ACT with Extended Time

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
21

Rhetorical questions:

Does one with a disability that necessitates more time on the ACT have a moral obligation to declare the disability in university applications? or do you think that it is acceptable to conceal this information from admission committees?

Personally, I think that disclosure is appropriate because, once admitted, it is highly unlikely that the OP will get 50% more time on any of the tests taken in his/her classes. And, even if I am wrong and the university does make such accommodations, doesn’t the university have the right to anticipate and plan for the allocation of resources for such admitted students?

22

Gandhi21, does your high school allow you more time for in-class tests than your fellow students that don’t have a disability like yours? Did you take English classes with timed tests that required reading and responses? Did you accomplish your 4.0 UW GPA and 1/600 class rank without special accommodations?

23

@whatisyourquest I have never used extra time nor needed extra time in class. That being said none of my teachers have given a test with as ridiculous a time limit as the ACT. In class, I actually use a monocular to see the board (not kidding). Honestly, I have never had any problems finishing tests in AP English because the teacher always provides the entire class a reasonable amount of time.

I don’t feel like disclosure is a “moral obligation” since getting extra time is in no way cheating or illegal. Personally, I have no problem detailing my disability to colleges for the reasons you listed above^^. After all, I may need certain accommodations from them (seat closer to the board/screen,etc…), however, it is the student’s discretion whether or not to reveal the disability not ACT’s.

Lastly, I would never major in a reading intensive subject such as Literature because I know my visual impairment would be a major problem. I plan on majoring in a STEM field because my mathematical ability is not hindered by my vision compared to my reading ability.

On a side note: I have found it really interesting that, even in past threads, people mainly find extra time unfair when the test taker scores high. Nobody worries about a low scorers accommodations even if their situation is the same as the high scorers.
In reality, test scores are a very small part of the college admissions process, and no candidate will be chosen by a top tier school if they are not holistically brilliant. The ACT is just one small way of showing colleges that they are picking a student who can handle the course load.

24

@Gandhi21, in #9 you wrote:

“Do you think I should retake for a 36? I think it may be attainable, but would it be that helpful in the long run?”

And yet your wrote in #22:

“In reality, test scores are a very small part of the college admissions process”

In summary:

You have a 4.0 UW GPA, are 1/600 in your class, and made an ACT 35C (with extra time) – which puts you roughly in the 99.6 percentile (!). Yet you are actually considering retaking the test (with extra time)?? Wow.

I’m sorry. I don’t know you, but it really comes across like you are trying to game the system…

Finally, you wrote:

“Personally, I have no problem detailing my disability to colleges for the reasons you listed above”

So, if you are not gaming the system and have “no problem detailing (your) disability”, will you in fact disclose this information in your applications (and that you received extra time on the ACT) even if it is not “cheating” or “illegal”? To do so would show honesty and integrity.

25

@whatisyourquest I didn’t mean to come off as “gamig the system.” I only asked if I should retake since the previous poster had mentioned that scores go up after multiple attempts and I had heard that certain schools give out full rides to specifically 36ers. I was just wondering if the pister had any reasons for why I should retake. I don’t have many people in my area (including counsellors) who have much knowledge of this stuff so I try to learn from posters as much as possible. And I made the comment about scores being only a small part of the application cause people seemed to be worried that extra time would lead to under qualified kids getting into good schools and thus having a hard time maintaining their grades. My comment was meant to stress that much more than just scores are looked at to see if a student will thrive at a certain school.

I have no problem mentioning that I got extra time. After seeing that I have a serious eye problem, they’ll probably think I’m lackluster if I don’t get extra time when I have the reasons to. They’ll probably assume anyways since my reading score moved up 5 points in one month which is unprecedented.

My primary goal in these posts is to encourage future test takers to consider extra time if they have a serious disability. I don’t want them to feel like they’re doing anything wrong by requesting extra time. When I applied for extra time, I was morally torn until I realized I was doing nothing wrong. There is no crime or immorality to asking for extra time if it is needed!

