<p>I remember taking my daughter to her SAT exam a few years back. It was a crowded mess and not at her h.s., so I hung around to make sure she got in ok. I saw a kid there who didn’t have an ID, but he had his yearbook and a friend with him who verified that was him in the yearbook. I was trying to hang around to see the outcome, but decided it wasn’t my business :-(, so I left.</p>
<p>I live in motgomerery county, a top county and they did not check my ID, also the asian boy sitting next to me got the same test form and asked if he could copy off me, the kid kept peeking at my scantron all test, very annoying as well as disconsertingm good thing the proctor couldnt care less…</p>
<p>Obviously it’s not great for these kids to cheat but let’s at least stop pretending that the SAT is fair or even a good marker of students’ abilities without kids like these.</p>
<p>I know people who have been offered cash to take SATs for other, but not THAT much cash… and for $2,500, I would at least expect a 2300.</p>
<p>@818215: Was this on yesterday’s test date? When two students in the same room have very similar answers, the College Board will sometimes simply cancel both scores without trying to assign blame. It actually would have been safer to talk to the proctor privately in this case so that the proctor could notice for themselves and eject the cheater - which would probably let your score stand.</p>
<p>And the College Board canceling scores can really cause problems even if it’s not punitive. In particular, if the test date in question is the last one whose scores will arrive in time to meet a deadline for admissions or scholarships, having your scores canceled could mean you don’t get admitted or don’t get the scholarship.</p>
<p>I know that many people, and probably most teenagers, don’t like to rat people out. But in some situations, if you don’t, you’re likely to share the blame when something happens. This is true not just in the SAT but also in life.</p>
<p>Done correctly, the other student wouldn’t even know you reported them. For example, you could just talk to the proctor privately while the other student goes to the water fountain on a break. Then it would seem like the proctor just happened to notice.</p>
<p>“I know people who have been offered cash to take SATs for other, but not THAT much cash… and for $2,500, I would at least expect a 2300.”</p>
<p>One of the reasons they were caught is because their SAT scores were disproportionately high compared to their GPAs.</p>
<p>My question is how did high schoolers even come up with $2,500 anyways? They probably had to plan this years ago to save up that much.</p>
<p>They are from a pretty rich area. Their parents probably have that much in their walets every day. So take like $100 a day, and before long they would have enough.</p>
<p>I think there is a non-trivial chance that some of the parents gave the money to the kids, and I definitely hope the DA looks into this. Mail fraud, anyone? (They got Spitzer that way.)</p>
<p>People keep saying Great Neck is rich. It certainly is quite well-to-do, but is not money-flowing-out-of-every-hole rich by local standards. According to Wikipedia, the median family income for Great Neck is $89,733. By contrast, the figure for Greenwich, CT is $122,719, and for Scarsdale is $200,001. And the real serious money often stays in Manhattan, where the parents fork out $40K/year to send their kids to PRIVATE schools.</p>
<p>It is waaaaaay too easy to get somebody else to take the SAT for you. I’ve heard rumors of some of the people at my school paying others… </p>
<p>But still. You’d think somebody with a ‘high’ SAT would be less ■■■■■■■■. Now his life is screwed. But then again… the SAT is a poor indicator of smartness. MY SAT is higher than his, but my GPA is nothing to brag about.</p>
<p>In response to the kids being innocent.</p>
<p>Get this-
WHAT IF, the college guy was involved in a double plot. Say, one student paid the college student to offer to cheat for the 6 students at the high school, so they get the blame, WHILE the conspiring student ALSO cheated on the exam (or wanted to get some sort of revenge).</p>
<p>I mean, to be honest, 2500 dollars is a lot to take the SAT. And wouldn’t you expect at least a 2300 + for that much money? Oh well, I guess it was the rich neighborhood.</p>
<p>Does anyone else see this as a possible movie?</p>
<p>@RoanFel I really hope you’re not serious about the possibility of that scenario.</p>
<p>The kids parents probably knew about this. I understand their parents are rich and all but even rich parents don’t just hand their kids a check for $2500 without asking what its for. I guess the parents thought the pros outweighed the cons.</p>
<p>How did they get caught, and my SAT scores suck 1050 
not fair to people like me that dont have $2,500 to pay LOL :P</p>
<p>so is this going on the cheaters file or not? do u think their future colleges will find out?</p>
<p>$2500 is not all that much money when viewed against the cost of an SAT prep course (or two) and is not a lot at all in comparison to private SAT tutoring which is common in the towns of the surrounding area.</p>
<p>I am admittedly speculating here but Great Neck is also the center of an insular and interrelated ethnic community. We don’t know the names or nationalities of the kids who paid Esheghoff to take the test, but if the participants were confined to kids who knew eachother in that community, it might possibly go to explain how names and even sex of a test taker (based on given first name) could have gone undetected by proctors at schools in towns in other parts of the Island.</p>
<p>^so is this going on the cheaters file or not? do u think their future colleges will find out? </p>
<p>My guess is no, collegeboard will not do a thing except canceling the score. My cynical side says that the case will be tied up in court for awhile and won’t effect the kids’ college applications. Or their good lawyers will settle and the records will be sealed.</p>
<p>Maybe not. The Daily News reported a couple of days ago that two of the students have already been forced out of Tulane and the article identified the schools where the others attend (ASU, Baruch & Colorado). Supposedly school officials interviewed at one or two of the schools said that falsifying information in an application would be violations of their honor code they’d be subject to being expelled. Notwithstanding what Collegeboard does or doesn’t do, it certainly shouldn’t be hard for the schools to figure out who the involved students are.</p>
<p>I deff think it should go on their record. Not fair to the kids who actually took the test THEMSELVES. although it is a pretty clever idea…</p>
<p>Some of the kids already got their apps rescinded, so ttparent you should research before u make improbable assumptions.</p>
<p>@ttparent Really you think no? Paying someone to take the SAT is a illegal. Of course it’s going to go on their record. Also, the SAT is heavily used by many schools to decide who gets accepted and rejected. If their SAT score is much higher than it should be, then the colleges need to know that.</p>
<p>And they get caught because their SAT score is not reflexive of their grades in school. Like if a kid has a 65 in algebra II, then I would bet my life he wouldn’t score a 700+ on math. But GPA isn’t everything. I scored a 35 on the ACT yet my UW GPA is a 91.6.</p>