Understanding why exam preparation can be particularly challenging for students with ADHD, and how we can support them without adding to the pressure.
As we move into the final weeks of the school year, exam preparation becomes a significant focus for many students and their families. Revision timetables appear, past papers are brought out, and conversations increasingly turn towards what needs to be completed before the exams begin. For Year 12 students, there is the added significance of completing their final year of schooling, often accompanied by expectations about university, future pathways and what their results might mean. For younger students, the pressure may look different, but the demands of preparing for assessments while continuing to manage everyday schoolwork can be just as overwhelming.
As an educator with over 19 years of teaching experience and through my work as an ADHD coach, I have come to appreciate that exam preparation involves far more than understanding the content being assessed. Students must decide what to study, work out how much time they have available, prioritise subjects, organise their resources, manage distractions and sustain their efforts over several weeks. They also need to recognise when a particular approach is not working and adjust accordingly. These demands are often taken for granted, yet they rely heavily on executive functioning skills that may already be challenging for students with ADHD.
When Knowing What to Do Isn't Enough
One of the things I find particularly interesting about working with young people is the difference between knowing what needs to be done and being able to act on that knowledge. A student may understand perfectly well that an exam is approaching and recognise the importance of preparing for it. They may even feel genuinely motivated to study. Yet when they sit down at their desk, they find themselves unable to begin.
From the outside, this can be difficult to understand. Parents may see their child scrolling through their phone, wandering around the house or suddenly becoming interested in an entirely unrelated activity. Teachers may notice that revision tasks remain incomplete despite repeated reminders. It is understandable that adults interpret these behaviours as procrastination or a lack of motivation, particularly when the student has demonstrated that they are capable of completing the work.
However, executive functioning difficulties can create a significant gap between intention and action. Research has consistently identified associations between ADHD and difficulties in areas such as working memory, inhibition and planning, although these difficulties vary between individuals (Willcutt et al., 2005). For some students, the problem is not that they have forgotten the importance of studying or that they do not care about their results. The challenge lies in organising and initiating the sequence of actions required to begin.
Consider a student who has been told to revise for a mathematics exam. That instruction may appear straightforward, but it contains several decisions that need to be made before any actual revision can occur. Which topics should they begin with? How do they identify what they already understand? Should they reread their notes, complete practice questions or work through past papers? How much time should they spend on each topic, and what should they do when they encounter something they cannot solve?
For a student who finds planning and prioritising difficult, the number of decisions involved can become overwhelming. The task of preparing to study may feel considerably more demanding than the studying itself.
When Study Timetables Become Another Task
As teachers and parents, we often respond to exam-related difficulties by encouraging students to become more organised. We suggest creating a study timetable, breaking tasks into smaller steps or setting achievable goals. These are reasonable strategies, and many students benefit from them. However, I think we sometimes overlook the fact that implementing these strategies requires executive functioning too.
Creating a realistic study timetable involves estimating how long tasks will take, determining priorities, anticipating competing commitments and distributing effort across several subjects. Following that timetable requires further skills, including task initiation, sustained attention, time monitoring and cognitive flexibility when circumstances change.
For a student who already struggles with these processes, being told to make a timetable can feel like being given another assignment.
This does not mean that timetables are ineffective or that students with ADHD should avoid planning. Rather, it highlights the importance of considering how much support a student needs to develop and use a planning system. Some students may benefit from creating their timetable collaboratively with a parent, teacher or coach. Others may need a much simpler approach that focuses on identifying the next task rather than planning every available hour.
I am increasingly drawn to the idea that a useful study plan is not necessarily the most comprehensive one. It is the one a student can realistically follow, adapt and return to when things do not go according to plan.
The Relationship Between Pressure and Executive Functioning
Exams are stressful for many students, regardless of whether they have ADHD. However, pressure can be particularly challenging when students are already expending considerable effort managing their attention, organisation and emotional responses.
Diamond (2013) highlights the importance of emotional and physical wellbeing for executive functioning, including the detrimental effects that stress and insufficient sleep can have on cognitive performance. This is particularly relevant during exam periods, when students may sacrifice sleep to study longer, become increasingly anxious about unfinished revision or find themselves caught in cycles of avoidance and guilt.
A student who is already overwhelmed may struggle to begin studying, which then increases their anxiety about the approaching exam. As that anxiety grows, planning and concentrating can become even more difficult. The student may respond by avoiding the task altogether, despite becoming increasingly distressed about not completing it.
It can become a difficult cycle to interrupt.
