Do you often misunderstand assignments?

Post Reply New Topic

Wow, yes exactly how I feel first sentence immediately. My teachers would insult me non stop for being the "dumb one" or being defiant. I use to do exactly what the instructions said.
It's almost like the NTs communicate with some sort of 6th sense! It's not logic, so we have no way of understanding and neither do they (of course they don't understand half the things they do). I get assignments and do them based on the instructions but then I come into class thinking I aced it because I did everything, only to find that I forgot to be "creative" or "emotional" and all that other intangible stuff and that I need to connect with the person reading my essay more. I hate this

That is the worst task ever for me. I cannot simply deal with it. Just in case I write it I definitely ned someone's help with proofreading and editing. I usually ask Supreme essay guys to help me with it. And, you know. they always do a good job. So if you want you can give them a try. But I'm not sure if you still need some help. Best of luck!

OMG. It's great that I found this thread because I have the same problem. I might get stuck on say easy things or I'll focus so much on one little thing that I'm confused about that I forget about everything else I have to do or I spend a long time on the assignment without making any progress. Even last night, I was stuck on this assignment and I had no idea where to start. I was wondering if other students were having the same trouble I was having. I wasn't sure if I was interpreting the teacher's directions right and I had to keep going back and looking to make sure I was on track. I wanna go see her today but I'm worried I'll come off as that dumb kid.

I always misunderstand assignments and never know what I'm supposed to be doing. If we get an example in class of what is expected, I do alright, but if we don't, I get easily confused and make a lot of mistakes. I'm also too shy and afraid of my professors and classmates to ask for help and clarification, so that is a problem too.

YES!! I have an extremely high I.Q. and I consistently do horribly on assignments that I've spend 30+ hours on because a professor misuses words in the assignment description. I am still in school in my 40s, struggling with this same problem. I have started emailing my professors with questions, though. I'll state in the email that I have a few questions about the assignment. Then I'll give my interpretation of the parts I don't understand and ask if I am correct. Then at the end, I apologize for the quantity of questions and explain that I have Asperger's Syndrome and that I tend to interpret things literally so I'll probably be bothering them frequently for clarifications. This disclosure, so far, has had a positive effect on my continued college experience. My professors (those I have told so far) seem to want to help me understand. I also avoid classes taught by professors with accents. I can't understand them, and their written instructions are hideously confusing and written at the 6th grade level.

I also have this problem. Sometimes it seems like there's certain terms or techniques the instructor expects us to understand, even if they were never taught and are hardly mentioned in the textbook.

Doesn't it depend on the subject?

For example, I am a psychology major there's a lot of abstract thinking. So there is room for much miss understanding.

Secondly, most of these classes are taught by N/T for N/T. My professor tries to be accommodating but I feel like he doesn't know how to help me. It is like we're living on two different planets.

It is not something I like to dwell on.

ENG102 is the bane of my existence right now, got a total ass for a teacher who is not helpful or supportive in the least.

I used to look at assignments very carefully, analyze the exact meaning, and if it was open to interpretation, I would deliberately choose the less likely interpretation.. then give the teacher or professor *hell* for not being clear to begin with.

I well remember a 500 word treatise on the use of language, logic, and questions which are biased to elicit a specific response regardless of any facts when set an assignment "Too much chocolate is bad for you. Discuss." without ever using the word "chocolate" in my work, and pointing out that "too much" of anything must by definition be bad, or it wouldn't be too much. Fortunately that teacher actually understood the points I made, and I got a reasonable mark in spite of purposely "Missing the whole point." Future assignments from him were more carefully worded.

To be fair, it was an English language course, I doubt I'd have got away with that if it had been human biology, or something related to health.

If an assignment *can* be misinterpreted or misunderstood, then the failing is with those who set it, and poor marks or grades resulting from the fact you did should always be appealed.. to teach those setting it to use language more carefully.

Some would say I was a troublemaker, incidentally, this was all decades prior to my diagnosis.

Same way am in community college for engineering and am starting to get hammered badly. Gen eds were all As and Bs but getting into the engineering courses i just dont seem to understand, and i dont have the focus right now with alot of depression issues. I went from a 3.8 gpa to 3.2 and it will soon prolly dip lower cause am doing badly in my c++ class

It is really hard when the GPA is dropping. I try to remember that my grades don't always reflect my intelligence.

I don't mean to minimize the frustration though. It's super annoying.

I think for me the depression comes from my inability to control the situation. It's like a feeling of being trapped.

I think I’ve written too much so I think this will be my last post for this thread.

Do you misunderstand because the manner the professor teaches the class or because of what is not being said?


I think I have noticed a pattern for myself anyway. If the professor is very specific in giving instructions and has an aspie way of thinking then I can follow the instructions. However, when the professor is more inclined towards being social then it's almost as if the professor is speaking a different language. These professors tend to have a harder time relating to us and less likely to want to help or are even able to help. What I am not understanding is his style of communicating.

I feel like there are three components that I have to decode:
1. classroom material
2. professors communicating style
3. overlapping material with the communication style of the professor

Once all three above is accomplished then classroom assignments and test become somewhat easier to accomplish but that doesn’t mean I've fully interpreted the professor communication style. Thus, leading to misunderstanding so application of material is incorrect. In other words, my understanding will not match the professor's instructions for assignments.

In this specific class that I am taking, my professor is well liked and the students who do well in his class are more emotionally wired or social creatures (where I am more functionally wired) and they tend to do better in class.

I am still trying to understand how to communicate to my professor, I am not understanding the instructions or even the lectures (although I could understand the class material) but the hardest part I'd say is speaking to my professor in a way that would inspire him to want to help me.

Good luck on your assignments. I hope what I said makes sense to you and that you can come up with a solution.

I have trouble concentrating on assignments for sure. I'm doing online courses because I can't stand sitting in a class for an hour or two getting lectured. But sometimes it's difficult because I can't concentrate on the material to learn it, and sometimes I don't understand the instructions for the assignment.

Constantly.

My way of dealing with it is to come to the teacher or professor after class and ask him/her to explain it. I also send a lot of emails to my professors about assignments.

Hope that helps.

Literally just got a 39% on an assignment because of this. I even tried to clarify with the instructor and still didn't get it. I've emailed the instructor asking if I can do some sort of makeup work to raise my grade (which has fallen from 100% to a C because of one assignment).