Received from a student this morning. Yes, that’s right: the day of the test:
Some of my post was cut off so I will attempt to recreate it.
The test is being cancelled because it has been “compromised.” Rumor has it that it is being sold.
ACT would like you to believe that test security incidents are isolated, but they are not. Tests are lost/misplaced regularly and students and their parents are lied to constantly. The worst part is upper management keeps the customer service representatives in the dark completely or encourages them to lie.
To: All examinees registered to take the June 11, 2016, ACT in South Korea and Hong Kong
This letter serves to inform you that ACT is cancelling the June 11, 2016, administration of the ACT test at all test centers in South Korea and Hong Kong. ACT has just received credible evidence that test materials intended for administration in these regions have been compromised. Accordingly, ACT took the difficult but appropriate step of cancelling the test event to ensure the fairness of the exam for all examinees.
The June 11 test date will not be rescheduled. Please do not report to the test center or contact the school. ACT will issue an automatic refund of your June registration fees. If you would like to test on a future ACT test date, registration for the 2016/2017 test dates will open the week of June 20th.
If you are facing college application deadlines, you may provide a copy of this message to colleges to which you applied as verification that you were registered for the June 11, 2016, test date.
We deeply regret that you are affected by this unfortunate situation and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience it may cause you. Please direct any questions concerning your registration or the information in this message to ACT-reg@act.org.
Thank you,
ACT Test Administration
I WOKE UP AT 6:45 FOR THIS TEST AND THEY DO THIS
The following email was sent out today from an ACT manager working in Customer Care:
"We are cancelling all ACT test administrations scheduled for Hong Kong and South Korea tomorrow. We are in the process of notifying test center staff and examinees, but cannot discuss this with callers until the press released is made public. I will follow up with an email and we will meet briefly as soon as we have talking points. South Korea is 14 hours ahead of us, so students will be reporting to the test centers between 5:30 and 6:00 our time. Please prepare yourself for difficult phone calls. If any of you can stay late, it would be greatly appreciated. You’re welcome to stay until the queues are cleared. Pizza and treats will be provided.
Sad for the honest folks…
Indeed 
So what, if any, are the implications for the US test tomorrow? Anyone know?
No word so far
Uh, Marvin100, are you involved in ACT testing in South Korea and China? This cancellation does not involve students in the United States, Europe or anybody else other than students in South Korea or Hong Kong.
If test security was compromised, wouldn’t you prefer to go back to bed rather than take the test when some test-takers have studied it before the test date, but not you? If you did not have the advantage of studying the actual test beforehand, your score could or would be compromised by an unknown amount if test security is breached. Wouldn’t be better for cancel test for everybody rather than trying to identify and notify cheaters individually? What is one cheater is missed or one John Smith is confused with another John Smith?
About timing of information. ACT and other testing agencies are vigilant about test security, but there is no specific time when a breach has occurred, ACT is notified, an investigation is undertaken, the threat is documented to ACT’s satisfaction and a decision about the test is made and communicated asap to affected test takers. . I would prefer the test be cancelled before the scheduled exam rather than learn my scores cancelled because of a security problem.
Of course, there are many more questions about violation of test security than the public knows about. It is important for ACT to verify that a test has been compromised and take action as soon as the reality of the threat is verified. Do you want to know when kids are caught cheating individually or with a group, or an area like South Korea and Hong Kong has a verified threat that does not affect you, or when other variations of threats to test security are found.
Now here is a problem that is a non-problem, completed test forms are looked over for irregularities and then are grouped and boxed to be sent to the testing agency. All boxes from a test site are picked up st the same time on the schedule of the carrier on a day the company is open. When are UPS and the post office not open==Saturday and Sunday and afternoons after.X. The boxes are delivered to the router,and boxes ride on the conveyor belt that sorts boxes to the ultimate destination. If I were to put money on it, I would bet that boxes from one test site might be sorted into several big trucks going where-ever the boxes will be sent to ACT by plane or truck.
ACT is in Iowa City, IA so I would guess that boxes from Iowa City or Cedar Rapids arrive before tests from Bangor. ME; but the individual boxes from Bangor may arrive in IC on different days. Boxes are stored until they are reading for scoring. The details of all of this are complex; even approaching miracle-level. What happens if a box is late leaving the test site or one box from Bangor goes astray?r The hunt is on!
This is all very usual for all of us! People expecting something in Portland, ME learn that their package went to Portland, OR. Our luggage doesn’t arrive at baggage pickup. After all luggage, but yours or mine, has arrived at baggage claim, we must go to the office to complete a missing bag report. Everybody has had lost mail or a shipment from Amazon went missing…Or, on the price is right, the pink rat just stops.
How much personal notification of something that is not germane to me is do I really need.
I teach high school students in Korea. Not ACT, but some of my students are affected by this.
Debatable–if cheating and test security are issues somewhere, that affects test takers and college applicants everywhere.
