Applying for GRE accommodations

I realized rather late that I would need accommodations for the GRE. I hadn’t thought about it much, because I hadn’t needed accommodations for high school exams or during normal college exams. But 4 hours of testing with only a single 10-minute break really wasn’t going to work for my arthritis or my bladder.

On bad arthritis days, my joints start to ache and even burn within a half hour of sitting down. And on bad bladder days, I have to use the bathroom every half hour. Since I didn’t have a urologist at the time that I was applying, though, I went through the process of getting extra breaks for my arthritis with my rheumatologist.

GRE accommodations

The GRE lets you apply for accommodations for health problems and disabilities. Some of the standardized ones include extra breaks, extra time, readers, and magnification. Other accommodations that aren’t standardized can also be requested, but I can only imagine that scheduling exams becomes more difficult with them.

When I was applying for the extra breaks, the whole process was very confusing at first, and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get approved in time to take the exam when I wanted to. I read online about someone who had to wait 6 weeks to be approved and then another 2 months to schedule. Would I have to try to take it without accommodations?

Applying without accommodations history

There are three parts to applying for accommodations: your information, your accommodations requested, and the certification of eligibility. The confusing part for me came because I couldn’t produce a certification of eligibility, also called the accommodations history. I don’t have an accommodations history, and I was worried it would impact my ability to get accommodations approved.

The good news is that the certification of eligibility isn’t required. In its place, or even in addition to it, you can provide a letter from a healthcare provider as documentation. ETS does detail what that letter should contain, which was really important to get to my doctor. Depending on your situation, documentation from a doctor may or may not be required. Read the list carefully under Step 3 in their handbook.

Unfortunately, the online application system makes it seem as though the certification of eligibility is required. There’s a whole page for supplying a certification of eligibility. I had to select that I was not including a certification of eligibility and upload my doctor’s note in the documentation session.

Approval & scheduling

I didn’t even know how much time I could or would be granted for extra breaks. Was there one standardized time? Would my doctor have to indicate how much time I needed? My doctor wrote a note explaining my diagnosis and why I need extra breaks. She explained that 5 minutes per hour of the exam should be enough. As a result, I was approved for extra breaks not exceeding 30 minutes. I’m not sure what other amounts are available.

Even though I didn’t have the certification of eligibility, my application was approved in less than 3 weeks. I was able to schedule an exam for two weeks later, if I had wanted to. With accommodations for extended time, extra breaks, screen magnification, and color selection, you can schedule your test using the usual online system. For other accommodations, there’s a number you have to call so they can coordinate it with you, and that may take longer.

The practice exams offered by ETS allow you to select the accommodations you’ll have on the exam to get a realistic experience. For the exam day, I just have to bring the approval letter I received (in addition to other required materials) to the exam to verify my accommodations.

Now all that’s left to do is prepare for my exam next month! Best of luck to everyone on their own!

-Bri

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