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The Americans with Disabilities Act is the most important and sweeping Civil Rights legislation to be enacted in many years. Bar Examiners throughout the country are working hard to insure that applicants with disabilities are properly accommodated when they sit for the bar. Depending on the circumstances, some applicants are entitled to extra time, a private room, and other similar help. Mr. Pearce has considerable experience working with students who are eligible for accommodations, and his resources include professional referrals to psychological and medical specialists who are qualified to test an applicant and propose any needed accommodations.

One of the most difficult questions an applicant may have to think about is whether or nor he or she might suffer from an undiagnosed learning disability. Some students who are not learning disabled have a learning style that is working against them. These students benefit from one-on-one tutorial work or similar forms of guided practice, but do not need special accommodations.

Other students are able to compensate for their disabilities by working harder than their classmates, but sometimes the bar exam is a hurdle that cannot be jumped just by working harder. The diagnostic testing for learning disabilities is complicated and not inexpensive, but here is a compact self assessment test that might give you a hint that this is an area you need to investigate further. This ought to take one to three minutes to complete (more if you are distracted or learning disabled).

Directions: Answer Yes or No for each question.

1. Have you had an injury in which you've lost consciousness for more than 30 seconds?

2. Did you have any extra reading or spelling lessons during your first three grades at school?

3. Did your parents or other caretakers refer to you as "difficult to control" or as never being able to pay attention?

4. Do you have a parent, sibling, or other close relative who has been diagnosed as learning disabled or dyslexic?

5. Did you learn more than two languages at home in the first five years of your life?

6. Did you get C grades in classes you felt you understood much better than the grade would suggest?

7. Do you feel you know more than you can say?

8. Do you believe that you can only survive in a classroom that allows you to speak rather than write?

9. Do you feel you are about to "fly off the handle" when you attempt to study for more than three hours at a time?

10. Haveyou more than tripled your caffeine or sugar intake at times of stress or attempts at extended study?

11. Canyou think of more than four different answers for true and false questions when your lecture class sees only the two?

Did you answer 'yes' to four or more of the questions? If so, you may have a learning style that works against you or you may be working under a learning disability that prevents you from doing your best when you take examinations under conditions that do not take into account your particular individual needs.

The Most Common Mistake is to Study Too Much and Not Practice Enough!