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The Challenge of Extra Exam Time

9 1
sunday

This week, I met with a long-term therapy client as she navigated her 1L law school final exams. For those not familiar with the field of law, first-year grades are everything, in a way that modestly borders on unhealthy. My client returned from her first exam feeling generally positive, but also slightly concerned. She recently learned students have been bending the rules regarding accommodations. In some cases, minor life stressors are being exaggerated to qualify for testing accommodations—namely, in the form of extra time on exams.

The Atlantic recently ran an article, Accommodation Nation, on this issue. Their research found that at schools such as Brown and Harvard, more than 20 percent of undergraduates are registered as disabled. At Stanford, that figure is 38 percent of undergraduates. Meanwhile, at the University of Chicago, the number of students with accommodations has more than tripled over the past eight years, and at UC Berkeley, it has nearly quintupled over the past 15 years.

This raises major questions on equity, when in law school finals, for example, time is of the essence. Four-hour exams suddenly morph into eight-hour marathons. For hard-driving competitive students........

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