<p>And doesn’t a parent drop off his son to take the SAT, I did! I would have know if my son was not taking the test, unless of course he went and hid in the back of the gym and waited 4 hours</p>
<p>^^Agree with mom0809.
SAT cheating is not unusual–My son’s school even had kids openly and “proudly” bragging about how they cheated on SAT. What shocks me is that those kids can pay such a high amount of money, I wonder where the money came from.</p>
<p>Holy Crap! What a scheme :)</p>
<p>Though I would do it for the money 
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<p>Nah, just kidding. I prefer to study, and if I can’t, BS. It kind of worked (BSing) I got a 2190 :-)</p>
<p>Wonder the college this guy goes to? 
Are they mad? And which college does this schemer attend? :)</p>
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<p>This seems backwards. I think the ones who tried to cheat and present scores that weren’t theirs are just as bad, if not worse than the person who took the test for them.</p>
<p>I guess it is like the prostitute and the john.</p>
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<p>Maybe they used their college fund. This is an educational expense, no? :-)</p>
<p>He used fake IDs, which is an additional 7 charges; wonder how he pulled off using the ID for the female student? He multiplied his offense at least 7 times and he’s probably older at 19 than most of the others. Don’t see how any of them should “get off” at all. Don’t think those whom he took the test for should be allowed to sit for the SAT at all.</p>
<p>I had no idea that this occurred, especially with any regularity. At our kids’ HS, the proctors know the kids in the HS. Most of the kids prefer to take it at our HS (more convenient). I guess I’m naive.</p>
<p>My kids have had to take exams at other HSs when they sign up late & their HS has reached its capacity. It has always been less convenient for them & us. I hadn’t heard our kids complain about anyone blatantly cheating or bragging about cheating but have never inquired. Our HS has the most NMFs in the state & I believe the kids are proud to do their own work.</p>
<p>I had always assumed that cheating was more difficult than this - in part because all of the schools I’ve worked with check ID’s carefully.</p>
<p>However, one of my children has met a “poor performer” at college who has a high test score and the scholarship $ to go with it…makes you wonder. I vote for fingerprinting - it would raise the cost of the test, but it would be fair and honest. When money and admission is riding on this better precautions need to be taken.</p>
<p>The poor performer will likely lose any scholarship if grades aren’t maintained adequately. It happens more at some places than others. I also had thought cheating would be tougher than this.</p>
<p>Some kids test well, but there should be other tests that kiddo did well in also that should be consistent.</p>
<p>and it turns out that the parents knowingly paid for the services, will they be in legal trouble?</p>
<p>I am surprised the guy only charged a maximum of $2,500. It is a very well-off community where many are professionals and live in million dollar houses. Some students get hundreds of dollars a month in allowance, car money, clothes allowance, birthday presents, etc. It burns me up that the colleges of four of the accused students haven’t even been informed of the fraud. Only if names are revealed and students are punished will this type of fraud slow down.</p>
<p>This is probably just the tip of the iceberg.</p>
<p>I say this because The New York Times has a story on this issue in today’s edition.</p>
<p>It mentions that some 37 year old guy who runs an SAT prep tutoring service says he takes the exam every year just to stay on top of things.</p>
<p>He reports that no one has ever asked for an ID, or challenged him, even though he is not the age of your typical student.</p>
<p>By the way, my son received a 2300 on his SATs…or at least I thought he did.</p>
<p>As for the current scandal, the guy who took the exam for the other six is a student at Emory, and one of the people he took the exam for was his GIRLFRIEND. So obviously, there is zero attempt to verify identity when you take the SAT.</p>
<p>I thought about how it could have been possible for him to take the SAT for a girl. Two theories: they didn’t check the ID at all, or (more likely) the girl has a gender-neutral name, like Taylor. He’d just have to have an ID with her name “Taylor Smith”, but his own picture. Then when he’s filling out the ID section of the test, he could probably check “female” without anyone noticing. If gender is even part of the ID section. I don’t know.</p>
<p>I’ve taken the SAT multiple times this year both because I’m planning to tutor for the SAT professionally and because I have long-term plans to further my own education. My ID was in fact verified.</p>
