Taking Accelerated Courses with NLD (Summer Bridge, Miramar College, Study Abroad)

Today, we’re going to discuss  what it is like to take accelerated courses with NLD (Summer Bridge, Miramar College, Study abroad). Please go to livingwithnld.com to learn more about my podcast.  The Challenges of a New School Year, by Eileen. 

“Overall if you are nervous I understand your feelings as it is so hard especially this year with being home for so long. However I can say by working together with your resource room teacher, counselor, and other members of your support team this challenge is very manageable. Always remember no one can do the journey alone so don't be afraid to ask for help. Through perseverance and open communication I can say with great confidence you will have a great year and remember to try not to become discouraged as many others are nervous just like you.”   ( https://nvld.org/challenges-school-year/) 

I can relate to Eileen because I remember when I was in college I had a hard time asking for help because I thought it was a sign of weakness. When I realized it was a sign of strength because it can take a while to realize that you need help. When I was in college I took summer class 3 times: once at Summer Bridge, second at Miramar College, and third at Oslo University in Norway. 

Summer Bridge isn’t always a requirement but is sometimes a recommendation for students accepted into UC Berkeley. For me, I think it was required because I was required since I was homeschooled. Maybe they thought I wasn’t going to be as capable as other students. Well, I think I proved them wrong. I was one of about 300 students that took a math class and writing class during that summer before beginning my freshman year. I passed the classes! I took them as pass/ no pass because I wanted to have a fresh Grade Point Average (i.e. GPA) when I officially started college. I was able to pass these two classes with help from the fabulous tutoring center at UC Berkeley and my teachers also really helped pass them. 

When I was a sophomore I had to retake Statistics because I didn’t pass it at UC Berkeley. I failed it there because I wasn’t motivated to go to class since I didn’t have any friends and it was in the afternoon which was a terrible time to have a math class for me. This was before I knew I had NLD. So I retook it at Miramar college and got a B! I passed because I worked my but off. There was only one tutor at that college and he only showed up at 1 pm, by that time I was already done with my Spanish class and homework usually. Then I would try to figure it out on my own by googling for problem-solving, or taking as many as needed to get all answers correct. Since the tests were online I could take them as many times as necessary to pass them. 

This was the first summer at a college that I knew I had NLD, so I had accommodations for the math class. I could use a calculator whenever I needed to even on tests, this was extremely helpful because I wasn’t sure if my mental math work was always correct. I also was allowed to write down formulas on an index card for the exams to have a cheat sheet. This was helpful because I knew when to use them but I couldn’t memorize all those symbols. I also had the time and a half on the tests and was able to take them in a separate room from the other students which meant there were fewer distractions. I didn’t have any accommodations the first time I was trying to take this class at UC Berkeley and I wasn’t motivated to go to class. I think the combination of those two things set me up for failure there. But when I was at Miramar I soared to success and passed because of having accommodations. I also did well because I did 85% of the work on my own and 15% of it with help from the tutor that showed up late. 

Let’s fast forward to the summer between after my junior year and before my senior year. I went to Oslo, Norway to study abroad during the summer. I went with a program that was under my major department which was sociology. I loved the 6 weeks I was there. I took a class called social welfare. I was able to have accommodations for this class because I had been using them at UC Berkeley and they were able to transfer them. I used a sonocent audio notetaker to record the audio of my class. It also allows you to put in powerpoint slides in a recording so you can view them alongside the audio. Then you can also type notes if you want to. My second accommodation was having a textbook converted to audio so that when I read the material for the class I could remember it more easily. Then I also highlight sections of the textbook and type notes in this program, which is called Kurizweil 3000. My third accommodation was taking the final test which was the only test for this class with time and a half in a room by myself on a computer. 

I got a C in this class which is passing and I’m proud of that because I did all of the work on my own and it was a faster pace class because of it being 6 weeks long. I also was really proud of myself being able to not get lost whenever I took the metro to get to different locations because of my sense of direction being off which may be due to NLD. I also would run around the neighborhood and not get lost at all when I was by myself. This is because I’ve been to 26 different countries with my family so I knew I could travel in Norway all on my own. The only time I got lost was when I was hiking with the group because I was going at a slower pace than them. But I was able to find my way back to the university because I knew how we got there because I had been to the location before via the metro. The group of students that were there were close to 500 or 600 if memory serves me correctly because they were people from 60 to 80 different countries. 

So whether you are on your own in summer school in the USA or abroad I want you to be encouraged to ask for help just like I did because it made a huge difference in making my life easier when I did accelerated courses. As I wrap there are some things I would like to share with you. I do have a website for the podcast called livingwithnld.com. I also have a Facebook and Instagram page for this podcast called Living With NLD. I will include the links for those in the description. I would love to know what is the challenge you usually run into with doing accelerated courses with NLD? Please share the level of comfortability. If you’re listening on Spotify you can send me an email at livingwithnld@gmail.com. Or if you listen to the Apple podcast please leave the answer in a review for me. If you’re listening on livingwithnld.com comment on the episode on the podcast page.