I cannot tell you how many inquiries I get every month with this as the main reason the parents are reaching out. Sometimes the student is working with a tutor who is giving this feedback, and sometimes it’s the student complaining; either way, I have to be the bearer of bad news — neither the SAT nor ACT will approve accommodations simply because your student cannot finish the test.
Standardized tests have to have time limits to make them standardized. They test straightforward concepts that rarely, if ever, require “deep thinking.” They reward students who have such a strong understanding of a concept that they can work through the material quickly, without pause. In other words, these tests are not designed for all students to be able to finish them. The middle 50th percentile ACT score is a little over an 18 currently, and the SAT is around a 1050. That essentially means that 50% of the approximately 4 million test takers score above those numbers and 50% below.
So what does that all really mean? Let’s use a sports analogy. This will age me, but many of you will remember the President’s physical fitness test that we had to do every year. If no one practiced any of the exercises that were tested, some students would still hit that 6-minute mile that would earn them the 85th percentile and that award at the end of the school year. Some, like me, were highly athletic but looked like a baby deer just learning how to walk when trying to run a mile — no matter how hard I practiced, I could never hit even the 10-minute mile required to hit the 50th percentile. But I also never really trained, I never really learned form, and running never became a natural movement for me; I just ran, not understanding the kinesiology behind it, not truly learning how to make running natural. So my speed has never really improved. Still today, I only run about a 14-minute mile (and only if my trainer forces me to).
So as tutors and parents, the best thing we can do for these kids is focus on that muscle memory. Where can we build the student’s confidence so they can attack the basic concepts with little to no second thought? Instead of doing mock test after mock test, make sure the student can PEMDAS without thinking twice. Instead of time drills, make sure your student can identify the subject of a sentence without hesitation. When those fundamentals come naturally, you’ll see the student speed up and get through more of the test.
Unfortunately, accommodations aren’t the quick solution for neurotypical students, and it’s unfair for neurotypical students who do not clinically require them to request their use. It diminishes their importance for those of us who have legitamitly needed accommodations in our lives.
As all of my students know, I have fairly bad dyslexia and because of my age, I was never able to use accommodations on standardized tests (old red flag rules, aka colleges knew if you used accommodations). I was terrible at timing; I made careless errors; I glossed over when reading to the point that on the PSAT I wrote my own answers for Reading into the test booklet and left the answer sheet blank (very proud moment for my parents, I’m sure). I wasn’t confident in my natural abilities, so I struggled.
Today, I’ve taken over 50 ACT’s (probably closer to 80). Yes, I know a few little tutoring tricks, but it’s just a basic understanding of the test and a deep fundamental understanding of the material that allows me to finish the English section in about 14 min, and Math in about 40. Because of my dyslexia, I still barely make it through Reading and Science within time, but that’s okay. The point is, I’ve learned how to run the mile in the target time…my 5th grade self is very proud.