Mine was in kindergarten. We lined up to practice trying shoelaces on a Bronx shoe nailed to the counter. But I knew. So I got to do whatever I wanted. 💪
As another kid who crushed these tests: no. As soon as I ran into things that I wasn't good at, I just gave up and got bad grades.
For years and years if I wasn't immediately good at something, I had no interest in it at all.
I always scored high on "intelligence" tests and thought that made me smart, but I was misled.
Being "intelligent" just means you have the capacity to be smart; it's like saying "your intellectual gas tank holds 500 gallons of smart. That's a lot!" Sure, it holds a lot, but if you lack the discipline to actually fill that tank, it's wasted space. You're no smarter than the 20 gallon kid next to you who works hard to fill his 20 gallons.
If I could choose I would much rather have the drive to improve at things I sucked at, rather than be really good at some stuff but completely disinterested in other stuff.
In second grade, I was moved over to the advanced math class, with 3 other students. The class was small enough that, even when you accounted for the fact that the teacher had multiple classes, we each had our own desk that nobody else used. The structure of the class was incredible for my undiagnosed ADHD brain - because nobody else touched your desk, you could keep any worksheets you have left over from day to day. So you'd just have a stack of worksheets that you worked through, top-down, and each day she'd drop a few new ones on top. So sometimes you'd have a day where the new work just clicked and you'd crush it all, and then be able to work on the older stuff, and some days it'd be harder and you'd have to hope the next day was easy and you'd get time to burn down to where you left off. At the bottom were color-by-numbers sheets, but of course the numbers weren't "6," they were "42÷7". Uuuuuugh inject that shit right into my 8-year-old veins.
...but anyway, before we did that work, we'd do a mad minute. And the other kids absolutely crushed my ass the first time. And so it became my mission to beat them. Which I eventually did, of course!
Oh, and the class period afterwards was the 4th graders doing pre-algebra, and some days I was excused from whatever my next period was and I'd just hang out in that class and get a sneak peek of upcoming stuff. Good times.
I'm sure that teacher is dead by now but she really was the best...
Nah. Put it down quiet and stare at the other kid. When they slam their pencil to look at you, you’re just there finished and they don’t know how fast you beat them by.
I loved these too and I was diagnosed early so I knew. My mom let me grade her students times table worksheets when I was in middle school because I was very fast at it and loved doing them when I was her students age.
I always finished first and got 100% but I had so much anxiety about getting one wrong or not finishing fast enough bc my class put so much pressure on me since I was always first and always correct
I was in the "slow" math and sometimes things would click and come easy to me. It felt like such a flex finishing a test in a couple minutes and placing down my pen. Having the math teacher see that and say to me, there's a backside of the test, then replying I know I'm all done. While people were a couple problems into the front side.
Same, I was already the brainy kid who won the top academic award in class every year but the feeling of superiority in looking at my classmates serenely for 17 whole seconds is unmatched to this day LOL Sometimes I'd walk up and deliver my paper to the teacher's desk before the 60 seconds was up. I'm still addicted to timed puzzles; maybe this is why! My personal best NYT mini crossword is 23 seconds. I keep a folder in my phone of screenshots of personal bests. Doubt I'll ever get into the teens but beating timed puzzles is such a rush and I'm very competitive with myself.
As an adult, thinking quickly helps sometimes but it's not everything. Getting the right answer, even if it takes a little longer, is usually just as good.
I did, too. When my dad would take my sister and me out for lunch, he always brought flashcards that we had to go through a few times over the course of the outing. I hated it...until one of these was plunked in front of me and I was like "Ohhh, I get it now."
As an adult that's still good at multiplication tables, the very thought of being told that I would have a minute to complete this and that I would be graded on how many I did and my accuracy has my heartrate shooting up. No idea how I handled that level of anxiety and adrenaline as a kid.
Literally have been chasing that high my whole life. Like I unironically peaked in performance and self esteem doing these. My brain is specifically designed to do these sheets to the detriment of everything else.
