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SAT Testing Time for Students With Disabilities SAT

Author(s):
Packer, Jaclyn
Publication Year:
1987
Report Number:
RR-87-37
Source:
ETS Research Report
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
29
Subject/Key Words:
College Admission, College Entrance Examinations, Disabilities, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Scores, Test Administration

Abstract

This study examined the amount of time used by disabled students to take special administrations of the SAT offered by the College Board's ATP Services for Handicapped Students. It also investigated the relationship between length of time taken and scores achieved. Timing data on groups of students were examined, both by disability and by the version of the test taken (braille, cassette, large type or regular type). Results showed that disabled students who were tested over the four years from 1979 to 1983 took considerably more time to complete the SAT than non-disabled students. Hearing impaired students taking a cassette version averaged 5.4 hours and those taking a braille version averaged 6.0 hours. Physically disabled and learning disabled students averaged between 4.3 and 4.7 hours. Time spent on each section of the SAT (two verbal sections, two math sections and the Test of Standard Written English) was also investigated, although those numbers did not differ substantially from total timing data. The relationship between SAT test scores and the amount of time spent on the verbal and math section of the test was investigated as well. Results showed that physically disabled and visually impaired students who spent more time on the verbal sections of the SAT achieved lower verbal scores than those who spent less time, while the opposite was true for the verbal scores of hearing-impaired and learning-disabled students. However, for the math sections of the SAT, students in all disabled groups who spent more time tended to achieve higher math scores. (29pp.)

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