<p>S2 is a high school junior with ADHD. He has a high GPA but recently took the ACT and did not do well -- scored a 23. His recent PSAT score of 180 lead us to believe he might do better. </p>
<p>With this in mind, he will be taking the SAT in about a month. We are hoping the SAT test structure might suit his ability to concentrate in shorter bursts better. On the ACT, the Reading and Science were his trouble areas. He left both sections unfinished with a number of questions unanswered. His English section score was 29 and Math was 27 or 28.</p>
<p>Any parents of ADHD kids out there with insights on how the differences in these test formats help or hurt ADHDers?</p>
<p>My son has the inattentive form of ADHD. He took the SAT and ACT prior to diagnosis. He got a 1230 on the SAT and a 32 ACT. His comment to me (and it was the one that finally got my attention about him possibly having ADHD) was the reason he did better on the ACT is it required less prolonged concentration. I have no idea if that’s true. I suspect every kid is different and it’s definitely worth having them take both.</p>
<p>My son has ADHD and did much better on the SAT. Science was also his lowest ACT score.</p>
<p>But I think he also had a really off day. They give the ACT in school here now (this is the first year for that) and I think he didn’t do as well because it was a regular school day in the middle of the week. He took the ACT for the Duke TIP program in 7th grade and his score this year (junior year) was only 2 points higher). </p>
<p>He came home not feeling good about the ACT. He does want to retake and thinks he’ll do better with a typical Saturday test. He came home from the SAT saying it was “a breeze.”</p>
<p>My ADHD S did better on the ACT, but not by much, and this was after quite a bit of prep. I had the nagging feeling that had he decided to go for the SAT, he might have ultimately gotten a better result than he did with the ACT.</p>
<p>The ACT allows less time per question, but the questions themselves are more straight-forward. If you can handle the convoluted questions, the SAT may generally be more advantageous.</p>
<p>Isn’t it possible to get extra time for the test if you have a proven medical need?</p>
<p>I realize that this isn’t a new idea - but every kid is different. My S did “much” better on the SAT and my D blew the ACT out of the water and her SAT was something we do not mention. But I had them each take both tests - I didn’t try to guess the outcome ahead of time. IMHO this applies to all kids whether they are ADHD or not. That being said - if there any research done in this area please pass it on.</p>
<p>No research from us…just anecdotal. My D13 has mandated accommodations (thanks to an extensive neuro-psych evaluation). She gets time and a half. On her PSAT, she had the extra time, but no medication–and scored 155. While having the extra time helped, she also ran out of stamina. We had been expecting a better score. We had her do 8 weeks of a small group a prep class plus a private tutor (most kids in her mainstream private school do the same). We found that the tutor could really focus in on those areas of difficulty…as well as call her out on losing focus from time to time. By the time she did her first practice test (with accom. & medications), she was scoring over 1,800. Her first SAT was a 1950 and her second was 2050. I think having the experience of a real test helped because the setting was nothing like the practice tests. We also opted for a smaller test site the second time around which helped. </p>
<p>For her, it was the combination of all of the above which sealed the deal. She really needed to have a strong score on some kind of test, because her GPA was really low (she wasn’t diagnosed until sophomore year). We considered taking the ACT but felt her lack of math would really hurt (she’d only finished algebra by end of junior year). She also felt the number of sections on the ACT would work against her–even with the extra time.</p>
<p>I do know another ADHD kid who didn’t do so well on the SAT but got a perfect score on the ACT. My feeling is that the ACT works for those kids who are “linear thinkers”. It’s a more straight-forward test. If the student has covered all the subject areas, like trig, it’s worth taking. My D is clearly right-brained and the “flexible thinking” of the SAT worked for her. </p>
<p>If your LD kid gets accommodations at school, be sure to start the process of applying for accommodations early. It can take a few months and there are pretty strict requirements for documentation. If you have a choice of test centers, pick the smallest one available. We had a very chaotic first test, with a 1,000+ kids filing into a building (plus a proctor who couldn’t tell time!). The second time, there were only a few hundred kids and things progressed much more smoothly. If your child needs medication, avoid taking the medication too early–it can take more than 90 minutes for them to get into their seat (depending on the test center) and then it’s another 5 hours of testing.</p>
<p>S took the SAT 3 times-once cold with no prep, once with focus on math and the final time after a tutoring session for verbal. He took the ACT twice and scored MUCH higher than the SAT. He is very much a linear thinker and did extremely well on the science portion. He didn’t have any time accomodations but did have his medication. I think the different tests favor different types of learners/students. Mine hated how the SAT tested how you think vs the ACT what you know. </p>
<p>We had a college counselor come talk to their class who suggested taking the tests multiple times (not always financially possible) since most colleges will superscore. As it was, his final SAT was his highest of all sections and he got the exact same composite ACT both times but the math/verbal scores flipped!</p>
<p>S2 will be requesting every accomodation we can get. I’m having him re-tested this summer and he does have a 504 plan. He’s gonna need all the help he can get!</p>
<p>My son was not diagnosed ADHD until after high school graduation (we finally wanted to confront his demons before he went off to college and prepare him for the challenges). </p>
<p>He did only ACT – after taking PSAT twice, sophomore and junior year, was pretty clear that the PSAT/SAT format played to his challenges not strengths. There was simply now way he could have sat and focused for the 5 hour marathon that the SAT with writing section can be. Plus, he handled the ACT format, test what you know, much better. Of course his scores still reflected his underlying academic strengths and weaknesses – 35 Reading and 25 Math . . . </p>
<p>My research at the time suggested that getting accommodations with ACT was more difficulty than SAT, though again, we did not have testing done until after grad so were not in a position to request any during junior/senior year of testing.</p>
<p>SansSerif: Kids with ADHD usually just qualify for time accommodations. Processing speed can be an issue with kids like this–they know the answer, it just takes them time to pull it out of their brains. Other accommodations available suit kids with other issues: keyboard use for kids with handwriting/graphomotor issues, for example. Time accommodations are the most common and are typically “time and a half”. It can be a mixed blessing if your kid has stamina issues. Usually the testing centers group all the time accommodation kids together so that the proctor only reports their time.</p>