possible learning disability in addition to ADHD

freshman1990
Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:46:23 +0000

Sorry, I forgot to respond to this. Thanks for the advice Mitdu. I am hoping to get 100 percent extra time as opposed to 50 percent for tests. I have another post about that but I had 100 percent extra time in high school and use it on some tests but disability services wouldn’t give it to me. I usually take my tests in my professor’s office because they usually aren’t strict about the time and let me have more than 50 percent if I need it but I am worried about not having this situation available and not finishing a test. They said they only give some students double time but I thought if I do have a learning disability and have the diagnosis it could help me get this accommodation. I would also like to improve my reading. I do take medicine and it helps but it makes me really quite and I don’t socialize as much which is kinda a bummer in college. It also wears off before I do my homework a lot of times because I am busy during the day and if I take it too late it keeps me up. I have recently found a medication that is working very well compared to the others I have tried so that is helping. I’ve used note takers before but when my professors have powerpoints then I don’t and this quarter I don’t think I need it because of that. I am a good test taker except if it’s timed and I’m running low on time, then I freak out and can’t focus. I just can’t tell if the reading stuff is ADHD related or something else. When the passage is interesting then it is easier for me to read it and remember what I read. A lot of times I am reading and I start thinking about something else and have to go back and read it again. It’s really hard for me to just think about the reading. Sometimes I read it out loud but very slow and this helps me focus on it a little and I read sentences over and over until I understand it. However, taking tests is the one place I focus the best and I’m usually not thinking about other stuff. I guess I kinda hyperfocus on them but it still takes me twice as long as everyone else to take them. I just wish I finish things faster. I am also worried about getting accommodations for standardized tests I need to take in the future like the GRE and Praxis test. I do horrible on standardized tests and I know I could never even pass them without extra time. I took the practice ACT once without extra time and my score was 10 points lower than it was with the best accommodations, even with the accommodations they gave me at first which weren’t much help, they were low scores. If a learning disability is a contributing factor in why it takes me so long to take tests then I’d like it documented so that maybe it could help me get accommodations for these tests.