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Applied Quiz: School And College

A second set of questions on this chapter, weighted toward applying the ideas rather than recalling them. Several ask you to work the accommodation machinery rather than describe it.

1. A student rereads and highlights her textbook for three hours and remembers little. What replacement principle does the chapter give?

  1. Increase study time, since the method is sound but under-applied
  2. Make studying an activity with feedback rather than an exposure — passive input is exactly what an interest-based attention system slides off
  3. Study in shorter sessions using the same rereading method
  4. Switch to listening to recorded lectures instead
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. The chapter diagnoses the default method honestly: rereading and highlighting are passive, and the eyes finish the page while nothing lands. Active methods aren't merely better pedagogy, they're better ADHD pedagogy, because activity supplies the engagement, urgency, and immediate feedback the reward system runs on. Note that active recall also exposes the illusion rereading creates, where familiarity — "I've seen this" — impersonates knowledge — "I can produce this."

Concept Tested: Study Strategies

See: Chapter 12

2. A student sets up a spaced-repetition schedule and plans to remember to review each day. What will go wrong, and what fixes it?

  1. Nothing — spaced repetition is self-sustaining once started
  2. The intervals will be too long, so they should be shortened
  3. The schedule runs on prospective memory, the least reliable function — use an app that fires
  4. Spaced repetition does not suit ADHD and cramming is the better strategy
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. The chapter's adaptation is blunt: don't run the schedule on prospective memory, because Chapter 2 already told you how that ends. Flashcard tools that schedule reviews automatically are Chapter 10's fire-not-wait rule applied to studying. It also names why this matters — cramming is the discount curve doing what it does, and spaced tools with alarms are how material gets met before the panic window.

Concept Tested: Spaced Repetition

See: Chapter 12

3. A strong student with ADHD keeps handing back exams that are 40% blank. What is the mechanism, and the counter?

  1. Sunk-cost hyperfocus on a hard early question — the counter is a triage pass, answering everything easy first and returning to the hard ones
  2. Insufficient content knowledge, requiring more preparation
  3. Test anxiety, requiring clinical treatment before the next exam
  4. Careless reading of the instructions at the start
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. The chapter identifies two test-day failure modes that aren't knowledge problems: time blindness and impulsive answering. Sunk-cost hyperfocus on question 7 is specifically how strong students with ADHD hand back partly blank exams. The other counters are worth carrying too: a per-section time budget written in the margin at minute zero, checkpoint questions, and annotating the stem — circling not, underlining always, physically touching every option before committing.

Concept Tested: Test-Taking Strategies

See: Chapter 12

  1. A parent checking the work each evening
  2. A quieter place to do the work
  3. Better capture of the assignments themselves
  4. A submission ritual — folder, bag, by the door, at the moment of completion, every time
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. This is Chapter 4's Marcus: he did the assignments, and they died in the backpack. The chapter calls turning it in the step families forget to engineer, so the homework system's last link is a submission ritual performed at the moment of completion. Option C addresses a different link — capture at the moment of assignment — which matters but isn't what failed here, since the work got done.

Concept Tested: Homework Systems

See: Chapter 12

5. A school tells parents "she's passing, so she doesn't need a plan." What is the counter-argument?

  1. Passing is not the standard — the disability's impact on access is — and the masking question is what the grades cost
  2. Passing grades do in fact disqualify a student from accommodations
  3. The family should wait for grades to drop before re-applying
  4. The family should request an IEP instead, since 504 plans require failing grades
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. The chapter names this as one of two failure modes to pre-empt, and points to Chapter 4's masking section as the counter-argument. The other failure mode is the plan that exists but isn't followed, with a polite escalation ladder — teacher, then counselor or 504 coordinator, then principal, then district — each step in writing and each referencing the plan by name. Option D misstates the eligibility rules for both vehicles.

Concept Tested: School Accommodations

See: Chapter 12

6. A student needs extended time and written instructions, but not changes to what he is taught. Which vehicle fits, and why?