<p>That said, all of the schools where I took the SAT recently had fewer than 1,000 students. I’m sure someone not affiliated with these schools would be recognized as such, and their ID would be checked.</p>
<p>In some areas, high schools with 3,000 students or more are the norm. It’s actually plausible that even if the tutor were a staff member at the school hosting the exam, they wouldn’t recognize a student who actually attended that school.</p>
<p>Even a teenager who earns their own money could come up with $2,500 if they really wanted to. For example, they could set aside $105 per month from a part-time job for two years. It’s that much easier for kids from well-off areas who receive hundreds of dollars per month from their parents.</p>
<p>It’s also not a red flag that a student would drive themselves to the SAT test site. Most people taking the SAT are old enough to qualify for drivers licenses. Any parking permits normally required by the school and/or parking restrictions on nearby streets are probably not in effect on Saturday. And even if the student doesn’t have their own car, their parents’ cars probably aren’t being used on a Saturday morning.</p>
<p>My S has taken the SAT several times–he was mad that he didn’t get the score he wanted & thought he deserved. We had to dissuade him from retaking the GREs or he would have taken them again, even tho his scores were very good.</p>
<p>I’m sure folks can figure out which schools are lax on checking IDs & go to those to cheat by having others take the exam for them. It’s just a sad commentary that this happens. I’m pretty sure it never happened at the private HS my kids attended because the faculty there are the proctors and they take their jobs VERY seriously. I’m sure as has been posted, that isn’t always the case, as some have posted about some pretty awful circumstances for test taking.</p>
<p>Per the article in yesterday’s NYT (“After Arrest, a Wider Inquiry on SAT Cheating”) four of those who cheated are in college and two are still in high school. The colleges of the four should immediately be informed, and then should immediately expel these students. Most colleges state that they will rescind any offer of admission if incorrect information is given on the application.</p>
<p>If these colleges don’t expel these students, then they make a further travesty of the whole admission process and totally negate the seemingly “real” accomplishments of their other students. But after this, how can an admissions officer even tell if an accomplishment listed on an application is “real”? College admissions always seemed to involve smoke and mirrors. But as is true in so many areas of American life, are money, spin, influence, and arrogance now becoming the currency that primarily defines “academic excellence” in America today?</p>
<p>^^^ Wait, they haven’t been found guilty yet! Isn’t there a presumption of innocence?</p>
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<p>It’s hard to believe that such things happen often.</p>
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<p>Exactly. I believe that the vast majority of our kids are honest. Please, use new technologies to prevent/catch cheaters, don’t create long lines at the doors of testing centers.</p>
<p>The College Board does cancel scores if irregularities are suspected. They will do this even for scores which were already sent. In this case, any university or other organization to which the score was sent is notified that it is not valid.</p>
<p>I actually think this is a good compromise in many cases. If a score is highly suspicious but there is insufficient proof of actual cheating, it’s unfair to actually accuse the student of cheating. Doing so would risk wrecking the education of a student who did nothing wrong. Conversely, canceling the score gives the student a chance to take the exam again. If they were in fact honest, they can earn a comparable score on a retake.</p>
<p>If a student were already enrolled and the SAT score on which their admission was based were canceled, the university has options that don’t require further action by the College Board. For one thing, they could ask the student hard questions about what happened. They could also see if the student could reproduce that score on another test date.</p>
<p>My proctor today was so out of it…I know more than most of these proctors at the school I take it at. A big public school will have some proctors without a clue what they are doing</p>
<p>this reminded me of suits too!
personally i don’t think that the boy who took the tests should be punished more than the people who paid hime because they are the real cheaters, he just found a way to make some money</p>