[nabs-l] GRE Accommodations

Joy Mistovich joy.misto at gmail.com
Thu Dec 19 03:53:43 UTC 2013


Hi Bobbi,
My name is Joy Mistovich, and I am also visually impaired; I recently took
the GRE on November 25, and I requested 15 minutes extended time for each
section as well as ZoomText. I had to take the test, since I am applying to
a few PhD programs in English, but each of the schools I am applying to
didn't require a specific score per se. However, in your case, its a
different story.I checked again to make sure I was correct before I wrote
this e-mail.In the U. S. the computer based test is only offered; the paper
based test is only offered in regions where computers aren't as
commonplace. In other words, I remember you said you use audio textbooks
for your college courses, and luckily having an audio recording is one of
the options, and it also comes with tactile figures. I'm not sure how
proficient you are at identifying tactile figures, but you could definitely
try it.
One final thing and this is extremely important: Once your accommodations
have been approved, before you can register online to take the test, you
have to first call the national prometric number, tell them your
accommodations, and then you can register on the phone with the test date.
I wasn't aware that I had to call the company first in order to register
with them; instead I went online to register at my nearest testing site
with one of the soonest available dates, and then I called Prometric on the
Thursday before my test. This was absolutely a huge mess, and at first the
lady I spoke to told me I would have to cancel my testing date and
reschedule to another date because the accommodations wouldn't be offered
at that time. I really panicked in that moment because the majority of PhD
programs I am applying to had a deadline at the beginning of December, ad
if I didn't take the test by the end of November, I would have to wait over
a year to apply. . I explained my entire situation to her, and in the end,
she talked to her supervisor and made an exception for me to still be able
to take the test on that same day. What a relief! Finally, just to warn
you, when you go in on the testing day, Zoomtext won't be at all what you
are used to. The program is an extremely simplified version and only offers
a magnification feature, not other options to change the mouse pointer,
etc. I was at a great disadvantage because of this: I use a Mac with Zoom
and am not familiar with Windows, and more significantly, there wasn't any
contrast to the mouse at all. It was only white on white. For me taking
this test was extremely challenging, and you will probably have to jump
through several hurdles to get the accommodations that are most necessary
for you. In my opinion, ETS needs to make the GRE more accessible for the
visually impaired!!!
I hope my e-mail was helpful for you to understand a little bit more about
the GRE.
Good luck!
Joy



More information about the NABS-L mailing list