26

Your harassment of this student is inappropriate, both of you. Why do you feel compelled to behave in this manner? You should examine your feelings and try to discover your motivation so you can understand it and hopefully grow in the process.

Yes, students with disabillities receive extra time on tests and various other accomodations that they neeed and deserve. Universities typically have a disability services office students register with and they coordinate with the student and professors to make arrangements. It is to our society’s credit that we are trying to help people suceed in life by giving them some small assistance when they need it. There is no justification for disparaging people who try to take advantage of this help so they can reach their potential. Geez. You think nearsighted people shouldn’t be allowed to wear their glasses so they can read their test? Yes, there may be a few people who fake or exaggerate disabilities to gain advantage, but that shouldn’t be your default assumption.

Kids here all the time ask if they should retake a 35. It is a bit silly, but perfectionists are common on college confidential. Actually, in our state, the state government offers some scholarship money to the top several students at each high school. Since very often many students are tied with perfect GPA, test scores are used as tiebreaker. It’s $2250/yr to any university in the state. If you want a trip to DC to meet with officials and politicians, a top test score gives entrance into the Presidential Scholars competition. I’m sure there are other opportunities.

27

There are always those who seem unable to understand why someone with a disability should be allowed accommodations. The purpose is the level the playing field, so that those who experience education at a disadvantage, can have as much of a chance to succeed as their non disabled peers.

It is extremely difficult to obtain accommodations. You cannot just write to the SAT/ACT and say “please may I have more time?” You have to present documentation showing not only that you have a disability, diagnosed by a licensed professional, but that you have been receiving accommodations throughout your schooling. Even with this proof, students get denied and have to fight the system. The testing necessary to show the need for accommodations can run into the thousands.

For a student, like my younger son, who deals with dysgraphia, phonological problems, and auditory processing issues, accommodations will give him the chance to succeed. It will not give him an advantage over his peers, it will allow him the same opportunities as his peers. It is not about gaming the system. It is about keeping it fair for everyone, even those who have challenges.

And for many students who receive accommodations, they are also given similar options once they get to college through the university’s disability center. There are people there to help as well.

28

I push back because something seems very odd. The OP has a 4.0 UW GPA and class rank 1/600 without any special accommodations in his/her high school classes (including English) but needs extra time on the ACT? @celesteroberts what is your opinion about that? Is it harassment to ask for an explanation? What are your motivations for not questioning that disparity?

At any rate, Gandhi21, I wish you well. With your academic record you should have no trouble being accepted at many fabulous universities.

29

“On a side note: I have found it really interesting that, even in past threads, people mainly find extra time unfair when the test taker scores high. Nobody worries about a low scorers accommodations even if their situation is the same as the high scorers.”

It’s only “unfair” when you outscore their kid – who struggles with no disability, and still can’t match you :wink:

30

@hebegebe

With all due respect, that is an absurd argument, the quintessential straw man. The entire point of an athletic event is to find the best athlete or the best team. The point of academic testing is to ensure the person knows the material and to assess the extent of that knowledge by assigning a grade; time is hardly the most important factor in the assessment, while for track time is the only assessment that is important. Now certainly one wants to test a group under similar conditions, so typically the entire class is in a room, monitored for cheating, and allowed the same amount of time.

However, if most agree that those conditions do not accurately reflect the ability of someone with dyslexia or some other condition to display their true knowledge, they make their best efforts to adjust the conditions, usually time but sometimes by giving the questions aurally rather than in writing for example, so as to allow that student to similarly show their true grasp of the material. Which again is the actual goal of the test, not to see if they know it under some arbitrary time frame. One cannot take that too far, there is not infinite time for people to take on a test. But it is important to always remember what it is one is trying to achieve.

I would also point out that people with these conditions most likely are having to study an equivalent percentage of extra time. So in that sense there is a measure of fundamental fairness there. For those that talked about the 20% deficit when they got a 50% increase in time…I hardly know what to say to that. How in the world would they ascertain the exact level of deficit for each case, much less administer it? Surprise, it isn’t a perfect world.

