Focusing on Your SpLD Matters
9th August 2026 19:35
For some people, being diagnosed with a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) comes as a relief after years of waiting. For other people, it's an absolute shocker. Yet, in moving on from their diagnosis, many students put their SpLD to the back of their mind, and to the back of their revision priorities.
I didn't get diagnosed with Dyspraxia until my first year at Cambridge. Having already gotten to Cambridge, I didn't think my learning difficulties affected me enough to actively focus on them in any way. However, as the year wore on and the course got harder and harder, I reached my 'limit'. I have always been a first-class student, but I just wasn't able to perform as well as I once had, and other people had started to surpass me at an alarming rate. I couldn't understand it. Was this as far as I could go?
The reason was simple; I had been given a 'golden ticket' to understanding myself, and I had ignored it. Learning exam content, writing exam essays, or doing coursework is always going to be challenging, but diving in head-first doesn't help, doubly so when you have an SpLD. As I learnt (the hard way!) taking the time to focus on study-skills and revision 'technique', though it can seem arduous and 'pointless', in the end provides a firm foundation upon which to work and thrive. Once we know our weaknesses, and focus on them, we soon find that they are no longer really weaknesses at all.
Since focusing specifically on my technique and finding management strategies to control 'slip-ups', I have been consistently getting the grades I deserve (and sometimes definitely more than I deserve!) This is why during tutoring, I always dedicate resources and time to this, especially to those students who have an SpLD. So many of my students have come forward saying how simple techniques have completely transformed their revision and their level of attainment in school.
If anyone, after reading this, wants to know more, there are many books that can be bought or borrowed on study-skills, and I would recommend asking myself or your teachers (or SpLD advisers) for advice!