The SAT and ACT were supposed to measure how students perform under pressure, on the same clock, under the same standards. But a growing number of parents now believe the rules have quietly changed. Instead of equal competition, they argue, America’s college entrance exams are increasingly rewarding diagnoses, accommodations, and parental persistence.
At the center of the controversy is a sharp rise in students receiving extra time and other testing accommodations for disabilities and medical conditions. While accommodations were created to help students with legitimate barriers compete fairly, many parents now believe the system has drifted into something very different, one where pressure is softened, standards are bent, and families with money and influence gain an advantage.
According to figures cited by testing organizations, about 6.7% of SAT takers received extra time last year, compared with roughly 2% about a decade ago. The ACT shows a similar jump, with 7% of students receiving accommodations compared with 4.1% in 2013.
To critics, this is not simply a statistical trend. It reflects what they see as a broader culture increasingly uncomfortable with competition itself.
Parents Say Competition Is Being Replaced With Accommodation
Many frustrated parents argue that standardized testing is supposed to reward preparation, focus, and the ability to perform under equal conditions. Instead, they increasingly see a system that allows some students to sidestep those pressures.
Long Island dermatologist Adarsh Vijay Mudgil said his daughter reported that at least 60 classmates at her high school received extra time on the ACT. After hearing that, Mudgil became convinced something was wrong.
“It’s cheating,” Mudgil said. “It puts our kids at a disadvantage.”
Mudgil later devoted podcast episodes to the issue, warning that the trend could weaken students’ ability to handle adversity and perform under stress.
“We’re grooming a generation that is just not going to be capable of performing under pressure, and that’s a scary thought,” he said.
Other parents share that frustration. Shannon Alsheimer, whose daughter attended high school in Massachusetts, said students openly bragged that “their mom got them a 504” plan before taking the SAT.
“We’re making it too easy on kids to find excuses rather than digging deeper and putting the time and effort in,” Alsheimer said. “It’s a crutch.”
To critics, the message being sent to students is troubling: if competition feels difficult, find a workaround. If pressure becomes uncomfortable, ask for accommodations. Instead of teaching resilience, they argue, schools and adults increasingly teach students how to seek exceptions.
The Disabilities Raising Eyebrows
No serious critic disputes that some students genuinely need accommodations. ADHD, auditory processing disorders, and other learning disabilities have long justified modified testing conditions. Students may receive time-and-a-half, double time, separate rooms, or additional breaks depending on documented needs. Severe anxiety cases can reportedly stretch ACT testing across multiple days.
Yet parents increasingly question some of the conditions now being used to secure extra time.
Several Manhattan parents said some families seek gastroenterologists to diagnose irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease, allowing unlimited bathroom breaks during testing. Anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other psychiatric conditions are also used to support accommodation requests.
For skeptical parents, what feels strange is not that these conditions exist, but how conveniently some diagnoses seem to emerge just before the SAT or ACT, particularly for students who have excelled academically for years without accommodations.
College consultant Laurie Kopp Weingarten said frustrated parents now raise the issue constantly.
“I feel like 80% of the students are getting extra time, and they don’t need it!” one mother complained during a presentation.
Weingarten believes a system designed to help vulnerable students is becoming distorted by access and privilege.
“The accommodations were meant to level the playing field,” she said. “But what’s happening is they’re tilting the playing field toward those with money and access.”
The $10,000 Workaround
Much of the anger centers on reports that some affluent parents are spending between $2,000 and $10,000 on neuropsychological evaluations in hopes of obtaining diagnoses that unlock extra time.
Attorney Clint Barkdoll said many families appear to target diagnoses that are difficult to objectively measure.
“A lot of times they’re looking for something like anxiety or something that’s sort of intangible like that, that they know is just enough to get them the special accommodations,” Barkdoll said. He noted that some students reportedly receive “hours of additional time,” which critics see as a major advantage on a time-sensitive test.
Barkdoll also pointed to another complaint fueling outrage among parents: colleges do not know whether a score came from standard testing conditions or a heavily accommodated version.
“If you are given more time, those accommodations are not noted on your final score,” he said, meaning colleges have “no idea” whether students completed the exam under normal time limits or with additional hours.
He also questioned the lengths some families go to when many colleges no longer even require SAT scores.
“The families that are doing this must feel that they’re still gaining some advantage,” Barkdoll said.
Scott Hamilton: ‘Not Finishing the SAT Is Not a Disability’
Scott Hamilton, an Atlanta clinical psychologist, has become one of the clearest voices warning that the system may be drifting too far.
Hamilton described a “surreal” experience after evaluating a student whose family hoped to secure accommodations. When he concluded the student did not qualify, he said the parents became angry.
“In what universe do we live in when I said their kid functions really well and they were mad at me?” Hamilton said. “Not finishing the SAT is not a disability.”
Hamilton added that it is unusual to diagnose learning disabilities for the first time late in high school and called evaluations suspiciously close to SAT season a “red flag.”
“I agree wholeheartedly that accommodations are being abused, and my profession has contributed to this,” Hamilton said. “I don’t think it’s a willful conspiracy, but we lean toward wanting to help.”
The Other Side of the Debate
Supporters of broader accommodations argue critics are missing the bigger issue: students who genuinely struggle but cannot afford evaluations or documentation.
Emily Tarconish believes access matters more than occasional abuse.
“I would rather open up access to the five kids who need accommodations but can’t afford documentation, and maybe there’s one person who has paid for an evaluation, and they really don’t need it,” Tarconish said.
But for angry parents watching accommodation rates surge, the concern runs deeper than extra minutes on an exam. They see a culture increasingly suspicious of competition, uncomfortable with pressure, and eager to soften standards in the name of fairness or sympathy. To them, the SAT debate is about more than testing. It is about whether schools still believe achievement should come from meeting the same challenge under the same rules.
