Testing

How to Prepare for an ADHD Evaluation: What to Bring and What to Expect

September 11, 2026 · 6 min read

Last updated September 11, 2026

A comprehensive ADHD evaluation is only as good as the information that goes into it, and much of that information comes from you. Clients who arrive prepared get a more accurate result and a more useful report. This is what to gather, who to involve, and what the process looks like from the first appointment to the written report.

Gather the childhood record

The diagnosis requires evidence of symptoms before age 12, and adult memory of childhood is unreliable. Look for report cards, especially teacher comments ('bright but does not finish work,' 'talks out of turn,' 'careless errors'). Ask a parent or older sibling to write a few paragraphs about what you were like in elementary school. If any prior testing exists, from school, a pediatrician, or a previous therapist, bring it. For a child's evaluation, bring every report card and any prior IEP or 504 documentation.

List the current impairments concretely

Not 'I can't focus' but 'I have missed three bill deadlines this year, I was written up at work for incomplete reports, and my wife handles every appointment because I forget them.' Write ten to fifteen of these across work or school, home, relationships, driving, and money. Specific, recent examples are what allow a clinician to judge impairment, and they anchor the feedback session.

Recruit a second informant

The evaluation will ask someone who knows you well to complete rating scales: a spouse, a parent, a close friend, or for a child, a teacher. Ask them in advance and explain why. Discrepancies between your view and theirs are useful, not embarrassing; they are part of the picture. For children, choose the teacher who sees the child in the most demanding setting, usually the core academic teacher rather than an elective.

Medical and medication history

Bring a list of current medications and supplements with doses, prior psychiatric medications and how they went, and any medical conditions, especially thyroid disease, sleep apnea, seizures, head injuries, and heart conditions. Note your caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine use honestly. These affect both the differential diagnosis and treatment options.

The night before and the morning of

Sleep normally. Do not stay up late trying to finish something, and do not take a sleep aid you would not usually take. Eat breakfast. Take your usual medications unless the clinician has told you otherwise, and if you already take a stimulant, ask beforehand whether to take it on testing day; the answer depends on what the evaluation is trying to learn. Leave the phone in the car for the testing session. Arrive ten minutes early so the first test is not taken while you are still catching your breath.

What happens in each session

A typical comprehensive evaluation runs across two or three sessions. The first is a structured clinical interview covering history, symptoms, and the conditions that mimic ADHD: anxiety, depression, trauma, sleep, learning disorders. The second includes standardized testing, usually rating scales from you and your informant plus a continuous performance test such as the TOVA, which takes about twenty minutes at a computer. Some evaluations add cognitive or academic testing when a learning disorder is suspected. The third session is feedback: the clinician explains the findings and recommendations and answers your questions. The written report follows.

How to use the feedback session

Bring your concrete list and ask how each impairment relates to the findings. Ask what the differential ruled out and what it did not. Ask what the recommendations mean in practice: which accommodations to request, what kind of treatment to pursue, who to see. If the conclusion is not ADHD, ask what the evaluation suggests instead; a good evaluation is useful either way. Ask for the report to be written so a school, university disability office, or physician can act on it.

What the report should contain

The referral question, the history and its sources, the instruments used with standardized scores, the differential diagnosis, the formulation, and specific recommendations. If you are handing it to a physician or school, that is what they will look for. The appointment packet on this site has the intake forms and a checklist you can print, and the testing page describes the process as I run it.

The bottom line

Bring the childhood record, a concrete list of current impairments, a second informant, and your medical history. Sleep and eat normally. Expect two or three sessions and a written report you can use. The preparation takes an evening and it changes the quality of everything that follows.