Note Taking With ADHD: Strategies, Accommodations and Tools That Help

Note taking with ADHD tends to go better when less of the work happens during class. Get the slides before the lecture, use the same page layout every time, mark the spots you missed instead of chasing them, and spend ten minutes on the notes the same day. Students whose ADHD makes note taking hard can also ask their school for accommodations such as copies of slides, a note taker or permission to record lectures.

We make Ophaya smart pens, so one tool in this guide is ours. It is written for students with ADHD and the parents, teachers and disability staff who support them. We are not clinicians, and nothing here is medical advice. No pen, app or notebook treats ADHD.

Why note taking can be hard with ADHD

Taking notes means listening, deciding what matters, holding it in mind and writing it down while the speaker keeps going. Understood, a nonprofit focused on learning differences, lists the skills involved in its guide to assistive technology for note taking, including focus, working memory, organization and processing speed. It adds that kids with slow processing speed "may take longer to process what the teacher is saying and then fall behind." The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, in its 2016 resource guide on students with ADHD and Section 504, says ADHD affects parts of the brain "related to thinking, concentrating, and planning."

Picture a chemistry professor walking through three steps of a reaction while you are still copying the first. Every student is different, so try the strategies below for two weeks and keep what works.

ADHD note-taking strategies for before, during and after class

Before class

Get the slides ahead of time and keep them beside your notebook. Writing a few words next to a slide is far less work than copying it. If slides aren't posted, copies can be a formal accommodation: the University of Missouri's Disability Center asks instructors to provide copies before class or at its start.

Set up the page in advance, too. Cornell University's Learning Strategies Center describes the Cornell layout: a wide column for notes, a narrower cue column for questions and key words, and a summary area at the bottom. Drawing those lines the night before is one less decision during the lecture. Our Cornell notes guide walks through it with an example page.

During class

Write short phrases, which Cornell's guide calls "telegraphic sentences." Keep a few abbreviations inside the front cover and use them all term: "w/" for with, "b/c" for because, an arrow for "leads to."

When you fall behind, let the missed point go. Leave a few blank lines, put a question mark in the margin and pick up with what the professor is saying now. Chasing a half-finished sentence often costs you the next point too. The University of Illinois' disability resources office suggests leaving margins so you can add information later.

After class

We think the same-day review matters more than neat handwriting. The Illinois page recommends reviewing notes "as soon after class as possible, filling in any gaps." Ten minutes between classes is enough to fill the question marks from the slides, write two questions in the cue column and add a short summary.

Plan for movement too. Illinois suggests frequent breaks. For younger students, CHADD's classroom accommodations page lists activity breaks such as stretching or handing out materials.

Note-taking accommodations and how to ask for them

What is offered varies by school and by student, and college works differently from K-12.

In college

The Office for Civil Rights guide Students With Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education says you must tell the school you have a disability and need an academic adjustment, and that the school will probably ask for documentation. A high school IEP or 504 plan "is generally not sufficient documentation" on its own. The guide's examples of adjustments include note takers and recording devices, but colleges do not have to provide "devices or services of a personal nature."

CHADD's article Entering College with ADHD calls the disability support center the "first stop on campus" and lists access to a note taker and to recordings of lectures among possible accommodations. Missouri's Disability Center offers audio recording on the student's own device, which may be a smart pen or recording software, plus copies of slides and peer note takers. Some offices lend equipment: Cal Poly runs a smartpen loaner program, and UCCS Disability Services lends Livescribe smartpens and voice recorders for a semester.

A request usually runs like this, though each school sets its own process:

1. Find the disability or accessibility office.
2. Ask what documentation it accepts. CHADD notes a school may request medical, psychological or educational testing.
3. Start early. The Office for Civil Rights says "you should request it as early as possible."
4. Describe what happens in class: "When the professor talks over fast slides, I lose the next point" says more than "I need help with notes."
5. Once approved, notify instructors the way the school asks. CHADD's article on using accommodations in college suggests a set weekly time to pick up shared notes.

In K-12: IEPs and 504 plans

Note-taking supports can go into an IEP or 504 plan. Understood's list of classroom accommodations for ADHD includes typed notes or a lesson outline, assistive tech for note taking and a buddy who takes notes. To start a 504 plan, Understood suggests emailing a written request to the school's 504 coordinator and following up if you hear nothing within a week.

Low-tech tools that work fine

• A printed Cornell template, or a notebook with a wide margin to use as the cue column.
• Two pen colors, one for notes and one only for question marks, so gaps are easy to spot during review.
• Sticky tabs on pages you still need to fill in.
• A ten-minute phone timer, so the same-day review has a clear end.

Note-taking apps and recording

Typing suits some students better, and the Illinois page lists using a laptop for class notes. The UCCS page names apps its students use, including OneNote, GoodNotes, Notability and Glean, which it describes as "focused on audio recording."

A plain audio recording is the simplest backup, but we doubt many people replay a 75-minute lecture to find the two minutes they missed. That is why Understood points to "a smartpen or note-taking app that records audio and links this to handwritten or typed notes," so students can "go back and listen to specific sections." Our recording pen vs smart pen comparison explains what each device captures.

Where a smart pen fits, and its limits

A smart pen suits students who prefer handwriting but want audio tied to the page. With the Ophaya pen, you write in ink in an Ophaya dot-code notebook. An infrared camera in the pen reads the printed dots, and your handwriting syncs live over Bluetooth to the free Ophaya Pro+ app on iPhone, iPad or Android.

The app records audio on your phone and links it to what you wrote. So the question mark next to step two of that chemistry reaction becomes a way back: you replay the audio from that spot in your notes and hear what the professor said while you were writing.

The pen stores about 1,000 pages offline and syncs them when it reconnects. Handwriting-to-text conversion (OCR) gives you editable text, which you should check before sharing. Pages export as PDF, Word, PNG, GIF or MP4, and the MP4 includes the audio. Syncing, OCR and app recording need no subscription.

The limits are real:

• The pen captures handwriting only on Ophaya dot-code paper or the Ophaya LCD writing tablet. Ordinary paper holds the ink, but nothing reaches the app.
• The pen has no microphone, so the phone has to be out, recording and close enough to hear.
• You need permission to record, and you have to follow any recording agreement, which may mean never sending classmates an MP4 with lecture audio.
• It helps only if you go back, ideally during the same-day review.

If a student prefers typing, a laptop app is probably the better fit. If the disability office already lends Livescribe pens, try one first. For a full lecture routine with our pen, see how to use a smart pen for note taking. Staff planning a loan program can use our campus smart pen lending checklist or start at our page for student disability offices.

Frequently asked questions

Can a smart pen be a 504 or ADA accommodation?

It depends on the school. The Office for Civil Rights lists recording devices among examples of college adjustments, and Missouri names a smart pen as one device students can use for audio recording. Some offices lend them.

Do I need permission to record a lecture?

Ask before you record. Recording can be approved as an accommodation or allowed by the instructor. Harvard's Disability Access Office has approved students sign an agreement that prohibits sharing or posting recordings, and Missouri limits them to personal study.

Are there notebooks made for ADHD?

Some are marketed that way. In our view, the useful part is a layout you use every time, with a margin for questions and room for a summary. A printed Cornell template does that for free.

Does a smart pen help with ADHD?

A smart pen is a note-taking tool. It does not treat ADHD or change how attention works. If recording is allowed, it gives you a way back to the part of a lecture you missed, as long as you set aside ten minutes to replay it.