Does anyone care if it took Einstein 2 months, 2 years, or 20 years to come up with the theory of relativity? Of course not, all that counts is that he had the brains to do it. Within the construct of the educational establishment, that is what testing is meant to ferret out as well. What do you know and how well do you really understand what you know. We ascertain that within our very human limitations, and try to be fair to all. Before universities were willing to accommodate such needs, we no doubt lost a lot of talent to unfair assessments.

31

Some of these posts are coming dangerously close to attacking the OP. Implying ill motives is not allowed. Let’s keep the discussion on track and remember the Terms of Service to continue posting on this site.

32

Is anyone capable of having an impartial discussion anymore, or is every question automatically considered a potential attack?

First of all, I want to commend @Gandhi21 on his accomplishments, and based upon the strength of his responses, he convinced me that his viewpoint had merit and last evening and I “liked” his post #19, which he might be able to verify. @fallenchemist, in your role as Super Moderator, perhaps you could do so as well.

@CourtneyThurston said:

Except that my D also has basically the same stats as the OP, which others can verify from looking at my past threads.

Like I said, I treated this is as a discussion, and I learned something from @Gandhi21. From the rest of you, not so much.

33

I have no idea what you are asking me to do, @hebegebe. Verify something? Not at all clear. Also, I wasn’t talking about you when I said some posts were borderline attacking the OP. I simply pointed out that your race analogy was not very good at all. That led to me giving my opinion about what academic testing is actually supposed to be about. Sounds like a discussion to me.

34

Yes I think this needs to be addressed. OP has a severe vision imparement and is valedictorian with a perfect GPA. That should be commended. If I were the OP’s GC I would be singing his praises in my LoR. Any disclosure of his disability would boost his chances at top institutions.

OP you should be very very proud of your accomplishments and I applaud your hard work and dedication.

35

This entire discussion highlights one of the major issues with college evaluation processes. Whether we like it or not standardized tests like the SAT/ACT provide (at a glance) a decent indication of a students intelligence. However, there are innate problems with a taking a “snapshot” of a student’s performance with only one test provided in one medium. It could be argued that the rigid nature of standardized tests yields a certain type of student who preforms well. This type of student (the type to preform exceptionally on standardized tests) is now over represented in colleges.

Has this made highly competitive colleges only accessible to a certain type of learner? Can the detriment of not appealing to other types of learners have noticeable consequences in college? These are questions we should ask. I don’t have the answers, but it does worry me more than a little bit.

A lot of discussion is dedicated to what exactly “critical mass” is for inclusion of racial/economic diversity in universities. Perhaps in addition to this we should consider “critical mass” for non-traditional learners. After all, they (just as minorities do) provide a unique vantage point on subjects that is invaluable for socratic schools of thought.

36

Congrats! I also have a child with a disability who gets extra time on all testing but always has with an IEP. Super intelligent but a physical disability. He chose to disclose his disability through his common app essay but that is a personal decision. He did have more accomodations than the original poster so colleges can probably tell because his test was given on a school day not a national testing date. Through ADA he will continue to receive similar accomodations in college. Some schools like MIT provide exactly what they must to not get sued while other schools like UC Berkeley try to go above and beyond a bit. In order to get these accomodations for school, testing, and college we had to pay for a ton of testing to quantify exactly how the disability affects him to be certain that what is given is fair. He has extremely high test scores for the ACT and AP tests with the accomodations but when that is compared to his classroom performance it totally matches up. Shouldn’t the kid who maintained a 105 average in BC Calc all year have the opportunity to get a 5 on the AP test? Sure he got the highest SAT score at our school but his math and physics teacher say he is one of the top students they have had in 20 years of teaching. I’m glad he was born in a time when most people can see past what he can’t do to the amazing things he can do given some minor accomodations.

37

As a college student who has only been recently officially diagnosed with two disorders that would have given me extra time on the ACT (ASD, and surprisingly, ADHD-combined subtype), I’d have to say no. (I also have chronic health issues that affect my cognitive abilities.) Even though I’ve known for years that I struggled with issues other people don’t have, because I didn’t have an official diagnosis it didn’t matter. Consequently, I did okay on the ACT, whereas with extended time, I could’ve done much better. Like the OP, I, too, have a tendency to not be able to finish some timed tests. Even though I was put in gifted in the 3rd grade, my yearly SAT scores were always around the 70th percentile, compared to my brother - who was also in gifted - who consistently scored in the high 90th percentile.

