<p>I have a issue with standardized testing for grad school
My oldest has a learning disabilty- she has processing speed issues as well as some other things .
For the SAT she was allowed to both use a calculator ( as everyone is) and to have extended time to take the test as well.
This allowed her to more fully show what she was capable of in college ( she was well prepared for college- and her IQ is quite high)
In college, she had accomodations also, and and recently graduated from one of the most demanding schools in the country ( all students are required to write a thesis for graduation and must undergo an orals board as well for example)</p>
<p>She would like to attend graduate school, and requested extended time on teh GRE as she received on SAT as well as use of a calculator ( it is not allowed otherwise & one of the disadvantages of her processing issues are that she needs a lot of time for simple calculations without one)
All her requests were denied.
The reason seemed to be- that as she was about at the same level as the general population without accomodations- she didn’t need them.
However, if they actually looked at her test scores, they might have been able to see that while her overall IQ was in the neighborhood of 160± and that her averaged “performance” without accomodations was still within boundaries of normal intelligence, her ability in the areas where she needed accomodations was quite a bit below “average”.
That is what “learning disability” means.
That you have some areas that are far below others and not representative of your ability overall
This makes a huge difference in the process.
Not only was she denied accomodations by College Board for GRE although she was allowed accomodations a few years earlier for SAT by COllege Board.
But forcing her to take the test without accomodations, will probably result in a much lower score than she would have otherwise received, resulting in fewer offers of admission,and probably fewer offers that come with funds- which as a 1st gen college student, are sorely needed.</p>