LSAT Diary: Taking the LSAT with ADD, without Accommodations

This installment of LSAT Diaries comes from an anonymous commenter on one of my recent LSAT Blog posts. The post was about a test-taker granted extra time on the LSAT due to ADD and a learning disability.

In this LSAT Diary, our commenter talks about the struggles involved in studying for the LSAT with ADD and succeeding despite not having extra time.

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LSAT Diary:

I have ADD and a visual processing disorder. As a student, I have the option to take exams in a separate, private, distraction-free room, to have extra time, to use a computer for essay exams. Sometimes, depending on the nature of the exam, I make use of the accommodations to which I am entitled. Sometimes I don't. It depends on the type of exam and the time allotted.

I took the LSAT twice. The first time, I didn't bother to apply for accommodated testing because I didn't want that little asterisk by my name. I was seated right by the door and lost a ton of time looking up every single time someone got up to use the rest room. I ran out of time on two sections and got a 165.

I also didn't ask for accommodated testing the second time around. I figured that LSAC would see a score in the 92nd percentile and immediately reject my application. Instead, I politely asked the proctor to seat me somewhere away from the door and she was kind enough to do so. If she'd declined, I'd have lived with that. (It wouldn't have mattered that much anyway. Unlike my first time, everyone in the room was glued to their seats until we were released for break.) I ran out of time on one section due to my own stupid mistake in diagramming a logic game. I scored a 173.

Could I have done better in a room by myself? Probably. Could I have done better with extra time or breaks? Abso-freaking-lutely. That having been said, I don't think that my ADD inhibits my ability to perform so badly as to merit extra time, and certainly not double time. Without ADD, I might have managed to score better my first time around, and maybe instead of a 173, I'd be looking at a 175 or so for the second time out. An extra five minutes might have been the difference between a 173 and a 177ish. An extra 35 minutes might have been the difference between a 173 and a 180. If I could have asked for just one accommodation, though, it would have been permission to drink from my water bottle during the exam. My meds leave me with severe dry mouth, and I'm never without a beverage.

I'm an adult. I have a disability that I have worked hard to learn to manage. Some things are harder for me than they are other people. That's life. I think I brought more advantages than disadvantages to the LSAT. English is my first language, I learned to read at a young age and never stopped, I'm reasonably intelligent, and because I *knew* that I'd be taking it as a person with ADD and one for whom logic games would be especially challenging due to my visual processing problems, I studied my butt off. I ran myself through 6-section prep tests with 30 minutes per section so that I could acclimate myself to working quickly and accurately. I studied in busy restaurants where the people around me were a hundred times more distracting than a room full of test takers. Instead of asking LSAC to accommodate me, I came up with ways to accommodate myself.

That being said, even without ADD, the average LSAT test taker isn't scoring a 173, or even a 165. I worked *hard,* yes, but I'm someone for whom any accommodations on the LSAT would mean only a few points, numerically, and even fewer points as a percentile. I might feel differently if I was scoring around 150. (Of course, if I was scoring around 150, I probably wouldn't be applying to law school. The employment prospects of the schools I'm looking at scare me to death, and I'm barely looking past the top 14. The thought of trying to find work out of a second- or third-tier school makes me ill.)

Photo by bobaubuchon