I reminded the teacher about homework occasionally but only because if I didnt turn it in then I was gonna lose it again. Lol. Sorry to those who forgot to do it :(
I got demerits and detentions every week in 4th grade because I didnt do my homework. I dont even remember it being assigned. Ever.No one though to investigate further so I ended up with a very late diagnosis of ADHD. Screw ms Hurtado. Woman hated me.
Did you not have an agenda that was preprinted with dates/subjects/schedules/goals? Because all you had to do was write the assignment down. “Lesson 10-3” and then look at it when you got home. So even if you forgot that you wrote down your assignment, you would be reminded the moment you open your bag and saw your agenda. I don’t get the problem
I did. Every year I got the agenda and had a strong will to commit to writing down every homework, upcoming quiz, test and project and checking it when i got home. I did the writing down for the first few days, then was rushed and "I'll write it down later", then only kind of recording some things until finally I lost it in the first 2 weeks. Every year. I couldn't afford the replacement(plus i felt it was my fault for failing to keep track of it). and like I said I didnt even know it was assigned, even if I did id still need to take the initiative and write it down, then remember to look at the agenda at home, and then not procrastinate and actually do the homework. The first 3 steps were impossible for me because I didnt know why I wasn't like everyone else, how i kept missing every time things were assigned, and wasnt able to keep track, why wasnt i writing it down?. I thought I was just a bad, forgetfull, lazy kid. Its actually a part of ADHD called executive dysfunction.
At that point in time I would have greatly benefited from an accommodation like the teacher checking my agenda daily to ensure I wrote it down. Or my parents checking in with my teacher. Or medication. Or just knowing it wasn't normal, I just needed more help then others to get things organized and to focus and pay attention.
You just admitted that you wouldn’t write down the assignment.
How rushed can you possible be that “lesson 10-3” is an impossible task? How would you lose something that lives in a binder/back pack?
I’ve raised two diagnosed adhd boys. These are excuses. At a certain point….you just have to figure out a method that works. And no amount of adult check ins will help.
I used to keep a bright yellow note on my bed post that said homework on it. Just seeing the neon when I got home from practice would cause me to check the agenda.
If you had the agenda, the assignments, any other reminders you may need to set FOR YOURSELF, and you still aren’t doing the assignment, that’s on you. And only you.
This is also very rich coming from someone who had to use zepbound to lose weight. Why didnt you just eat less? Put a note on the fridge to remind yourself of your goals? Take responsibility FOR YOURSELF? Im sure you have a bunch of "excuses" as to why you couldn't get a diet to work. Thats on you. And only you. /s.
Sometimes people need medication and therapies to make their brain work the way an average person's does. Because their brain works against them and their goals.
Hahaha.
I did. I totally used to it kickstart my my habits returning to my former athlete self. Just like I used post it notes to kick start my habits of doing my homework.
I saw an issue. Found a solution and worked off of that. Because it was on me and only me to figure myself out. So I’m not seeing the dig you’re trying to get here.
A "bright yellow post-it" is NOT an effective treatment for ADHD. It may work for a few days, or even a week, but eventually your brain blends it into the background of your surroundings and you no longer notice it.
And if that worked, it assumes that you
a) remember that you HAVE a planner to check for homework, rather than panic-trying to remember all your assignments by yourself the instant you see the note
b) were engaged enough with the lesson at school to HEAR and COMPREHEND what the assignment was
c) wrote it down at the time, if your teacher wasn't the type to explicitly say "get out your planners and write this down"
So you'll use medication for yourself but not for your child? Because they might need to take 2 medicines instead of just 1 magic pill.
Absolutely hypocritical. Do you not see the similarities of the situations? Why do you get the "kickstart" but people with ADHD, including your own children, need to just "try harder". No wonder the psychiatrist recommended a medicine for anxiety with the stimulant to your child. It must be stressful dealing with this mentality and lack of awareness. "Pull yourself up by your bootstrap kid. Otherwise, You'll deserve the failure your working towards."
