Hi,
I am a medical student and my application for accommodation was recently denied by the National Board of Medical Examiners on the basis that my functioning scores were within average range. I was previously approved for extended time when I took the MCAT. However over the last 2 years my functioning scores have slightly gone up b/c of studying all the time. A case similar to mine is Gonzales v. National Board of Medical Examiners (http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=00a0277p.06) where Gonzales was denied b/c his functioning was within average range.
I have spoken with my LD specialist and he assured met that I do have LD. There is a 3 standard dev between my IQ and reading however my reading scores are mostly in 30th to 40th percentile. If you email me I could provide more information about my scores. I am confused and I am taking step 1 in July. What should I do? Should I have my report evaluated by an independent agency or file a complaint.
Thanks in advance.
Friend
Unfortunately having an LD isn’t enough. Unless you can find other cases where somebody functioning in hte same range as you was given accommodations, you’re probably wasting your efforts; most people in power figure it’s a competitive field (and they don’t particularly care whether it’s level or not) so compete, since they had to. (Some of the worst people as far as accommodations go are the ones who have LDs or issues of their own — hey, *they* made it the hard way, so you should have to too.) IT would be worth tracking down some other cases though — I only have indirect experience with this.