<p>Wow–thank you to all who have responded! Thank you for the clarification about the added .5 time for the SAT–that is what my daughter has and has found it to be adequate to meet her needs. Sounds like there could be a possible option for two days but I’m not going to mention it or pursue it as it just doesn’t seem required in her situation. </p>
<p>I also appreciate hearing that TCB is not permitted to disclose the extended time which truly leaves the option to reveal to my d. D attends a small, private college prep school that doesn’t really have services for LD students so there won’t be anything on her transcript (i.e special class, resource, etc). D is considering engineering and, in light of her consistently higher grades in math and sciences, I was wondering if it would be a benefit to reveal if she ends up pursuing a program which will be heavily weighted with math and science. </p>
<p>PS I’m new and am wondering if there’s a way that I could have been notified by email when someone responded. Does the red star (indicating you’ve posted on a thread) remain forever or does it go away after some period of inactivity? Again, thank you for all the feedback.</p>
<p>I also have to live with dyslexia. The idea of having note-takers sounds attractive. I also had trouble with listening to lecture while ‘trying’ to taking notes. Not easy!!! However, by my sophomore year I decided I had to figure out a way to deal with the problem. I ended up developing a relatively unorthodox method that involved writing a short summary of the general topic the instructor was covering every 4 or 5 minutes. I simply listened very carefully to what was being presented and when there was a break in the action I would switch tasks. I actually developed my own form of shorthand for this purpose that took only a few seconds. I left a large space between each entry. If I felt I could not come up with a summary I asked the instructor to for clarification. Later as I reviewed the material and would use reference books to help me fill in key details. I never had a instructor complain about my asking 1 or 2 questions during lecture. Indeed most provided positive feedback. My notes often included references to the demeanor/attitude of the instructor. A change in cadence or a sudden burst of hyperactivity often turned out to be a hint of what topic/question would be included on the exam. Not only did my grades improve dramatically, I really felt that this approach helped my make the transition from a superficial (content focused) to a deeper (key concepts & big ideas) approach to my studies.
My motivation: Physicians, lawyers, CEOs, etc cannot expect their clients to arrive with detailed notes/summaries.
I am not arguing against accommodation. Only that I think it is important for all who suffer from dyslexia to consider how they will manage the transition from the classroom to the work place. This not only includes strategies as outlined above but also spending time thinking critically about career options and optimal work environments.</p>
<p>I took my SATs over 2 days. I had only 50% extra time, but I had extra breaks & extended breaks, which resulted in a testing session about as long as 100% extra time. I specifically requested the 2 day testing because of well documented, severe medical issues. The request for 2 days was initially denied (the 50% extra time & breaks were approved.). I carefully followed the appeal process- it took some time, but was worth it.</p>
<p>My kid receives 100% additional time on standardized tests, and was given two day testing without us asking for it on SAT’s. PSAT’s are a shorter test and were administered on one day. (There was quite a protracted appeal process to get the main accommodations in place.) S’s school provided a staff member to administer the test, so S tested during the time his classmates were there on Saturday, and then came in again by himself on Sunday to finish. </p>
<p>Turns out, two day administration is NOT automatic on AP exams with double time, and the school isn’t permitted to start afternoon exams early. Consequently, afternoon AP exams extended far into the night and it was just lucky S had been granted breaks because otherwise he and the person administering the test wouldn’t have eaten dinner until 8:30 p.m. It was ridiculous. Considering how long some AP exams take, parents should be aware that even if their child was given 2 days for the SAT, they have to make a special request far in advance for AP’s. </p>
<p>While I didn’t take S’s school’s willingness to accomodate for granted, and remain extremely grateful, the notion that one of the posters here has a public school that is refusing to provide a monitor for her child’s two day, extended time SAT’s is pretty disturbing. ETS doesn’t grant two-day testing for the heck of it; there has to be a very well-documented reason with medical support for the request. How can the school justify a refusal to comply? Surely they have staff people present on week days, and the student could take the first half of the test on a week day and the second half when his classmates are testing.</p>
<p>All I posted is what we were told by our kids PRIVATE HS. I know there are staff on hand on weekends but the school personnel we spoke with were VERY discouraging. </p>
<p>Our kids soldiered through all their testing and were ill for extended periods thereafter (in fact, S never returned to HS after his APs senior year, at least partly because he was so exhausted/drained from all his AP testing). Both of my kids were ill for a week after each of these prolonged standardized tests in HS; their documented chronic health condition is known to have a large stamina component.</p>
<p>In any case, somehow we all move forward. If our kids wanted us to pursue the issue further, we would have.</p>
<p>Good point that APs need to have their own accommodations that are worked out in advance.</p>
<p>appdad, your basic question is a good one, though not central to the OP’s questions that related to the SATs. My objective has been to guide him so that he can be successful in later life, not so that he could have maximal success in HS and college. </p>
<p>My own sense is that for a kid with pretty severe LDs, we seek to master one thing at a time. First, maintain self-esteem. Then, we did reading first. Then writing and using voice recognition software. Then sophistication paper-writing. Then standardized test-taking. He’s now working on speaking. My own next task for him is scanning to find information. At some point, I’ll shoot for note-taking, though he does appear to have nearly perfect recall of what he’s just heard and could, I think, dictate summary notes, once in a job, after a meeting. </p>
<p>I think his LDs will limit his occupational choice. He has the intellectual tools be a sensational lawyer – a law professor who was over for dinner did a Socratic thing with him on his debate case that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided on constitutional grounds later told me that he was surprised that as a college freshman, the quality of his arguments would place him at the top of my friend’s law constitutional law classes – but the reading and writing would kill him. Similarly, he shouldn’t work at a consulting firm that requires lots of reading and synthesizing of long documents. He’d be much better off on the analytical, data-oriented end with a focus on strategy. He might be an entrepreneur. If he were interested, med school and medicine would probably be fine, but he has neither the interest nor the physical stamina. Branches of finance would be right up his alley (though that isn’t popular these days). Real estate development aussi.</p>
<p>I am a terrible note-taker. I can’t actually read my own writing. I’ve managed pretty well in life as a high-end consultant and manager. So, with the proper structure, he can probably survive without note-taking skill, perhaps by dictating summaries at the end of meetings.</p>