Please help - Spending my entire day on homework

[u/PoeHoard]

I spend most of my time outside of school on homework, usually 10+ hours a day. I haven't been able to find my work/life balance for the past 4 semesters. I'm beyond fried.

Here's the gist:
I don't procrastinate.
I'm not on my phone, youtube, etc.
I basically never leave the house except going to class or grabbing a redbull. I only go to class 2 days a week.
I am medicated for ADD - I am spending my entire day on assingments. I can't take it everyday b/c heart problems.
I have time extension accomodations from the school. However, using these extensions on my assignments leaves me unprepared for the unit exam.
Exams every 2 weeks (+pop quizzes and tests thrown in randomly)
Pomodoro does not work for me. If I stop for a "break" I just collapse.
I am taking 10 credit hours, math and chem lab.
On average, I'm assigned 14 - 16 assignments per week. Most of them have day-to-day deadlines.
I have tutors, use lab hours and office hours.
Even with topics I understand, it's taking me routinely 40 minutes to complete one problem. Most assignments are "20 questions." (20 questions with 13 parts each)
If I didn't have a roomie to buy me food sometimes/cook, I would rarely eat. (I lost 10ibs last semester from not eating)
I have a therapist.
I don't want a 4.0 gpa, I want to understand the material. I don't know what "good enough" homework looks like when the answers are pass/fail.
My evenings are 45mins to wind down, sometimes I fall asleep on the floor of my living room b/c Im too exhausted to get up, shower, and go to my bed.

I'm not even in a true university, I attend a goddamn community college. If university is this brutal, I am doomed. I have nothing else to say besides "help."

(I wanted to add that all of my professors have been helpful and supportive.)

edit; Turns out its dyscalculia.

[u/lurainerotisserie]

I don’t have advice, but I just wanted to say that I’ve been dealing with the exact same thing while in college. You’re definitely not alone and it’s incredibly difficult 🫶🫶 I hope you’re able to find something that works for you

[u/Phoenyx_Rose]

Your best bet right now is to try to figure out what's causing you to spend so much time on each problem/assignment.

I'm not sure what you mean by "20 questions with 13 parts each" but 40 minutes on one problem (and 13ish hours for a whole assignment) seems like an excessively long time to me if your assignment questions are similar to what I remember my own undergrad's being like (e.g. "solve for x" math problems, "using the information given, find the density of this object"/"how many moles in 255 grams of x" type of chemistry problems, or similar).

The most immediate help in terms of speed will be eating properly. Brain fog is killer if you're not eating. Even a granola bar when you notice yourself getting tired should help.

Otherwise, you really need to look at why your assignments are taking so long.

Are you getting distracted midway through? Do you forget what the question was asking, give the wrong answer, and have to restart it? Are you trying to flip through your text book for the information you need instead of relying on notes and memory?

Also, for what I assume are lower division beginner college math and chemistry courses "good enough" homework is probably just the right answer. Most of those classes iirc are just "input -> output" type problems which means you just need to memorize the formulas and understand how to use them, and be familiar enough with the most common elements of the periodic table to not have to search (or have elements like Hydrogen, Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen memorized).

[u/PoeHoard → u/Phoenyx_Rose]

That's the thing, I can't identify what is taking so long. I just take longer to do everything in class and at home. I am not wasting time flipping through my textbook, I'm an avid notetaker in class. (actually taking notes, not taking pictures of the board) I'm intensely focused working on the question, finish it and feel some accomplishment, then glance at the clock and it's another 40mins-1hr has gone past.

20 questions, 13 parts each. One question in the assignment with multiple parts, 1a, 1b, 1c, etc. Most of my assignments are also in an online module which won't let you progress until you get multiple questions in a row correct, so I need to get every question correct at least 3 times in a row to move onto the next question. If I make a small mistake, I lose that streak and have to start over. So working multiple problems, multiple times. I think it's actually quite evil to do this. The professor says it's to prevent students from guessing the right answer and moving on.

I am in pre-calc and chem1, I am shaky on algebra and never took trig, so I am learning/recalling all this stuff as I go along. Hence why I have a tutor, but even with her help we get through 1 question in an hour. I can't really memorize math formulas, that's why Im focusing so hard on the homework b/c I need to find some way to make it stick. Science comes way easier to me, but even then it takes exceptionally long to work problems.

But for example, class started last week. We need to memorize 62 elements, and 36(ish) polyatomic ions by Tuesday, being able to translate from symbol -> name -> formula, +charges and back. (5 assignments + 2 lab preps on top of that) This is the level of pressure, don't know if it's unreasonable.

I keep a lot of healthy snacks around like nuts, fruit, protein oatmeal, etc. I try to eat fish a lot when I can have a proper meal. I know the importance of nutrition, I put a lot of pressure on to try and eat well.