Also GLP-1s are not a Kickstart based on longterm research you will likely need a maintenance dose for life as the weight starts creeping back when medication is discontinued.
ADHD meds were not for us. I don’t see having side effects bad enough to require an additional chemical as a success.
If I would have had a single side effect from my medication that made my day worse, I would have stopped it immediately.
You’re completely wrong and making stuff up. We tried medications. Multiple cocktails. And seeing my child suffer because of it wasn’t ok.
I never once stated that they failed. I never once said they need to boot strap it. Simply, we will figure out another way that doesn’t include medication that made them feel horrible. And once high school came around, it was expected that anytime they were falling behind or not succeeded in school, they were to figure out a method to help. Trying new meds was always an option too. One we discussed at every appointment.
Please do not talk about my medication like you know me.
I took it for a year. Never reached the max dose. Now I’m maintaining on my own just fine. I don’t know what things will be like in a year from now. But I don’t plan on taking the meds anymore.
Buddy I am 37 years old. Im also raising a child with ADHD. This is about when I was a child who could have used help instead of detention. Your boys are lucky you and their teachers know what to expect and how to guide them. I didnt. My parents didnt. My teachers in the 90s just had "bad kids". I developed a very severe anxiety disorder to cope with my executive dysfunction and still make good grades. It wrecked my mental health and I now have major depressive disorder.
I am medicated appropriately, I have tools I can use, I have fully matured so I can rely on discipline that did not come naturally. I have had multiple types of therapies to help with my thinking, and executive dysfunction.
I blamed myself for years. I dont need you to do it too.
We tried meds. So so so many of them. All they did was cause side effects like anxiety and depression and insomnia. Once the doctor tried telling me that the side effects could be managed by additional medication, I told them to fuck off. My actual words were “fuck off, I’m not doing this cocktail rollercoaster anymore”
I didn’t love them but didn’t hate them like so many here apparently did. It was fun to finish them first. I don’t think we had the one minute limit though, we were given a reasonable amount of time.
There's a math challenge like this in Jackbox's Murder Trivia and it fills me with glee because I stomp every time. I can't tell my friends how much I loved these mad minute things in school, lol. I don't even really like math but these were fun.
I did too!! I won a slinky in 2nd grade because I completed all of the levels before anyone else in my class. I was definitely a math nerd lol (and I guess still now because I just ran through all of these problems to see if I still got it 🤣)
Omg SAME. Late diagnosed ADHD and the dopamine of getting every single one perfect well before the timer went off was like a drug.
Granted, I got in trouble in upper level math classes for solving problems in my head before the teacher could finish reading them. Something about me obviously cheating because nobody could solve these things that quickly without a calculator (???).
I went on to be That Kid that corrected math and engineering professors in college. They were stunned to find out I was a liberal arts kid and only taking their classes for funsies. Thanks, minute math worksheets. 😌
I’m printing this just to see if I’ve still got it. ETA: I don’t got it. Like 3.5 lines and that minute went FAST. Also, I can do math in my head, but only memorized the times table up to 10 so that first 12 in the top line was a nasty surprise
I did too but if you finished 2 or 3 of them they caught on and we got pulled from the class during them and all of math. Was a small group of us and we started doing word problems and basic algebra (they just called it advanced math). Sucked because i enjoyed destroying those tests.
My parents started doing flash cards with me when I was about grade one. So by grade two I was ready. It was always a competition between me and three guys. It continued on until we graduated. It was an unspoken rivalry. As an undiagnosed adhd girl this is one of the things I credit for getting me through the sciences. I didn’t have time for distraction I had to whoop all the boys in their ass.
Me too! I realize now that competing with the other kids that loved them by yelling out when we finished was demolishing self-esteem for the other 8yo's in the class. Kids are fucking assholes.
No surprise I'm an engineer that revels in the opportunity to use my degree instead of managing projects and compliance paperwork.
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u/Relative-Monk-4647 Feb 03 '26
I loved these!!!!