Accessible School-Leaving Examination

Options for Exam Support for Students with ASD/ADHD within the Hungarian Legal Framework

Abstract

Background and aims: A school-leaving examination is fair and valid if it primarily measures learned knowledge and skills rather than the candidate’s ability to cope with exam-specific stressors. For students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or ADHD, sensory overload, linguistically complex instructions, increased executive-function demands, and the communicative pressure of oral procedures may distort performance. This paper aims to show how the Hungarian school-leaving examination can be made genuinely accessible within the current national legal framework while maintaining measurement validity.

Methods: The study uses a thematic analysis of Hungarian legislation and the Educational Authority’s official guidance on accommodations; a comparative review of three international exam-access frameworks (UK—JCQ; Ireland—SEC/RACE; New Zealand—NZQA/SAC); and a brief case description of a consistently implemented Hungarian school-based practice.

Results: Key elements of accessibility (environmental/sensory conditions; support for understanding instructions and tasks; time and workload organisation, including supervised rest breaks; oral procedures—reducing communicative pressure; access to tools and technology; an exit–return procedure in case of overload; implementation responsibility and verifiable documentation) are often left to institutional interpretation in Hungarian practice. Across international models, a shared core is a unified, exam-specific mandatory protocol and the consistent application of the “usual way of working” principle.
Conclusions: Within the Hungarian framework, fairness and validity can be strengthened through targeted, exam-specific documentation (e.g., a dedicated “Exam Support Block” section within expert reports), complemented by a short examiner boundary protocol and an institutional implementation checklist.

Keywords: school-leaving examination; accessibility; ASD; ADHD; assessment validity