Throughout my years teaching the Anti-Boring Toolkit to students and educators, I've gotten questions like these:
"But does this work for students with ADHD?"
"What about autistic students?"
"Are your study strategies really appropriate for neurodivergent learners?"
And I have to admit, these questions used to confuse me a little.
Of COURSE these tools work for different kinds of brains! They're built on the science of learning, after all. And last I checked, neurodivergent brains are still BRAINS! But that was my instinct—not proof that every strategy works equally well for every learner.
AND I also understand why people ask:
For far too long, neurodivergent learners have been overlooked, misunderstood, or expected to adapt to educational approaches that weren't designed with them in mind. So when someone comes along claiming that their approach to teaching academic skills works for ALL brains, a little side-eye is probably warranted.
And there's an important distinction here: The science of learning gives us principles that can help us understand how humans learn. But how we teach those principles, scaffold the strategies, and adapt them for particular students? That's where the craft of teaching and coaching comes in.
So, with our upcoming Beyond Cornell: Non-Annoying Note-Taking Systems That Work masterclass just around the corner, I decided it was time for a little research rabbit hole.
What does the science actually tell us about note-taking for ADHDers
Are there particular challenges we need to understand?
And how might those findings inform the way we teach note-taking?
Spoiler alert: The research gives us some good reasons to think that the flexible, two-step note-taking process I'll be teaching in next week's masterclass could be especially useful for students with ADHD. It gives students room to find what works for THEIR brains!
But it also raises some fascinating questions about handwriting, attention, accommodations, and what it actually means to take notes that help you LEARN (and don't just keep you busy during class).
Let's investigate!
Two Ways Notes Help Us Learn
One thing I found fascinating as I dug into the research is that scientists have identified two different ways note-taking can help us learn:
The process (called encoding): The act of taking notes can help students learn as they listen, select important information, and make sense of what they're hearing.
The product (called external storage): The notes themselves give students something to return to later, so they can review, reorganize, and deepen their understanding.
Why is this distinction important? Well, when researchers design experiments, they may want to know whether the learning benefits come from (1) creating the notes in the first place, (2) studying them afterward, or (3) some combination of both (Di Vesta & Gray, 1972; Kiewra, 1989).
By separating the process of taking notes from the product students can use later, researchers can investigate which parts of note-taking actually contribute to learning.
And that's especially useful as we unpack some experiments investigating specific challenges ADHDers have with note-taking.
The First ADHD Challenge: Listening and Writing at the Same Time
Let's start with a 2025 study that investigated how note taking impacts learning for college students with ADHD symptoms.
Researchers at Indiana University had college students with varying levels of ADHD symptoms watch a 15-minute TED Talk while either taking handwritten notes, typing notes, or taking no notes at all. Afterward, students completed a quiz assessing what they had learned, without being able to review their notes before the quiz.
Also, the researchers measured handwriting speed, typing speed, fine motor dexterity, sustained attention, and ADHD symptoms. Phew!
The results? Students with higher ADHD symptoms scored significantly higher on the quiz when they took notes, whether handwritten or typed, than when they took no notes (Shimko & James, 2025).
Remember, students weren't allowed to review their notes before the quiz. So the study gives us evidence about the benefits of encoding—the learning that happens while students are actively taking notes, even before they have a chance to study them.
But, hey — there's a tension in this research I find particularly interesting:
The researchers also found that students with higher ADHD symptoms tended to have slower handwriting speed and greater difficulty sustaining attention — both of which would make taking notes during a lecture more challenging.
And YET, these were the students who appeared to benefit the most from taking notes, rather than simply listening, despite those additional cognitive demands.
So what do we make of that?
Of course, this doesn't mean ALL students with ADHD should take MORE notes! The study does NOT establish that writing more words leads to better learning, that handwriting is superior to typing, or that every student with ADHD will benefit equally from taking notes.
But it DOES suggest that we shouldn't overlook the potential value of actively taking notes while listening, even when the process is demanding.
Which raises another potential challenges for ADHDers:
The Second Challenge: Handwriting vs. Typing
So, if taking notes can help students with ADHD symptoms learn, does it matter HOW they take those notes? Could handwriting, typing, or using a tablet change how much students learn?
Another 2025 study investigated this question in an actual college classroom.
Students in an introductory psychology course attended a regularly scheduled lecture, reported whether they took notes by hand, laptop, or tablet, and completed an unannounced quiz two days later. Researchers also measured ADHD symptoms and asked students whether they'd been distracted during the lecture.
The results were surprisingly complicated (Shimko et al., 2025).
Handwriting was associated with LESS distraction. Students who took handwritten notes were less likely to report being distracted than students who used laptops.
But as inattentive ADHD symptoms increased, handwriting became less favorable for learning. The relationship between note-taking method and quiz performance changed as inattentive symptoms increased.
