<p>Albeit no longer surprising, there was again good news for the international students who can rely on "outside" help to earn high scores. Considering how common past tests have become in Asia, it should not surprise anyone that the January 2012 will yield plenty of great scores. And for the simplest of reasons ... the test borrowed extensively from a test used in December 2009 in the US. </p>
<p>Can the College Board really be THAT naive or cynical? Recycling the verbal components of the SAT in that manner is simply asinine. Colleges that rely on international SAT scores will ultimately have to realize how fake the academic records of numerous students are. </p>
<p>Four or five years ago, I remember a poster on here, claiming to be an international student, who’d been given the same SAT test over and over. She wanted to know where she should report this. Anyone remember this? I wonder if anything ever happened.</p>
<p>I want to remind the College Board that there actually are students who, instead of studying for SAT, read the entire discussion thread so that they know what’s gonna be on their tests. It’s not that hard to predict what SAT would be “recycled” again, if one carefully analyses the recent "recycle"s. They predict which SAT from previous test dates would appear, and basically they know the answers to critical questions before they head to the testing centers. College Board should do something about this, seriously.</p>
<p>You know, it’s not just the recycling of tests. The exams are sometimes not administered with integrity. I don’t think there’s enough control with the international examiners by College Board. I know this because my all of my children have at one time or another done SSAT, SAT, SAT II, and ACT outside of the US, and some of the things they recounted sounded a bit shady.</p>
<p>I wonder if the CB even cares. They recycle old tests, and it’s cheaper for them than creating new ones. By recycling in a predicable manner, they encourage many test takers to think they can do unnaturally well, so they are encouraged to sign up for the test. They collect their fees. And repeat. </p>
<p>The only thing I remember that galvanized the CB towards real change was when the UC system threatened to drop the SAT entirely (sometime in the 90’s?), because it favored privileged students. Low and behold the analytical section was dropped, the essay section was added, and SAT II’s were born. The UC system is still rattling sabers, but rampant tales of international and domestic cheating don’t seem to phase them.</p>
<p>I think CYNICAL is the right assessment. What incentive does the CB have to rigorously police honesty in administering tests abroad? The number of tests administered abroad are a tiny, tiny fraction of the number administered domestically.</p>
<p>The CB and U.S. colleges do, however, gain from more int’l students paying for the test and getting admitted as full-pay students at U.S. colleges, many of which are now under a budget-squeeze. If these students cheat abroad, who’s to know in the U.S.? The U.S. domestic students are all far away in America.</p>
<p>Also, I’ve seen 1st hand abroad the difference in ethical standards. In many countries, tales of corruption/bribery elicit a yawn</p>
<p>The only thing we can “thank” Atkinson and his stable of morons at the UC for is a longer and more expensive test. The College Board is still laughing about how they played the UC and made their barely used SATII writing test a national problem. Well, that is TCB and the foreign company that earned the right to grade those SAT essays nobody pays attention to.</p>
<p>The College Board calls itself a non-profit, but a lot of people are making money off of it. After all, the SAT is the only game in town (ACT has minor presence):</p>
<p>I have no doubt that the cheating is huge in developing countries. But don’t blame on these cheaters. Blame it on the American colleges and private boarding HS. Why do these colleges and HS use the American application process for foreign students? Even English teachers in the developing countries don’t know how to write “quirky” essays and don’t know how to write meaningful letter of recommendations. I have seen a letter of recommendation that has every item marked as “One of the top few I have ever encountered in my life”, and another one that has every item marked as “Good (Above average)” for the same student. That’s why students pay the “professionals” to handle the application for them.</p>
<p>I think the only test that foreign students should take is TOEFL.</p>
<p>I disagree. The system does not create the cheating. Lack of morals and integrity is the cause. There is no excuse to the organized cheating that is condoned and rampant in certain cultures. Overseas and … here.</p>
<p>“Why do these colleges and HS use the American application process for foreign students?”</p>
<p>An American application process is used because it is for attending an American school. If a foreigner cannot independently complete the American-style application process, then there is a message here. Maybe the foreigner is not likely to succeed in an American-style college setting.</p>
<p>TOEFFL only assesses English procifiency, while the SAT (in theory) benchmarks academic aptitude for students coming from schools with very differnent levels of academic excellence.</p>
<p>And what’s with the hostility with American HS boarding schools?</p>
<p>“An American application process is used because it is for attending an American school. If a foreigner cannot independently complete the American-style application process, then there is a message here.”</p>
<p>I understand. But do American colleges get what they want with this process? Even the large part of American public HS don’t have enough counselors to help students with this process.</p>
<p>“And what’s with the hostility with American HS boarding schools?”</p>
<p>I don’t have any hostility with American HS boarding schools. But only the top ones that have money don’t court foreign students. Many others that are short of money recruite agressively in Asia. I know it because I am helping one of my friends to send his kid to the US. To tell the truth, one of the BS already accepted my friend’s kid last November 2011 (way before the March 2012 acceptance date for American students) and the kid did not have any effort in the application.</p>
<p>The reason (in principle) that top U.S. universities use an American-style application process (i.e. extra-curriculars, essays) is to help distinguish between thousands and thousands of students with near-identical numerical stats. If an American kid cannot complete an application without hand-holding by a school counselor, then I would argue that that American kid is not ready to go to that college.</p>
<p>I realize in Asia that kids are admitted to universities solely on the basis of the scores of their college entrance exams, and what has that got them? A suicide-inducing rat-race of late-night academic cramming and tutoring, to the exclusion of developing any other talents. No creativity. No intellectual curiosity. Great at taking tests but otherwise poorly prepared to contribute independently. I’ve witnessed the fruits of this type os education system first hand, having worked in numerous countries.</p>
<p>On the topic of U.S. boarding schools. Yes the elite ones have missions to support American students first. Should this be a surprise to you? Do the elite schools in your country exist to serve foreigners first? The lower quality U.S. boarding schools exploit the rich international kids for their ability to full pay. Again, no surprise.</p>
<p>It’s ridiculous that CB would even consider reusing an old test, period.
It would take me about an hour to find an excerpt from a poorly written early nineteenth-century feminist work and write ten questions relating to it. I doubt anyone would notice a significant difference between my questions and those used by the College Board.
It’s just laziness.</p>
<p>Do you think that most public HS teachers know how write good letter of recommendations?
You statement offends many wealthy parents who hire private counselors to help their kids.</p>
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<p>Then why complain about cheating?
Actually these schools cheat the foreign students. They paint beautiful pictures about their schools, falsely advertise about the quality of their schools.</p>
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<p>What does this have to do with this discussion? It’s a pointless argument.</p>
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<p>I did not say Asian countries have better education than the US. But your statement sounds like a cliche to me. It does not help this discussion.</p>
<p>coolweather, you argued previously that int’l kids should be assessed on the basis of TOEFFL tests alone. I’m arguing that using test scores alone are a good way to assess test-taking skills, but perhaps be not an effective way to assess for overall ability. As this thread is about cheating on the SAT, it behooves the schools to assess students by additonal criteria (i.e. essays, teachers recs) besides test scores alone.</p>
<p>I don’t care about offending wealthy American parents that hire private counselors to get their kids thru the application process. I think those wealthy American parents are either lazy or asses. </p>
<p>I mentioned that "Yes the elite ones have missions to support American students first. Should this be a surprise to you? Do the elite schools in your country exist to serve foreigners first? " in response to your earlier, bitter-sounding statement about elite American BS’s with lots of endowment money for FA not giving it to int’l students.</p>