SAT Scandal in Asia

SAT Scandal in Asia November 8 An SAT scandal is brewing in South Korea and China. As allegations of cheating on an SAT administration  across South Korea and China  continue to be tossed around, we figured wed share our two cents. Hey, you know us. Weve always got two cents. From what weve heard,  SAT tutoring companies in China were asking their students to come back after the SAT administration with questions and answers from the test they took that day. These tutoring companies were then piecing together the exams exams that College Board had no intention of releasing. And then College Board reused the questions from these exams. But this isnt completely new to The College Board. After all, this same kind of thing happened in the United States a few years ago. And the   May 2013 SAT exam was canceled in South Korea when  it was discovered that recycled questions were given out in tutoring centers. As New Yorkers, were very familiar with New York State recycling their questions for their Regents Exams. Barrons even publishes all past New York State  Regents Exams so if a student takes enough of these old exams, theyll find a good percentage of recycled questions with the same exact answer choices. Maybe thats why for a bright kid, a 95% or above on a New York State Regents Exam is the norm, not the exception. But one would think that a multi-billion dollar company like College Board would have the resources not to recycle questions. Come on, College Board! Seems pretty lazy if you ask us! Curious to read more about the SAT scandal in South Korea and China? Theres a good Washington Post piece entitled New concerns about cheating on SAT in Asia written by Valerie Strauss that you might want to check out. And were curious to hear what our readers think about this SAT scandal in Asia so let us know your thoughts by posting a Comment below. We look forward to hearing from you about this SAT scandal in Asia. SAT Scandal in Asia SAT Scandal in Asia November 14 New details are emerging about the SAT scandal in China and South Korea. The Washington Post has a great piece on how it all went down. More details are emerging about the SAT scandal in Asia and The Washington Post has an excellent overview of exactly how it all went down. As detailed in an article in The Washington Post entitled The six-step SAT cheating operation in Asia and how to stop it written by Valerie Strauss, it was quite the well planned scandal! This took quite a lot of planning and a whole lot of dishonesty. And that is by no means surprising. Not one bit.  Students in China are often handed pre-written admissions essays that have absolutely nothing to do with them. So why on earth would this SAT scandal  come out of left field? It wouldnt. According to The Washington Post, Confederates in the United States obtain recently administered SAT exams, including those that are officially undisclosed, either by copying illegally obtained test forms or compiling content from information about individual items shared on chat boardsOverseas test prep companies maintain complete databases of questions and correct answers from previously administered tests. They use these to train their regular clients (also illegal if they use questions that have not been disclosed).  Prior to each exam, some test-takers contract with these firms to provide the answers to that day’s SAT. Such services are heavily advertised on Chinese language websites such as Taobao, QQ and Wechat.  On SAT day, hired guns sit for the test at Asian sites in time zones several hours ahead of China (e.g. Auckland, New Zealand is five hours ahead of Beijing), memorize the first few items, then take a bathroom break, from which they call or text that inform ation to their superiors.  Based on this advance warning, the test prep company consults its database and identifies the test being administered in China later that day.  A list of correct answers is then transmitted to paying clients by simple technologies, such as emailing the file to their cell phones or loading it on programmable calculators that students are allowed to use in the test center. So they didnt only cheat. They cheated with the help of extraordinary planning and execution. The SAT business in China is a big business. These folks are cheating quite well. How exactly will College Board address this scandal? So far, theyve put exams coming from South Korea and China on hold. But even if these exams never count, how will College Board (and ETS, which administers the exam for College Board) going to address this growing cheating problem going forward? That remains to be seen.