Number of kids getting extra time in exams MASSIVELY overstated

You said an Invigilator only sat and watched for cheats!

They are of course aware of who has extra time/has a separate room/a scribe etc etc.

From my point of view there comes a tipping point when the extra accommodations accommodate too many. It got to a point where there were far more in a “separate room” than in the main hall! Also kids who had to have a corner seat etc or a cupboard. One girl I remember had masses of extra time plus 20-min breaks for a condition: she spent the first part of the exam doing nothing and then did the exam in the extra time. If the exam was in the afternoon everyone was well cheesed off as this delayed all the admin. In this school it was the school pushing for extra time to try to heave a few over the line.

In sixth form dd came home rather upset upon discovering that 15 of her class of 20 had extra time for English A Level. In this school it was the parents doing the pushing.

In the spirit of full disclosure ds had extra time and a laptop as he can’t use his hands very well. Don’t worry - he is not demanding to be a surgeon!

I do think at a point, some children are getting advantages because their parents could be bothered trying to get them extra time/allowances, over the kids with uninterested parents who just have to muddle through.

I'd be careful not to label as "uninterested" the parents who are baffled or thwarted by the system and unable to negotiate the barriers placed between them and help for their child.

Under the rules, which I know inside out, he was entitled to both.

Why is it controversial that processing is being assessed? For a dyslexic person, that isn't the issue, and having a reader doesn't help with processing. For someone who has a learning difficulty in relation to processing, the appropriate adjustment may be more time to process, but that is entirely fair as you are assessing processing ability rather than speed.

I'm afraid it's just a fact that having very involved parents are likely to confer a natural advantage in all sorts of ways except, perhaps, in helping their children to develop independence and resilience. Taking away concessions of children with learning difficulties is not going to counter that inbuilt advantage.

I'd imagine those that think people shouldn't be granted extra time the same people that think disability benefits shouldn't exist. 'Get back to work but I'll put as many obstacles in your way as possible'. It is almost as if they feel threatened so need these obstacles to keep themselves 'superior'.

JCQ walk into schools and ask for evidence that schools are complying with JCQ regulations around examinations access arrangements.

OK so if you ignore the "reading and" part that I said, do we agree that processing information is part of what's being assessed?

I do think at a point, some children are getting advantages because their parents could be bothered trying to get them extra time/allowances, over the kids with uninterested parents who just have to muddle through. I'm not against everyone having extra time or support, but I did notice lots of the people who got it were those with very involved/caring parents.

As another poster said, I’d like to see the stats on how extra time boosts (or not) the grades, to see the impact on those who don’t have extra time.

The system is very strict. Each student, unless they have a diagnosis of autism, needs a standardised score of 84 or below in two or more psychometric tests and evidence that extra time is their normal way of working in every subject applied for. JCQ inspectors arrive unannounced and ask to see samples of the evidence. The qualification for exam access arrangements assessment is stringent and took me a year to complete.

The level of prejudice from some posters on this thread is disappointing and some have displayed viewpoints that should long ago have been consigned to history.

But then again one does still hear shocking views on maternity leave. I despair.

One has dysgraphia and hypermobility in his fingers. The other has hypermobility and static tight grip of a pencil whilst writing where he uses his whole upper body and limb strength which makes writing very laborious for him. He has been recommended ICT for large pieces of text and also extra time for assessment and exam conditions.

Certain posters are totally clueless and need to keep an open mind. It's a great thing more awareness is around when it comes to additional needs. It's finally being taken seriously. This is a win for my family and others out there.

Because there is, as you yourself pointed out, also a processing element in working out how to apply mathematical rules to a given scenario, and there is also an element of teaching children that maths applies in real life. Take the example given above - "Johnny has three apples and Sara has four oranges" when the question is how much fruit there is: a dyslexic person may take ages to decipher that and still misread something vital to the question. So they have someone to read the question out to them. They still have to work out what the question is and what mathematical process they have to apply to it, and then do it. The reader is not going to read that question out as "what is three plus four?"

Autism is automatically extra time, Dyslexia is not.

She is, and she does. But she was adamantly opposed to getting anything that might be seen as a paid-for or unjust advantage.

She could and probably should have applied for extra time even without a diagnosis, but again, she felt that might be unfairly gaming the system.

I admire her integrity. I just wish the NHS had taken less than her entire degree to complete the process (she was referred in her first year). No prizes to anyone guessing what diagnos(e)s finally arrived...

Two out of four DC have been granted extra time in exams. For legitimate reasons after a comprehensive assessment from occupational therapy services. It wasn't for shits and giggles.

You attitude is truly disgusting.

my daughter has dyslexia. It takes her twice as long to read the fucking question as other kids. Therefore she will need extra time just so she can be able to do the same thing as other kids.

go and educate yourself. Or watch Jamie Oliver’s recent documentary on it.

I hope to god my child never comes across someone like you in the school or the workplace.

Discrimination at it's finest...

People who have extra time are still under time pressure. It's simply the case that they are not subject to extra pressure unfairly because they have difficulties which mean they cannot work quickly. It is calculated that they have the same amount of time in proportion to their working speed.

Then why not only ask maths questions as equations?

Yes they do. The PP gave an example that I replied to.

How can you say what I would have done? I remember having to rush through questions and then if I had time I'd go back through to reread everything and sometimes add things or realise I'd misread the question entirely. That wouldn't have happened if I'd not been rushing.

But in practice, the vast majority of people with disabilities requiring extra time are going to self select away from roles which would be made harder by their disabilities. There are relatively few dyslexic lawyers and relatively few maths teachers with dyscalculia. I can only speak for our family, but writing long documents where huge amounts can turn on the placement of a comma, or the selection of the correct homophone, would be a form of torture for DH and DD. They would prefer to stick pins in their eyes than do that sort of job.

As for the suggestion that exam results should in some way be branded with a big scarlet cross of shame for those using extra time so that employers can see it …. Jesus wept. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see that our current exam system isn’t testing individuals’ aptitude for success in the workplace. If students sitting GCSEs were allowed to use all the tools they’d be able to use in the workplace- spellcheck, dictation tools, etc - then perhaps that might be a more accurate assessment of how long it would take them to produce a report or a piece of technical advice when employed in later years. As things stand, they are being tested on skills which for many of them will not necessarily cause major difficulties once they have made it through the education system. It’s like asking everyone to sit their exams wearing deep sea diving suits. Those with respiratory problems might need extra adaptations but frankly, as they’re never going to need to wear said deep sea diving suits once they start work, who cares?!

No, reading is not being assessed during a maths exam.

So do explain exactly why an invigilator would know better than the exam board or the child's teachers whether a child needs extra time or not.

About to write exactly the same. One of my DC has extra time due to slow processing and dyslexia. Perhaps if I give an example of where this helps. In a non-calculator maths exam he will need to use timestables. He tried for years to learn these using every method we could find. But he is still unable to recall all times tables successfully. So in an exam for every question requiring timestables he will need to recreate the timestable from scratch. That takes time. In real life he would use a calculator. He is a great employee and his workplace is lucky to have him.

They don't have wordy questions in maths exams as a whole.

You wouldn't have done any better with extra time, it wouldn't have magically increased your knowledge.

You probably would have spent the extra time twiddling your thumbs, or worse go back and doubt your answers and make them worse/incorrect. So you may have done worse.

Exams are timed and set with plenty of time for a "normal" person to complete them.