Tuesday, April 05, 2011

LSAT Accommodations reasonable

The LSAT accommodation committee is finally getting reasonable with their expectations for evidence or they are so used to me sending in professional assessments for the last 20 years that they feel more confident about the scores and my style of writing. I've had over 95% of the LSAT assessments for accommodations in the past 2 years accepted. Winning. 

I'm working on two LSAT accommodations for learning disorders and ADHD right now. Very busy schedule with other assessments (GMAT, GRE, SAT, MCAT, Medical Exam and Bar Exam.)  I now have a permanent message with my answering service that I have no immediate appointments available and that I will email potential clients from the waiting list...which is working out so much better than trying to answer a dozen calls and emails every day and still be able to work...it just doesn't happen!

I've been able to give much more specific and direct information about accommodations by emailing instead of talking on the phone. http://www.privatetesting.com/ makes it easy for me to refer people for more information about testing and my email:  drmouton@yahoo.com is easier to group and respond.  Its also making it easier for me to filter out people who don't really qualify by giving them a screening test.  I'm turning down 90% of people contacting me because they aren't likely to qualify with their background, diagnosis (or lack of) or unusual cirumstances....which makes my success and my patient's success rate go up much higher.

Fees for Adults 16 and over are $2928 (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover accepted) for learning disability or ADHD accommodation testing, which includes the 20+ page report and completion of specialized accommodation request forms.  For psychological accommodations, testing is much longer (8 hours)  $3416 (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover accepted).  I'm able to do the entire assessment in a day. For children younger than 16 ($2440) for school accommodations testing is done in 2 hour increments on two separate days, unless parents request it all be done in a day. 

Adults and fly in testing still makes up the majority of my practice. Most of the fly in patients come from New York and Boston, with states surrounding California next...and of course nearby counties and cities. So many people fly in from San Francisco or Sacramento that I've identified a hotel down the street from my office so people can fly in the night before, walk to my office, get tested and take Supershuttle back to the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank....really neat process.  I'm able to pdf the report in an email in color with my license stamps and send physical copies by 2 day priority mail.  Had a few South Easterners from Georgia, Florida and Louisiana fly in last month. Two out of the country client fly ins since February.

I get resumes from Psychologists wanting to work for me every month, but I'm not hiring additional people, standards go down, quality goes down and I don't have time to impart my specialized accommodation knowledge on new people trying to enter the field. Lawyers keep asking to have me on retainer for their cases and again....no. I'm focused on helping individuals get accommodations through the regular route, not going through the court system.

Its been a while since I've done a post...just venting and updating!