Dyslexic candidate for a civil service exam, 24 years old
Amina has had extra exam time granted by the MDPH (French disability rights agency) since high school. It doesn't show on an ID card, and it doesn't announce itself at the oral stage of a civil service exam either, in front of a panel discovering her file the moment she sits down.
The panel doesn't need to know the word dyslexia. Just what was arranged for the exam, and why.
The moment itself
8:40am, a hallway at the prefecture. Amina reads over her position summary one last time before the oral exam for an administrative assistant post. Her exam notice is tucked in a plastic sleeve, along with a card she prepared herself a few weeks earlier, on a quiet evening.
The panel calls her in. Three people, a table, a stopwatch in plain view. Before the first question is even asked, the panel chair notices the card stapled to the exam notice. She scans the QR code in thirty seconds, while Amina sits down and takes out her notes.
What she reads: extra time already accounted for by the administration, the prompt to be read aloud if needed, no comments to be made about reading hesitations. Nothing more. The chair nods, adjusts the stopwatch on the table, and the oral exam begins without Amina having had to say a word about her MDPH file.
- You write it
- The QR is in place
- The reader scans
- Understood, without explaining again
Where to place the QR code for this situation
Amina hesitated between several spots before choosing the exam notice sleeve. On the exam paper itself, ruled out immediately: written exams stay anonymous until grading, sticking a QR code on it would break that anonymity, which is disqualifying for the exam.
On her bag or a permanently visible pouch, she also dropped that idea: the panel only meets the candidate at the oral exam, and a distinctive sign worn all morning in the waiting line didn't suit her either.
The exam notice sleeve, handed directly to the exam supervisor and then passed to the panel just before the interview, was the obvious choice. It's the document everyone handles before the exam, without exception, without drawing the attention of other candidates waiting in the hallway.
Pre-written text templates
Three short texts, written once by Amina before her first exam notice. She reads them over before each new exam and adjusts them if the position changes, but the base no longer changes from one session to the next.
For the "Introduction" section
“I'm a candidate for the local government administrative assistant exam, with an exam accommodation granted by the MDPH since high school. My reading is slower than average, but my listening comprehension isn't, and neither is my speaking.”
For the "How to help" section
“If I'm given a written prompt during the exam, offer to let me read it aloud, it helps me hold onto the words. Let me use the extra time already granted without me having to ask for it again during the exam.”
For the "What to avoid" section
“No comments on my reading hesitations, no questions about my MDPH file or my high school grades during scoring. It has no place in evaluating my skills for the position.”
Conditions relevant to this situation
Dyslexia slows down reading and sometimes writing under time pressure, without affecting reasoning or spoken expression. It's often associated with dyspraxia, which makes fast handwritten note taking difficult during a timed oral exam.
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View the caseThis situation is something you should not have to replay with every new person.
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