I’ve also used AI to summarise large amounts of information and to pull out the top ten things I need to know.”

Setting boundaries to help you succeed

ADHD presents itself in a range of different ways, and while people can share symptoms, everyone is unique. Lucy found that she couldn’t fixate on anything, and had to come up with rules to follow to help her through her studies.

“I have absolutely zero habit forming ability. It means that I could do something every day for three years, and then the following day I’ll forget to do it, or won’t do it. It’s like the whole thing never existed. I have to rely on routine, and I have to rely on external stimulus to do things. That means non negotiable diary appointments, not allowing yourself to enjoy the fun things you want to do until you’ve done the hard things you don’t want to do, and creating rules for yourself to follow.

“A friend of mine has a lockbox for their phone with a timer on it. They can only get their phone out of that box when a certain task has been completed. None of these methods are fool proof and if you’ve got ADHD, you’re probably a problem solver and you will find a very inventive way around the rules you set yourself, but setting boundaries may help you get that little bit more done.”

Karen agrees that a good way to advance in your studies is to learn what works for you and only you. Recognising the things that slow you down will help you improve.

“Learning what you do really well, and understanding what you may not do well can help you find solutions that work just for you,” she said. “I’m a big troubleshooter. If there’s a problem, I have to fix it. There’s always a way and always a solution, and that’s where I think I excel.

“That has been a challenge, a blessing and a curse. But the real hard part is embracing that that’s the way I am. I’m not perfect at many things. We all have our flaws and we all have our strengths, but it’s about accepting the positives and negatives.”

Ways of making your learning more accessible

Everyone learns in different ways, and trying to shine in an environment that isn’t tailored towards your needs can be tough. You may feel like you’re putting a square peg in a round hole. As Lucy suggests though, students with ADHD can get creative in finding what works for them.

She said: “I noticed that university lectures are absolutely not my style of learning. I speak at 100mph and process things very quickly. This style of learning can be very slow and it wasn’t for me.

“To get by, I would attend a couple of the key talks throughout the course, record them, then play them back at double the speed. I would also take a transcript from the lecture and get that turned into battle cards.”

You could politely try to offer feedback to your AAT tutor if their style of teaching isn’t getting the best out of you. This doesn’t have to be an awkward or rude conversation, but more of a way to help your tutor understand how they can adapt certain things.

“I think whenever you approach feedback with somebody, you always have to come from a place of compassion and deliver it in a kind way,” continued Lucy. “The trick really is knowing that you’ve got a tool or a way to make it engaging for yourself.

“However, in terms of delivering feedback to your tutor, you could say: ‘I really enjoyed your course, the subject is great, but I’m a really visual learner. Is there a way of making some of this a little bit more visual as I think the topic would really land with me a bit better?’.

“Offering feedback might just be a nice, gentle, empathetic way to plant the seed, because unless we experience something ourselves, we all believe that our way of experiencing the world is the way that everybody does.

“Sometimes it’s more about pointing out that diversity and asking for support, rather than suggesting they change everything.”

Always take time for selfcare

If you have ADHD, or believe you do but have not been formally diagnosed, it’s important to take the time to understand your brain, but also to not be so hard on yourself. You may work in different ways compared to others, but it doesn’t make you any less able as Karen points out.

“I got to the end of my AAT studies before I was diagnosed, so I spent years thinking I was rubbish because I couldn’t do it properly,” she said. “I would say the biggest piece of advice I would give to students with ADHD is to be kind to yourself.

“Be kind to yourself and allow yourself the time to understand who you are and how best you work. Allow yourself the time to understand and also to not feel the pressure of doing something because everyone else is doing it. Give yourself the opportunity to explore different ways of studying and different ways of working because everybody is different.

“Everybody tackles things slightly differently, and it’s really about giving yourself the opportunity to find what works for you and allow that to play to your strength, because there are lots of them.”

These comments were taken from the AAT Studying with ADHD: A conversation on overcoming challenges webinar to mark ADHD awareness month. To see what else Lucy Cohen and Karen Feltham had to say, sign up and watch the full conversation here.

Further reading

Working with neurodiversity

Working with Borderline Personality Disorder

Working with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Harry Rogers is AAT Comment’s news writer.