<p>In our affluent area, ‘test anxiety’ is apparently considered a reasonable justification for a diagnosis that gets you extra time on the standardized tests. I was astonished when kids we know with good grades throughout school were suddenly given extra time on their placement tests because, according to their parents, they had ‘test anxiety’ diagnoses in sophomore year of high school.</p>
<p>Maybe these kids had real underlying issues and their parents didn’t want to discuss it. Maybe the anxiety was so debilitating that the kids really couldn’t function without getting self-destructive. I don’t want to judge my friends. But I also have to say that our own experience with local experts who evaluate kids for learning disabilities seemed to be an exercise in self-diagnosis: They asked ‘what the problem?’, we said ‘seems disorganized and stressed’ and they said ‘fine, do you want an accommodation?’ It was so blatantly unprofessional that we were disconcerted. Felt like a scam for which we were paying very big dollars. We decided we didn’t need this kind of ‘help.’ As a result, I’m highly cynical about this process.</p>