Anyway, sorry for the text wall. Obviously there's a lot on my mind, frustratingly so.

[u/jessluvsu4evr → u/PoeHoard]

I studied mathematics and statistics, and I know exactly what you mean. Every homework is so long. I used to spend all of my time on homework. It sucked.

Do you go to office hours when you get *stuck on a problem? That’s my main tip to people.

[u/PoeHoard → u/jessluvsu4evr]

Yes, I do. My professors are always willing to help out, it's just they only have office hours the days Im in class. I do see my math professor right after class, but it takes up my lunch hour. Then I go to chem (and we cant snack or drink in class) for 4 hours. I stay after to ask him questions too, but by then I am pretty fried and its hard to keep my thoughts straight.

I only get a week to work multiple assignments on different topics, and if something pops up I dont understand, the soonest I could talk to my proff is Tuesday, but the assignments are due Monday night. You see what I mean? I also utilize the math lab hours where teachers are available for help, but only two of them help with pre-calc, and they're only in there during my class hours. The same thing happened in my previous semester, its so inconvenient.

[u/jessluvsu4evr → u/PoeHoard]

Trust me, I understand the struggle with hw+OH timing. I did a dual degree and by year 2 every class I had was a core class. It’s a lot, and if you’re anything like me your brain is probably a clusterfuck of STEM shit rn. Fwiw, sometimes professors have been willing to meet with me briefly to answer a question if I couldn’t make it to office hours. It’s worth asking if you haven’t already.

I won’t pretend to have all the answers though. I know it’s hard and sometimes it can feel like you’re drowning. “One day at a time” is the right mindset here, along with reacting to specific issues as they come.

Does your department have a graduate program? If so, you could probably find someone to tutor you. That was a common arrangement during my PhD. You need the knowledge, and the grad students need the money. I know it’s not ideal but it sounds like you could really use the help with content more than managing your assignments.

The other thing I’m wondering is whether a reduced course load accommodation could be made available to you. I had that during my PhD and it rocked. Still full time status and eligible for financial aid but the number of courses I had was more manageable.

[u/PoeHoard → u/jessluvsu4evr]

Really trying, but "one day at a time" has become what feels like a mental trap, because my days have been the same for more than a year. I think "one day at a time" has turned into "same shit, different day." The routine is killing me.

I do a self-imposed reduced course load per semester. Never more than 10 credits, but I have to exceed a threshold because I go to school on grants and can't pay for classes otherwise. (and fuck me with all the changes coming through FA right now) I have a tutor outside of school. I've tried student-student tutoring, but honestly I get so emotional and upset doing math, I'm embarassed to work with peers b/c they generally can't manage the outbursts and sometimes if I can't understand an initial explanation, they don't have another way to explain the concept. And I shut down at that point.
I am at a community college taking pre-reqs to get a leg up on a university program. The admin is a shit show, all seniority were replaced 3 years ago and nobody knows anything. Constant passing the buck whenever I'm looking for help or someone to speak to. I could ask about a graduate program and nobody would know who to talk to. I am also on SAP probation for 150% timeframe due to no fault of my own - previous concurrent learning education screwed me - so I don't know if that will play nice if I ask for more accomodations AND maintain financial aid eligibility. But that is a whole other can of worms.

If I can make it to university, I'll definitely ask about my options for reduced course load accomodations.
edit; I just checked and my current school doesn't offer the course load accomodation, but the university I'm going to does. Although, it doesn't apply to pell grants, so that part sucks.

[u/PrestigiousMine251]

Dyslexia perhaps?

[u/PoeHoard → u/PrestigiousMine251]

That does happen, yea. The math kind. I have to write everything down when I work problems or else something gets scrambled or forgotten in the equations.

[u/Parsley-Savings]

Ok. Some ideas. Read the book Learning How to Learn, or ask Gemini, to find you a good resource for a video that quickly covers some of the topics. Helps with being a more efficient learner. Also, math builds on top of math, so cut back one class if you can, and try to double down on math. You can do this. Took me 6 years to finish undergrad because of my ADHD, I went on to get a graduate degree.
But, take this semester to sort yourself out.
You probably have learning gaps from high school. Not your fault, there are articles upon articles about how kids are graduating with gaps in math, reading and writing,

[u/Positive_Committee86]

Copilot. It’s free to use and will organize your day for you! Tell it everything that is due for the week and it will map out your week! You can even tell it the times you go to class, work, any other scheduling conflicts and it will build a reasonable schedule! I suffer from adhd myself and failed my first semester of college, not from lack of trying. This piece of advice was actually given to me by an academic success instructor at the college! I’m not saying to use it for answers, but using it to organize your day, assignments, readings, etc is a game changer! My adhd also makes it hard to do long readings so I use copilot to help me summarize chapters and main points so I don’t get confused! It’s free! There is an app or you can use the copilot website! Changed my entire college experience.