Extended Time for ADHD: How to Request It for the SAT, ACT, GRE and LSAT

The details differ, but all four ask the same core question: how does ADHD affect you when the clock is running? Here’s what their guidelines say.

• College Board: a diagnosis from an appropriately credentialed professional, plus a comprehensive assessment with scores. It says a medical note “is usually not sufficient,” educational testing should generally be no more than five years old, and extended-time requests should document difficulty with timed tests. Low processing speed alone usually isn’t enough.
• ACT: recent diagnostic results from a qualified professional, evidence that symptoms began before age 12, evidence of current impairment, and standardized testing. ACT notes that failing to finish timed tests “cannot be used in isolation” to show impairment.
• ETS (GRE): an evaluation completed within the past five years and/or at age 16 or older is generally helpful. ETS warns that documentation that only refers to a past diagnosis doesn’t verify a current one.
• LSAC (LSAT): a Candidate Form with your statement of need, plus either proof of the same accommodation in a prior academic setting or documentation from a qualified professional. Requests for more than 50% extra time fall under LSAC’s “exceptional needs” category and need stronger, objective support.

Useful items to gather: your evaluation report, your IEP or 504 plan, a record of accommodations you’ve actually used, and, for College Board, a Teacher Survey Form. Our testing accommodations guide has a checklist and a message template for your counselor.

1. Tell your school’s SSD coordinator as early as you can. A parent or guardian (or you, if you’re over 18) signs a consent form.
2. The coordinator opens the request in SSD Online. If you’re asking for the same accommodations as your IEP or 504 plan, College Board says “no additional information may be needed.” If documentation is required, SSD Online says so.
3. Wait for the decision email. A new request can take up to seven weeks once all documentation arrives.
4. Use the eligibility code from your letter when you register for the SAT.

Two things save students the most stress. First, an IEP or 504 plan does not automatically get you accommodations on College Board tests. A request still has to be approved. Second, once you’re approved, you don’t reapply for each College Board exam. Accommodations stay in effect until one year after high school graduation.

1. Link your high school in MyACT, register, and answer “Yes” when asked whether you need accommodations.
2. Forward ACT’s confirmation email to your school official along with a signed Consent to Release Information form.
3. Your school official submits the request and documentation in ACT’s accommodations system.
4. Watch for the decision. If you haven’t heard from your school official within 10 business days, ACT suggests contacting them.

Starting with the June 2026 test, ACT made the accommodations deadline the same as the regular registration deadline. Time-and-a-half in a single session can be given at national test centers. Other arrangements are given during a special testing window, which ACT shortened to nine days. If you were approved before, ACT says not to submit a new request.

The enhanced ACT changed section timing, so check our enhanced ACT explainer before you practice.

ETS offers three extended-time levels for the GRE General Test: 25% (time and one-quarter), 50% (time and one-half) and 100% (double time, documentation required). You must be approved by ETS Disability Services before you schedule. ETS says to wait for the approval email, which includes registration instructions.

ETS estimates 4–6 weeks of review once your request and complete paperwork arrive, and another 2–4 weeks if it asks for more documentation. If another standardized testing agency already approved the same accommodation, ETS says you can send a copy of that approval letter instead of documentation. If your ETS approval is still current, you can request the same accommodations again without new documentation.

LSAC’s order is the reverse of ETS’s: register for an LSAT date first, then request accommodations in your JD Services account. The request deadline is always the same as the test registration deadline, and LSAC says requests submitted late won’t be reviewed.

The fastest route is LSAC’s prior testing accommodations policy. If you received extended time (up to double time) on the SAT, ACT, GED, GRE, GMAT, DAT or MCAT, you can upload a verification letter from that test sponsor and request the identical or equivalent accommodation. Once LSAC approves an accommodation, it carries forward to future LSATs, with some exceptions.

If a request isn’t fully approved, you have two business days after LSAC posts its letter to say you’ll appeal, and five calendar days to submit supporting documents. For what’s on the test itself, see the LSAT without logic games.

Once you know your accommodation, practice with it. Pacing at 1.5× is a different skill from pacing at standard time, and you want test day to feel familiar.

Every timed practice test on TestPrepGuides has a Practice timing setting: Standard (1×), Time and a half (1.5×) or Double time (2×). Practice mode is untimed if you want to learn without the clock. It’s free, there’s no sign-up, and you never upload any documents to us.

For the GRE’s 25% option, use standard timing and add a quarter with your own timer. Keep in mind that our timing settings are for practice only. Your official accommodation letter decides what you get on test day.

Then use each practice test well: here’s how to review one so your score goes up, and a test-day anxiety plan if nerves are part of the picture.