Tablets came out ahead for students with higher inattentive symptoms. These students scored significantly higher when using tablets than when using either handwriting or laptops. The difference between handwriting and laptops at higher symptom levels, however, wasn't statistically significant.
Wait. Students taking handwritten notes reported LESS distraction, but didn't necessarily LEARN more?
Apparently not!
And that's worth thinking about, because we often assume that a student who appears focused is also learning.
One possible explanation is that handwriting itself can be demanding. If students are working hard just to get words onto the page, they may have less attention available to process what they're hearing.
But let's be careful about what the research actually tells us. Students chose their own note-taking methods, so the researchers couldn't establish that one method CAUSED better learning. The tablet group was also relatively small, and the researchers didn't measure exactly how students used their tablets. Were they typing? Writing with a stylus? Annotating slides? We don't know.
The study also measured ADHD symptoms rather than exclusively comparing students with confirmed diagnoses.
Still, these findings complicate a familiar recommendation: Students should take notes by hand rather than typing because handwriting forces them to slow down and process what they're hearing. There's research behind that advice, but the evidence is more nuanced than the popular version suggests (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014; Urry et al., 2021).
But what if slowing down means you can't keep up? What if the mechanics of writing demand so much effort that there's little attention left for understanding?
For academic coaches and educators, the takeaway isn't to recommend laptops or tablets to every student with ADHD. It's to get curious about the relationship between the note-taking method, the student's ability to attend, and their actual learning.
Is the way this student takes notes helping them engage with the information—or making the process harder than it needs to be?
That's something academic coaches, executive function coaches, and their students can explore together, rather than assuming one method works best for everyone.
Good notes aren’t just about getting information onto the page.
Want to understand more about what students’ brains need to do with information in order to learn? We’ve got a free guide that breaks down the research into practical strategies.
Explore the Science of Studying →What Other Note-Taking Challenges for ADHDers Are We Still Figuring Out?
Of course, handwriting speed and attention are hardly the only challenges students with ADHD encounter when taking notes. There are plenty of other questions worth investigating!
Researchers have explored some of these questions, but the ADHD-specific evidence is still limited.
How do students figure out what's important enough to write down? When you're trying to keep up with a fast-moving lecture, EVERYTHING can seem important. Teachers sometimes tell students to "just write down the important stuff." But that's not a strategy. It's a description of the desired outcome! Research with students without ADHD offers some useful approaches to teaching this skill, and we'll explore how to adapt those ideas for ADHD learners in our upcoming masterclass.
What happens when teachers GIVE students notes instead of having them TAKE their own? Providing class notes is a recognized accommodation for students with ADHD, but how does it affect learning? A 2020 study found that students receiving a package of skill-building interventions produced more complete and accurate notes than students receiving a package of accommodations, including teacher-provided notes. But because the researchers compared packages of supports rather than note-taking instruction and teacher-provided notes in isolation, the study couldn't establish which approach was better for learning (Harrison et al., 2020).
And while I was investigating that question about teacher-provided notes, I stumbled across something that sent me down a whole NEW rabbit hole!
A systematic review of educational accommodations for children and adolescents with ADHD found that many commonly used accommodations had few or no experimental studies supporting them, and most lacked evidence of benefits specific to students with ADHD (Lovett & Nelson, 2021).
Wait, WHAT?!
That got me wondering: How did some accommodations become standard practice in the first place? And how much research actually informs the accommodations students receive?
Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.
Of course, a lack of experimental evidence doesn't mean an accommodation is ineffective—or that students should lose access to supports they need. But it DOES give us another reason to stay curious about what actually helps students learn, rather than assuming that a familiar practice is necessarily a research-supported one.
So, What Does This Mean for Teaching Note-Taking?
After all that research, I'm coming back to the question I started with: Do the Anti-Boring Toolkit's note-taking strategies work for students with ADHD?
The research gives us some encouraging clues:
Taking notes can support learning, even for students who struggle with attention or handwriting speed.
The method matters, and what works well for one student may create unnecessary challenges for another.
Which is why it’s so important for educators to learn how to scaffold these skills for different types of learners.
How do we help a student who can't keep up with a lecture?
How do we teach someone to recognize what's important enough to write down?
How do we help students figure out whether their notes are actually helping them learn, rather than simply giving them something to do during class?
And how do we adapt our teaching for different brains without assuming that every student needs an entirely different set of learning strategies?
And speaking of teaching note-taking skills, what about Cornell Notes? Is there research showing that this popular format is particularly helpful for students with ADHD?
Not that I could find! Researchers have studied structured note-taking methods, including Cornell Notes (Baharev, 2016), but I couldn't find studies directly testing whether Cornell Notes are particularly effective for students with ADHD.
And here's the thing: Knowing how to organize a page into sections isn't the same as knowing how to take useful notes. Students still need to learn how to identify important information, make sense of what they're hearing, and use their notes to support learning.
