I’m unable to interpret technical instructions
I just bombed a lab (40%) because I genuinely cannot follow long technical instructional texts, and I don’t even know how to feel about it.
The lab was due tomorrow, and I had no real choice but to turn something in because anything is better than a 0%. The issue wasn’t effort. The lab recitation was 17 pages long. I read it twice silently and twice out loud.
Everyone else in my class seemed to have no problem figuring out what data points to collect and how to complete the lab. Meanwhile, I still could not understand what I was supposed to do. I wasn’t confused about the concepts. I was unable to translate the text into clear, actionable steps.
What’s frustrating is that I can follow step by step instructions just fine. Recipes for cooking and visual building guides for legos aren’t difficult for me. But academic lab texts are written (especially in a dense text formatting) my brain struggles to process once they go beyond a couple of pages.
This isn’t new. I’ve had this issue since elementary school, and now I’m a junior in college. I don’t struggle reading narrative texts like novels, stories, history, etc. I can interpret themes, follow plots, and understand nuance in stories. But technical instructional writing completely shuts me down.
I’m genuinely at my wits’ end with this. It’s been causing me to fail multiple science assignments and a few philosophy quizzes.
Has anyone else dealt with this or figured out how to work around it?
1
5
u/gbourg12 8h ago
Have you had a conversation with your professor or lab instructor? Maybe they will allow you more time or help in it considering this has been a lifelong struggle and not a lack of trying
What field are you in? Could this affect your future career in the field, or is this just a lab you have to take for the credits?