Whereas some graduate/professional school admissions tests do differentiate between whether you took the test under “normal” conditions or not (e.g., the MCAT), if this isn’t being done with college level tests, I would assume there’s a good reason why. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s been a history of discrimination against intelligent students with disabilities at the undergraduate level, considering even graduate students worry about revealing that they have a disability. In fact, other students (both at the undergraduate and graduate level) often have no idea that their classmates receive extra time, because it’s no one’s business. The person knows, the professor knows (and perhaps the TA), and the school DSS office knows. Very few people outside of these roles will know students get accommodations.

As to whether it’s odd that the OP needed ACT accommodations, but not school accommodations, in reality, I bet that’s more common than you think. As I noted before, my standardized test scores were always lower than what my intelligence level was perceived to be; however, I made straight A’s. I only made two B’s in high school, and I didn’t struggle with exams then either, because, like the OP added, teachers often give you enough time to actually finish (and some will even let you finish the test after school or during lunch). (Plus, I became homeschooled during the second semester of 9th grade.) However, it’s a completely different situation with standardized testing. As we all know, they’re often incredibly strict. For example, if you have a broken bone (that is in a cast), it’s likely that your MCAT score would be marked. The same goes for if you have asthma or another condition that would require you to bring medicine into the testing room.

People with disabilities have enough pressure, people. Don’t guilt trip them for getting accommodations they need. And though the argument that more time would allow everyone to score better seems logical, it really isn’t. As the OP said, questions don’t answer themselves. Having too much extra time can lead to a student getting anxious while checking their work. Too much extra time can also be mentally taxing for some people. @fallenchemist brings up another valid point as well. A student with a disability often requires more time to do homework as well. So while you may be done in an hour, the kid in your class with dyslexia might, quite literally, need hours to get one assignment done.

Another thing about disabilities is that you may not even know you need accommodations until you get in a specific situation that shows you you need them (e.g., you’ve failed a test because you didn’t finish it; or you’re in a room with too many people or too many bright lights, which distracts you, makes you anxious, or frustrated; etc… And since testing accommodations aren’t retroactive, it’s better to take advantage of every accommodation you’re entitled to. I just recently submitted my paperwork to my school’s DSS office. I requested extra time (which at my school means 2x “normal” test time), the ability to take exams in a sensory-friendly environment, and others as well. Have I had issues with timed exams so far? Somewhat, though by the grace of God I’ve been able to keep a 4.0. I excel in an online class environment, which has also helped me as far as timed testing goes. However, I literally had to walk out of a midterm last semester. I was already frustrated and anxious and even having someone move can totally throw me off for hours. I just do better in a smaller environment because of my ASD. I remember the first time I took the ACT, I got nervous just because of the amount of people in the room. Not surprisingly, I did better - and felt better - the last time I took the test because there were probably only a dozen or so of us.

I congratulate the OP. Not only have they succeeded against the odds, but they did a pretty good job of both defending themselves and others with disabilities while also being respectful to people who were essentially attacking them.

38

@dcplanner You are incorrect that MIT only gives a minimum amount of accommodations so as not to get sued. MIT actually goes above and beyond to help students with disabilities succeed in school.

39

@SweetHeartGirl This. What you said has made me feel so much better about signing up for extended time. Suffering from severe depression and anxiety has really taken a toll on my test scores. I was worried at first because a lot of people on here were really ragging others for considering extended time.

40

^Why do you care what others think? If you qualify for Extended Time, use it. There is nothing wrong with using it. Some may think it’s unfair, but too bad. Those are the rules. You’re just playing by the rules.

If someone offered me a $100,000 job just because I know someone, is that unfair? Probably. But who cares. I’m taking that job! No guilt here.
:slight_smile: