Should I just give up now????

somemom
Thu, 15 May 2008 13:11:35 +0000

One note on learning disabilities- a person can be tested and diagnosed and recieve extra time (25-50-100% extra) in timed test situations like SAT, AP, etc.

Once you are at university the rules change and you no longer have that extra time in testing at most publics, I don’t know if privates choose to be more open to historical adjustments, but publics go by the minimum law standard which seems to only allow extra time if some one is actually physically unable to fill out the test form, not if there are reading issues etc.

That means you could have the knowledge but be unable to finish the tests. Timed tests are a rather artificial constraint, so if you are a slow reader, for example, and you can survive med school, you probably are not going to have problems treating patients. It is that way with many fields, the testing is timed, but in real life the issue that makes one need more time will not be a problem.

That is an adjustment one has to make in university, realising you will not finish all tests and determining how to most effectively approach them to get as many questions answered as possible. NO excuses, just a truth about adjustment and also true that such a person will probably lose .2-.4 GPA points compared to HS because even if they know and understand the info, they don’t have time to put it all down in the test.

No one is going to make allowances for people who needed that extra time in HS, any more, so it is a good time to just suck it up and figure out how to do one’s best