Interview: Taking Standardized Tests

More from interviews with students on taking standardized tests:

Lisa:

I’ll take the SAT and the ACT. I did better on the ACT than I did on the SAT. I don’t really know why but I did better accommodation wise on those tests. I didn’t even know you could get accommodations on those kind of exams, nobody told me, and I guess I just never really took the time and figured it out on my own. But that’s definitely important if you’re planning on going to college and you’re gonna take those exams. Make sure if you are qualified for the accommodations that you get those and that it helps you on your exams … because those exams are pretty important for when you apply.

Andrea:

I’ve not always performed as well on standardized tests so it was really, really critical for me to have accommodations and even with those accommodations I found them to be very anxiety provoking experiences, so I had to take them more than once to just kind of tweak out … how to best take those exams. They were not easy for me. But I did have accommodations, I had … I had extra time and I was able to take breaks when I needed to, and I had a scribe, so I had quite a few and they were tremendously helpful - the only way I could have gotten through.

Maria:

On the SAT test, I definitely used my accommodations. I got time and a half testing for the SAT, and with that I think I got an extra break during the SAT because it’s so long anyway. I started at the same time as the other students, but I was in a room with other people with a learning disability or other forms of disabilities, and we just got an extra break I think, so our testing went a little longer.

Andrea:

It’s similar to when you need accommodations for college, you have to have letters from your doctors stating that it’s required, so you need like a formal documentation. And then you sent it to, if you contact the SAT office or the GRE office, they have a special section for people with disabilities, so basically you just ask to speak to them and then they’ll tell you what the process is.

Interviews: Applying for college

More from the students interviewed about applying to college:

Jenna:

I went ahead and started getting my application for college at the end of my junior year, and with the application you fill it out, a lot of times you can do it online but I did a paper application so that way I could make sure everything was right and also wanted to make copies of it in case something happened and it got lost in the mail, or something happened online I wouldn’t be able to have that paper right in front of me. So you fill out the applications, usually you have to get recommendations from teachers, maybe somebody in the community that knows you very well, and you want to get it from people who will say good things about you, and people who know you well, know you very well, you don’t want to get relatives - a mom or a dad - but you want to get maybe a teacher that you’ve had for a couple of years, or that you feel comfortable with giving you that recommendation. And also you have to write an application essay. The essay doesn’t have to be like 3 pages. Most of the time sometimes you get to pick your own essay and write whatever you want and it’s about maybe a page and a half long. I think mine was about 2 pages. And then another college that I applied for, they actually gave you questions that you had to answer, and it was like 2 questions and had to be a page long for each one of them. A lot of the times the … the essay is optional but you want to make yourself stand out in front of all those other applicants, so put in the essay.

Maria:

I did disclose my disability in my essay. I think a lot of the college essays were asking like, who are you, why are you going to this school, and your family background or something. So for me, it just came up because it fit in the question. I don’t think I went out of my way to say it, if the question had been like well what do you think of world peace in 20 years or something, I don’t think it would have come up. But because it fit within the college application question, I did put it out there because I felt it was a unique part of me and the whole college experience, the application process is, you’re supposed to make yourself stand out. And I don’t think a learning disability is anything anyone should be ashamed of, so I felt it was something I could use to make me stand out from another student.

Andrea:

I’d definitely disclose my disability in my master’s level of my PhD level applications, but only to the extent, like very briefly to the extent to express why I was interested in the field I was … how my interest got sparked, how my research interests were sparked. And then I move right away from that right into my interests. That can be … I feel very careful about including that information up front. There’s a way to do it if you’re going to do it, to do it in a way that shows … how that helped you be where you are without going into incredible detail because you want the people in the college to focus on your academic ability, and then the disability is part of who you are but it’s not all of who you are and don’t want your academic ability and your other abilities to get overshadowed by the talk of disability up front. So I think it can be really good to put it in there, but like weave it into your story rather than it’s the primary focus of your story.

Jenna:

I disclosed my disability in my essay but I made sure that I talked about all my strengths and didn’t focus so much on my weaknesses and what I couldn’t do, but I focused on how it helped me become a better person in life and what I plan to do and my career goals.

College Choise - Learning Disabilities

Other important information

In addition to gathering general college information, as a student with a disability, you can also find out about the following...

* Waivers and substitutions: Are there written policies and procedures for course waivers and substitutions? If so, what kind of documentation is required?
* Course load and graduation time: Is priority registration available for students with disabilities? Is it possible to maintain a reduced course load?
* Student groups: Are there specific groups that are designed to assist students with disabilities to network with other students on campus? Are there student leadership/mentoring programs to help students feel connected with other students on campus?
* Supports services: What support services are available to all students? Does the campus have support services specifically for students with your disability?
* Orientation: Are there orientation sessions designed to address disability specific needs of students before entering college? Are these sessions primarily held during the summer, or at the beginning of each semester for new students?

For students with learning disabilities, consider reviewing the books Peterson’s Colleges with Programs for Students With Learning Disabilities or Attention Deficit Disorders and The K & W Guide to Colleges for the Learning Disabled for additional information on support services and specialized programs.