Answering multiple choice questions is usually considered easier for students than writing lengthy essays in exams.

But one student who suffers from dyslexia is to take legal action to scrap the use of multiple choice questions for dyslexics because she says it is discriminatory.

If Naomi Gadian, a 21-year-old medical student, wins her case disability experts say it would have far reaching implications for higher education.

About five per cent of the population suffer from dyslexia and the proportion in higher education was three per cent in 2006/07. Students who suffer from the condition, which affects their ability to read and spell words accurately, can get 25 per cent extra time in exams.

Ms Gadian, a second year medic at The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Plymouth who had to re-sit her first year, will take the General Medical Council (GMC) to an employment tribunal under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Under the Act universities must make "reasonable adjustments" for disabled students who experience "substantial disadvantage" in their education

But the GMC said it has no powers to set medical examinations which are controlled by individual colleges and universities.

Ms Gadian who is determined to press on with her case said: “In normal life you don’t get given multiple choice questions to sit. Your patients aren’t going to ask you ‘Here’s an option and four answers. Which one is right?’”

Dr John Rack, in charge the identifying cases of dyslexia at Dyslexia Action, said: “If she did win a case this would have far reaching implications because so many exams are in multiple choice format. They would have to look hard at whether the way the questions are written disadvantages people with disabilities.”

John MacKenzie, Ms Gadian’s solicitor, said the college predominantly used multiple choice questions for assessments of medical students, which was placing her at a disadvantage. “Naomi is very bright, very dedicated and very hard-working.

“She also has a form of dyslexia which means she has difficulty with multiple choice questions.”

Multiple choice questions are now a mainstay of a number of universities examination systems particularly in medicine and the sciences but present difficulties for dyslexic students.

Mr MacKenzie said legal action was in its early stages and no date or venue has been set for the tribunal hearing.

Dr Rack said dyslexic students have difficulty with short-term memory and struggle with multiple choice questions because they forget the first options by the time they have read the final ones.

A spokeswoman for the GMC said they did not comment on individual cases, but said it had no power to force medical schools to make adjustments for students with disabilities. But she added “we have recently issued new guidance for medical schools…which outlines ideas and suggestions and offers practical advice to help them put adjustments in place to improve the accessibility of medical education for students with disabilities.”

Five per cent of students at the college which is affiliated to the University of Exeter, have dyslexia. A spokesperson for the college said: “Our ultimate responsibility is to produce doctors of the highest quality who are fit for practice, and any reasonable adjustments we have made for students with dyslexia reflect this objective.”

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