Dear Parents-
My 19 year LD son has a dream of going to medical school and was just denied extended time on the medical school admissions tests despite the fact that he has had extended time through college and on his SATS and despite his current psychological testing.
I thought I’d offer a word to the wise - save everything! Every teacher note/comment, every report that is ever written on your child. You never know when such things might prove helpful to your child. The admissions tests people denied my son on the basis ‘there is no prior history of a learning disability’ although his disability was first diagnosed in 1st grade.
This past week saw us going back to his elementary school scrounging around for what records they might still have. I wish now I had saved every special report, every teacher note that spoke of his difficulty with reading.
Just thought my mistake might prove helpful to all of you out there-
Re: Save documents for when needed!
Here are the step-by-step instructions for requesting accommodations(requires Acrobat Reader). If you don’t have AR and don’t want to do the free download you can do a Google search on “MCAT extended time” and click on the HTML version. John
www.aamc.org/students/mcat/about/ada2003.pdf
ETS and MCAT link - how strong is the link?
[quote=”mmm”]how can ETS, provider of both SAT and MCAT tests, give extended time for one and not the other? You most surely had to document for the extended time for SAT. Is not the same documentation good enough?
something smells. Get the phone pronto and talk to someone else at ETS
My assumption is that the MSAC - Medical School Admission Council - sets the requirements. ETS may write and thus provide the tests but their involvement with the MCATS stops there I think. Do you think I’m wrong about that?
But in answer to your very good question, it doesn’t seem as if the same documentation is enough and indeed, the documentation process is very different. For SATS, his physician’s signature was enough to get him extended time. The process is a much more complicated one for MCATS.
But I will take your good suggestion and call ETS anyway. There’s nothing to lose and much to gain.
Many thanks.
Re: Save documents for when needed!
I’m a writer interested in speaking with people who’ve had experiences with MCAT and other graduate entry tests. I’m particularly interested in the issues of “flagging” and other accomodations.
I am preparing a story on the subject for the online magazine Slate.com
Thanks
Arthur Allen
freelance writer, Washington DC
author [i]Vaccine, the Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaving Invention[/i], WW Norton, January 2007
how can ETS, provider of both SAT and MCAT tests, give extended time for one and not the other? You most surely had to document for the extended time for SAT. Is not the same documentation good enough?
something smells. Get the phone pronto and talk to someone else at ETS
Good luck.