ADHD and exams
Image: Dev Asangbam via Unsplash
why results don’t always decide the future
It’s A-Level results day in England, Wales and Northern Ireland tomorrow.
A week later, it’ll be the GCSE day of reckoning.
This year, students face a harsher-than-usual set of grade boundaries as the Department for Education seeking to wrestle the number of As and A*s awarded back down to pre-pandemic levels.
As a result, there are an awful lot of school leavers – and parents and guardians – getting more nervous by the hour right now. University places and apprenticeship positions are hanging in the balance.
Maybe that's you. In which case, ‘nervous’ is probably the most appropriate state to be in. It’d be weird if you weren’t. Same every year.
Increasingly, though, I reckon there’s a bit of balance emerging – a healthy appreciation for the view that the traditional path to employment (from further education to higher education and on into the world of work) might not outshine all others like it once did.
And this balance is happening thanks to the world waking up to the fact that all brains are different. And that everyone’s talents are different.
And that judging someone simply by their performance in a two-hour window of hell, locked in an environment that couldn’t be any less comfortable or natural for them if it tried, really doesn’t tell you very much about that person’s abilities at all.
This is particularly true of some people with ADHD, autism, or any one of a number of neurodivergent types.
I know, because I coach a lot of them.
These are successful solo-preneurs, creative founders and forward thinkers – some of whom flunked big time at school but are nevertheless carving their own way and doing what they love or feel passionate about – and making good money while they’re at it.
Their ‘path’ has sent them in a different direction.
They’re getting out of bed for reasons that matter to them; not simply for reasons of expectation, tradition or ‘because that’s what your mum/dad did’.
If your kid happens to be neurodivergent and is hours or days away from envelope opening time (if that’s how it’s still done), then of course be nervous, cross everything and feel the buzz of it all.
If they get what they hoped for, that’s awesome. They’ve worked hard for it and deserve every bit of back-slapping and future success that’s coming.
If they end up more on the disappointed side of things, however, maybe that’s fate giving things a nudge.
Perhaps the ‘normal’ or 'expected' route simply isn’t for them. But another way will be. And if they can find it and embrace it and give it their all, well then the world really will be their oyster.
Either way, best of luck.
Copyright © Kevin Exley 2023
You should not regard the information contained in this article/post as being, or as a replacement for, professional medical advice or treatment. The words contained herein represent the thoughts and opinions of the author, who is not clinically or medically trained.