This is where I believe our response as adults matters enormously. When a student is overwhelmed, increasing the pressure may not produce the outcome we hope for. Reminding them how little time remains, comparing their preparation with that of their peers or emphasising the consequences of poor results may heighten their sense of urgency without improving their ability to act.
Sometimes the most useful intervention is to reduce the immediate demands enough for the student to regain a sense of control. This might involve helping them identify the single most important task for that afternoon, removing unnecessary decisions or simply sitting alongside them while they begin. Once the initial barrier has been reduced, the student may be better able to engage with the work.
Studying Effectively Rather Than Simply Studying Longer
Another issue worth considering is the assumption that more time spent studying necessarily leads to better preparation. During exam periods, students can become preoccupied with the number of hours they have completed, sometimes measuring their effort against elaborate study schedules shared by their peers.
Yet the quality of study matters as much as the quantity.
Research by Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) examined a range of commonly used learning techniques and found that practice testing and distributed practice were among the most consistently effective approaches. By contrast, techniques such as rereading and highlighting, while familiar and easy to use, were generally less effective when relied upon as primary study methods.
For students with ADHD, this creates an important opportunity to rethink what successful revision looks like. A shorter session involving practice questions, recalling information without looking at notes or explaining a concept aloud may be more useful than spending a much longer period passively rereading material.
It is also important to recognise that sustained concentration varies considerably between students. Some young people can work effectively for extended periods, while others need shorter sessions with more frequent breaks. The goal should not be to force every student into the same study pattern but to help them identify approaches that allow them to engage meaningfully with the material.
I think this is particularly important when working with students who become discouraged because they cannot maintain the same study hours as their peers. A student who completes several focused periods of revision has not necessarily achieved less than someone who spends an entire afternoon sitting at a desk.
Supporting Students Without Taking Over
One of the ongoing challenges for parents is knowing how much support to provide. During exam periods, it can be tempting to become the organiser, timekeeper and motivator, particularly when a young person appears to be falling behind. Parents may find themselves repeatedly reminding their child to study, checking whether tasks have been completed and trying to keep the revision schedule on track.
While this support often comes from a place of genuine concern, it can gradually create tension within the family. The parent becomes responsible for maintaining the study routine, while the young person may feel increasingly monitored or criticised.
I think it is helpful to distinguish between providing structure and taking ownership of the entire process. A parent might help their child identify priorities, establish a realistic starting point or create an environment with fewer distractions, while still involving the young person in decisions about how they will approach their work.
The aim is not to remove every difficulty or ensure that every study session goes perfectly. It is to provide enough support for the young person to develop confidence in managing the process themselves.
There will also be times when the most appropriate support is recognising that a student has reached their limit for the day. Continuing to push through exhaustion may produce very little meaningful learning, particularly when frustration and emotional distress are increasing.
Learning to recognise when to persist, when to change strategies and when to stop is itself an important part of developing self-regulation.
Looking Beyond the Exam Result
As we approach the end of the school year, I think it is worth remembering that exams measure performance within a particular set of conditions. They can provide valuable information about what students have learned, but they do not capture every aspect of a young person's ability, effort or potential.
For students with ADHD, the result may not fully reflect the work involved in preparing, particularly when executive functioning difficulties have affected their ability to organise and demonstrate their knowledge. Equally, we should be careful not to assume that every disappointing result is explained by ADHD. Understanding what contributed to a student's performance requires us to consider their learning, preparation, wellbeing and individual circumstances.
I often think that some of the most valuable learning during exam periods happens outside the examination room. Students begin discovering how they respond to pressure, which strategies help them get started, how they recognise overwhelm and what kind of support allows them to work more effectively. These are skills that will continue to matter long after the examinations themselves have been forgotten.
As educators, parents and coaches, we naturally want young people to do well. We want them to achieve results that reflect their abilities and provide opportunities for whatever comes next. However, I think we also have a responsibility to ensure that the pursuit of those results does not come at the expense of their wellbeing or their confidence in themselves as learners.
Perhaps the most meaningful support we can offer during exam season is not simply helping students study harder, but helping them understand how they learn, recognise what gets in their way and develop strategies that make the process more manageable.
After all, the goal is not just to help young people get through their next exam. It is to help them develop the skills, confidence and self-awareness they will carry into whatever comes after it.
References
Diamond, A. (2013). Executive functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143750
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
Willcutt, E. G., Doyle, A. E., Nigg, J. T., Faraone, S. V., & Pennington, B. F. (2005). Validity of the executive function theory of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A meta-analytic review. Biological Psychiatry, 57(11), 1336–1346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.02.006