I don’t know and it’s not really up to me to decide. I’m sure people have differing opinions. That said, I agree that cancellation was the right choice here. My criticism is of the conditions that made the cancellation necessary in the first place.
You have a lot of faith in the test companies. I don’t share that faith, and I’ve been working in the test prep industry full time for almost 15 years. In this case, the Reuters report (by a Pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist) says the ACT knew of the breach on Friday, but didn’t cancel until Saturday morning. People’ will have various opinions about how much that matters, of course.
Actually, it’s even simpler: The ACT sends tests to test centers two weeks in advance and actually instructs test centers to open and check the contents (!). Surely this isn’t “test security.” I assume that the next time around the ACT will send them under padlock as the CB started doing a year or two ago.
I don’t know; I’m not a mind-reader. Nor did I post this for you personally. It’s odd to me that you’ve written such a long post mainly to say that this “is not germane to [you].” Sounds like you’re wasting your own time. At any rate, I wasn’t intending to waste your time. The internet is full of information, some germane, some not; it’s your life and your choice what to read and pay attention to.
For someone who has their kid taking the ACT in the U.S. tomorrow, this seems like a very good thing. Otherwise their score would have had to compete with who knows how many outstanding but fraudulently obtained scores in the fall. Kudos to ACT for taking the necessary action!! I agree with @marvin100 that it seems pretty loose to allow boxes to be opened two weeks in advance at test centers, given the high stakes. Where something acquires a lot of perceived value and quantities are limited, entrepreneurs will try to create a black market.
US colleges need to stop admitting students from countries that can’t protect the integrity of the tests. It is going to happen. I just wish that they’d do it now before more ill prepare and corrupt students enter US schools.
To students who had planned to cheat-please stay in your country. We don’t want you in our universities.
Incorrect. When College Board and ACT cancel tests in Hong Kong, they do so because they are worried about cheating among mainland Chinese students who fly to Hong Kong to take the test. (The ACT and SAT are not offered in mainland China, except to international students attending international schools.)
Yes, whenever something terrible happens to large numbers of people, there are always posters on College Confidential ready to celebrate.
Please bear in mind that this action is something of an empty gesture. Sure, Hong Kong may be the primary testing destination for mainland Chinese students, but plenty of others no doubt flew to Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, etc., and have not been prevented from taking the test.
@jgoggs I apologize if I came off as insensitive. I’m not trying to celebrate the fact that 5500 students can not take the ACT. That is not a positive thing. It’s sad that a large number of them will suffer the consequences of the fact that as yet unknown numbers of the potential test takers, but undoubtedly a minority, paid for a testing advantage.
What I am happy about (while still having the capacity to feel sad for someone else’s kid who won’t be able to take it) is that my kid will have a playing field that hopefully is a little more level than it apparently otherwise would have been. Whether that ultimately makes any difference in her college applications is impossible to quantify, and yet, it still matters. You are right that unknown numbers of other test takers may be cheating on the test, in other countries as you mentioned or possibly even in the United States.
Let’s make admissions even more discriminatory by banning admission from all Asian countries because a select few cheat. Note that this decision would affect millions of Americans overseas.
Protecting the integrity of the tests is presumably ACT’s own responsibility.
American universities do, in fact, want such students.
Then I likewise apologize for my sarcastic response, but bear in mind that many of the “Hong Kong” students are actually mainland Chinese who, along with their parents, flew to Hong Kong for the weekend for the specific purpose of taking this test, only to find out it was canceled when they woke up. Meanwhile, any of their peers who flew to Taiwan, Japan, etc., got to take the test as expected.
It isn’t a few select few that cheat-it is a official system that colludes to cheat. And yes, there is “discrimination”. The majority of colleges in the US are funded by the tax payers of the US and not by the people in your country. Likewise, in your country the schools are designed for students from your country. I don’t know how they are funded. Yes, the schools in the US reserve most spots for students whose families pay taxes and support the schools in the US. If American students were to come to your country, some barely able to speak the language and without college level writing skills, what would the response be? Would officials open the doors and welcome them in to the schools in droves? Now how about if the US government were allowing businesses that make up credentials, fake letters of recommendation and codify methods to cheat on standardized tests? Would schools in your country still welcome American students with open arms?
I would hope there would be a way to close doors to internationals student from countries that have allowed organized cheating until there was a way to secure tests and credentials and I would hope there would be a way to keep this from impacting on Americans overseas. And yes, it may hurt some international students who would not cheat and who would love to come to the US. But it is more important to ensure the integrity of the US schools.
Jgoggs,
The US schools don’t want the cheating students, they want their money .
I’ll be interested in the Washington Post story sure to follow on this and hopefully more facts will eventually surface. There must be a better way to prevent cheating on these tests.
I’d keep an eye out for the Steve Stecklow’s Reuters reports.