  1. An IEP, since ADHD always qualifies under special education law
  2. Neither, since these are informal courtesies rather than legal accommodations
  3. A 504 plan — it delivers access changes, whereas an IEP is for students who require specialized instruction
  4. An IEP, because extended time counts as an instructional change
Show Answer

The correct answer is C. The chapter's rule of thumb is that a 504 changes the conditions while an IEP can change the teaching. Many students with ADHD are well served by a 504 plan; those with heavier impact or the co-occurring learning disabilities of Chapter 6 — like Dev's reading disorder — may need the IEP's instructional services. The 504 comes from a civil-rights law with a lighter process; the IEP comes from IDEA with a mandated team and annual goals.

Concept Tested: 504 Plan

See: Chapter 12

7. Two mothers of similar seventh-graders get opposite results from the same school. What did the successful one do differently?

  1. Escalated to the district office immediately
  2. Emailed a written evaluation request with the report attached, brought a specific mechanism-linked list, got the plan in writing, and calendared the review
  3. Requested a different teacher for the following year
  4. Hired an advocate to attend the meeting on her behalf
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. In version one, a mention at conferences produced a promise to "keep an eye on her" and nothing changed structurally. In version two the same child, school, and teachers produced five specific accommodations — because the mother used the machinery that existed all along. The chapter frames the mechanism-linked list as Chapter 11's mechanism → pattern → ask, formalized: working memory limits multi-step verbal instructions → he loses steps two through four → we request written instructions.

Concept Tested: Requesting Accommodations

See: Chapter 12

8. A parent calls her daughter's college professors to arrange accommodations and is refused. Is this discrimination?

  1. Yes — the parent's involvement should be permitted where they pay tuition
  2. Yes, unless the student has explicitly objected in writing
  3. Only if the college has no disability services office
  4. No — post-secondary law makes the student the sole driver, and FERPA bars the college from discussing her situation with a parent
Show Answer

The correct answer is D. IDEA and IEPs end at high school graduation, and the college pathway runs on the ADA and Section 504's post-secondary provisions, where the student must self-identify, provide documentation, complete intake, and activate letters. The useful parental moves are all indirect: make sure she has the documentation, point her at the office, offer to rehearse her twenty-second ask, and support the daily-systems layer. As the chapter puts it, at college, help that isn't invited isn't help the system can accept.

Concept Tested: College Disability Services

See: Chapter 12

9. A college student registered with disability services in September and is surprised his accommodations don't apply in the spring term. What did he miss?

  1. Accommodation letters typically must be activated each term and delivered to each professor — a prospective-memory task gating all the others
  2. His documentation expired and needs renewal
  3. Registration covers only the term in which it occurs, requiring full re-application
  4. Accommodations apply automatically, so the professors are at fault
Show Answer

The correct answer is A. The chapter calls this the operational quirk that catches students every term, and gives the fix directly: it goes on the calendar with an alarm, first week, every term. It also supplies the honest scope note — accommodations level the testing room but don't supply the structure college removed, so disability services plus the Chapter 9-10 systems is the full formula, and either alone under-performs.

Concept Tested: College Accommodations

See: Chapter 12

10. A student is choosing between a fascinating major and a more marketable one. What does the chapter's ADHD-specific advice say?

  1. Follow the market, since interest fluctuates unreliably
  2. Genuine interest is a structural requirement rather than a luxury — but audit it against the novelty curve and look at the assessment shape of the upper years
  3. Choose whichever has fewer required courses
  4. Delay the decision as long as the institution permits
Show Answer

The correct answer is B. Because of the interest-based nervous system, the boring major extracts a procrastination tax every week for four years while the fascinating one gets hyperfocus for free. The audit question is whether the fascination has survived a boring stretch, since every field has them. The assessment-shape heuristic is the one students rarely consider: a major graded by constant small projects fits deadline-driven brains better than one graded by two distant monster exams — same intelligence, different scaffolding.

Concept Tested: Choosing A Major

See: Chapter 12