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ACT Double Time?


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Has anyone requested or received double time for the ACT?

 

DD is a former home schooler who decided on high school.  We had a private neuropsych evaluation done at the end of 7th grade.  The diagnosis was inattentive ADHD with slow processing speed.  School district did its own evaluation a year later, with the same test results with respect to processing speed.  DD has had an IEP in place for two years, with time and a half and keyboarding.  She is in NY Regents Prep classes; some are co-taught.  No honors or AP - it is a performing arts school with a limited selection of academic classes.  But DD would not have the bandwidth for AP US History, even with medication.  When her medication wears off in the evening she can't get through huge amounts of homework.  Many of her tests are not lengthy or challenging, but she does use all her extended time for science, math and NY- specific Regents exams, where she can also type essays.  Her average without arts classes is probably within the mid to high 80s.  She did get the highest score in her school on a difficult Common Core Geometry Regents exam (92%) with accommodations.

 

The private eval showed a WISC-IV Processing Speed index at the 1st percentile and recommended double time.  The school district evaluation had it at the 2nd percentile on the same instrument.  More importantly, the later school district evaluation showed huge discrepancies between timed and untimed work, specifically:

 

Woodcock Johnson Timed Reading Fluency:  77 (Low) Untimed Passage Comprehension: 112 (High Average)

Woodcock Johnson Timed Math Fluency: 60 (Very Low) Untimed Applied Problems: 112 (High Average)

Woodcock Johnson Writing Fluency: 77 (Low)  Untimed Writing Samples:  112 (High Average)

 

The SAT is a poor fit for her because the math section is so verbose.  She does have time and 1/2 granted by the College Board, but the school didn't request keyboarding.  For the ACT, I would like to request double time and keyboarding, and maybe circling answers in the test booklet and testing on multiple days.  The school is discouraging applying for double time, saying it is rarely granted, but not giving me a more specific reason.  I am left wondering what type of discrepancies would be needed for double time if dd's don't qualify her.  I haven't yet been able to contact the ACT special testing unit by phone - the message just says to try another time.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience to relate?  Most of the posts I have seen are for kids who received National Extended Time.  I would provide a description of how I accommodated her while home schooled, and ask teachers to fill out the form that shows that she used extra time to complete lab reports and tests.  She did have Early Intervention for speech, but those records are in storage.

 

Thank you!

 

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I don't know if ACT offers double time. I think their extended time is only time and a half--but the thing that's nice about how ACT does it is that the student can move to the next test when ready (so they don't have to sit there and wait for the clock like with the SAT--they can move on and divide up the time as needed for the test, and leave when they are finished). I found ACT much easier to work with than SAT, so as long as you have all of your documentation and the IEP, it shouldn't be an issue to get extended time. 

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We decided to apply for time and a half because in order to apply for double time, you have to get a test administrator on board (because it is done over a few days) as part of the application process.  

 

The fact that each test is not timed--they just give a block of 5 or 6 hours to get it done (which turns out to be a bit more than time and a half)--is really good if the kid needs more extra time on some subtests than others.  For example, the reading always went long for my son in his practice sessions, but some of the others went short (we practiced with 1.5 time).  In the actual test, he could use the time he saved during other sections for the reading.

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I only applied for National Extended Time, which as others have said is a little more than time and a half but you can allocate the time anyway you want.

 

We too did National Extended Time. It seems that the ACT is very generous with this accommodation. I think it is much harder to get double time. As Julie mentioned, not only is is time and a half, but the student gets to distribute the time and their breaks at your own discretion. It made a huge difference here.

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