Which is exactly why I think we need to go BEYOND Cornell.
And that's what we'll be exploring on October 27 in Beyond Cornell Notes: Non-Annoying Note-Taking Systems That Work, a live masterclass for academic coaches, executive function coaches, tutors, and educators.
Using our Anti-boring Get It Down → Hone It framework, we'll explore evidence-based techniques for capturing information in the moment AND working with those notes afterward to deepen learning. We'll experiment with ways to adapt these techniques for all kinds of neurodivergent brains—because strategies designed with particular learners in mind can be useful to everyone!
Because our job isn't to make sure every student takes notes the same way.
It's to help students become more skillful, flexible, and independent learners.
And in November, we'll tackle note-taking from a different angle: What happens when students need to extract information from books and other reading materials rather than lectures?
In Beyond the Highlighter: A Smarter Way to Teach Students to
Skim & Summarize Tricky Texts, we'll explore evidence-based ways to help students navigate dense texts, identify important ideas, and turn what they've read into useful notes and summaries.
Want BOTH? Join the Anti-Boring Learning Lab! You'll get both masterclasses, plus our growing collection of tools, workshops, and professional learning opportunities. And if you miss the live sessions (or you're reading this after they've happened), the recordings are included in your membership.
ADHD and Note-Taking: The Short Version
Phew! Still reading? Or did you skip straight to the questions? Either way, welcome! No new information here—just the highlights repackaged for different brains (and the occasional AI robot).
Should students with ADHD take handwritten notes or type them?
It depends on the student! Research suggests that both can support learning, but handwriting speed, attention, and the demands of the task may influence which method works better. At the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we teach an easily customizable note-taking process that coaches and educators can adapt to different students' needs, rather than assuming one method works best for everyone.
Does taking more notes help students with ADHD learn more?
Not necessarily! A 2025 study found that students with higher ADHD symptoms learned more when they took notes than when they took none. But it didn't establish that writing MORE words produces better learning. That's an important distinction we emphasize when teaching note-taking in the Anti-Boring Toolkit.
Are teacher-provided notes a good accommodation for ADHD?
They can be! Teacher-provided notes may help students access information when taking notes during class is difficult. But receiving notes and learning to create useful notes are different things. In the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we're interested in how educators can provide support AND help students develop their own skills.
How can academic coaches help students with ADHD improve their notes?
Start by getting curious about which part of note-taking is challenging. Is it keeping up with the lecture? Recognizing what's important? Or figuring out whether the notes are actually helping them learn? Gretchen Wegner teaches academic coaches to investigate these challenges with students rather than simply prescribe a particular note-taking format.
Do students with ADHD have to use Cornell notes?
Absolutely not! Cornell notes incorporate valuable learning practices, including generating questions, summarizing, and reviewing, but they're just ONE system. In my academic coaching practice, I've met plenty of neurodivergent students who find the format frustrating. The ADHD studies we've explored don't tell us whether Cornell notes are the best fit for a particular student—or whether another approach would work better. That's why our Beyond Cornell masterclass explores a wider range of evidence-based note-taking techniques that can be adapted for different brains.
What if a student with ADHD hates taking notes?
Well, WHY do they hate it? Maybe they can't keep up, don't know what to write, or have never experienced notes as something genuinely useful. At the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we encourage coaches to explore the frustration WITH the student and experiment with approaches that make note-taking more manageable and meaningful.
Works Cited
Baharev, Z. (2016). The effects of Cornell note-taking and review strategies on recall and comprehension of lecture content for middle school students with and without disabilities [Doctoral dissertation, Rutgers University]. https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/51151/
Di Vesta, F. J., & Gray, G. S. (1972). Listening and note taking. Journal of Educational Psychology, 63(1), 8–14. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0032243
Harrison, J. R., Evans, S. W., Baran, A., Khondker, F., Press, K., Noel, D., Wasserman, S., Belmonte, C., & Mohlmann, M. (2020). Comparison of accommodations and interventions for youth with ADHD: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of School Psychology, 80, 15–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2020.05.001
Kiewra, K. A. (1989). A review of note-taking: The encoding-storage paradigm and beyond. Educational Psychology Review, 1, 147–172. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01326640
Lovett, B. J., & Nelson, J. M. (2021). Systematic review: Educational accommodations for children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 60(4), 448–457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.07.891
Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581
Shimko, G. A., Fyfe, E. R., & James, K. H. (2025). A classroom study on notetaking modalities and inattentive attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 39(4), e70105. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.70105
Shimko, G. A., & James, K. H. (2025). The effects of notetaking modality and symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on learning. Educational Psychology, 45(5), 541–560. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2025.2493257
Urry, H. L., et al. (2021). Don't ditch the laptop just yet: A direct replication of Mueller and Oppenheimer's (2014) Study 1 plus mini meta-analyses across similar studies. Psychological Science, 32(3), 326–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620965541