Time for Exams

Your Jan. 11 editorial, “Braking Abuse of SAT,” was appropriate and insightful. But there is an even bigger and much more important problem. I believe that the SAT, Graduate Record Exam and particularly the Medical College Admissions Test discriminate against slower readers. Knowing the material, not speed-reading, should be what the grade is based on.

Many students are simply slow readers, but are tops academically. Slow reading does not only result from attention deficit disorders, dyslexia, etc. but also from English as a second language and simply from being a normal kid who is not a speed reader. All students should be given double time on all of these standardized exams. That would result in a fair evaluation of knowledge and ability, not one based on discriminatory speed-reading.

STEVEN B. OPPENHEIMER

Dir., Center for Cancer

and Developmental Biology

Cal State Northridge