<p>Eh. People cheat a lot in college too, I guess you just learn to accept these things.</p>
<p>AP essay questions are the easiest to cheat on, and there's no way to stop it. On the side of the paper where you make notes, write your notes big and flip the page halfway up as if you're reading the previous page. That way your ideas on your French and Indian War DBQ for AP US history are all on the money. Works especially well if you're in close proximity of another test taker and both of you know the material pretty well but are having a hard-time getting started. I did this last year on accident (I actually was reading the previous page), and since our proctor is absolute crap...she fell asleep, it could've been worse.</p>
<p>Dude if you didn't own a tutoring company you wouldn't give a ****. But i agree with you, there has to be something done about cheaters.</p>
<p>cd8705,</p>
<p>True, and if you guys were not high school students, taking the exams, and trying to get into colleges, I wouldn't be posting my concerns in this forum. But the fact is that I DO own a tutoring company, and you guys ARE high school students, so we really SHOULD care -- let's solve this problem!</p>
<p>too much work and im already done with the process pretty much lol</p>
<p>Yay, lets all rally behind Godot so that his customers are more satisfied after they pay him 300 bucks an hour for doing something that they could (or at least I can so far, and Im no ivy league aspirant) learn out of a $15 book.</p>
<p>ashernm,</p>
<p>You are certainly entitled to your opinions, but I resent your implication that what I do is somehow cheating students. I can tell you from experience that MANY students would not experience the score gains that they in fact do achieve from my programs if they had studied on their own. I know this because many have tried (prior to trying my courses): these students study on their own for months (with $15 books or multiple $15 books/software), take school SAT courses, which are notoriously ineffective, or take other courses (think Kaplan and PR) or tutors, with little or no improvement. It's great that you could study on your own and get what I must assume were good improvements, but not every student can, and many students can at least benefit from the structure and discipline that a test prep course can impose, not to mention the strategies, content, and practice that cannot be easily self-learned (or can only be learned independently at a very large expense of time and effort) merely from a book or software program. As another point of comparison, the largest score increases that students report they achieve through self-study here is on the order of 200 points, while the best of my students improve by 250 points and more from the starting score. In fact, the average improvement that one achieves through self-study seems to be about 70-100 points, at least here on CC. The average improvement we achieve in a standard course, on the other hand, is about 170-180 points on the old SAT. As you know, it is also more difficult to improve one's score once you hit a 1300+ or so, even through intense self-study. Yet, many of my students in this range improve by at least 100 points, and the best break 1500 (one student scored a 1530 in November, for example). You do the math. Therefore, I will argue that even when you have achieved what you considered good improvements by studying on your own, you may have likely gotten an even higher, sometimes significantly higher, score if you had secured an expert tutor to help you over a long-term course.</p>
<p>Finally, for your information, I do not charge $300 an hour. Far from it. There are many ineffective and disreputable programs and tutors out there who DO take a student's money and run; I pride myself on NOT being one of them. I charge a very modest fee, and my company of tutors is arguably better than most of the $250-an-hour tutors you will find. Perhaps you should do some more (or a lot more) research (e.g., use more than your own personal experience and find out what I actually charge) before you lambaste someone for providing what I consider sometimes an essential and very effective service. Would you accuse an acting coach or a piano teacher for charging too much money because the skills can be learned from a book? I suppose according to you, it would be quite easy to pick those up as well from a book. Don't think that test-taking skills are necessarily very different from these other skills -- they can often all require an expert to learn WELL.</p>
<p>sharing answers during bathroom breaks is easy</p>
<p>that small break in the ap test is also an easy way to share answers</p>
<p>I agree that cheating on the SAT and PSAT is a very real problem. When students were able to suppress their SAT II scores, the cheating was unreal. Sign up for three, put all your time into one or two and only release those scores. PSAT cheating is the worst since they are administered in classrooms with many clueless proctors.
I think ETS should arrange to have all their tests videotaped and the video gets sent back in with the score sheets and exam materials. Virtually every school in the United States has this equipment already. Just knowing the test is being taped should cut down on most of the cheating. Even looking ahead or working on sections after time can have an impact on scores. Proctors who mess up with timing (happens all the time) can have an impact. One of two minutes may not seem like a big deal, but two or three questions can mean the difference between a 750 and an 800 at the top of the scale- not so much at the lower end.</p>
<p>if you didnt know cheating is a way to get ahead, i not saying im for it but you people need to worry about yourselves and not others eventually cheating will catch up on them. Like my mother always said: " SEE AND BLIND, HEAR AND DEAF</p>
<p>cheating rocks! It's soooooo fun! I sincerely hope u guys all cheat(tell ur friends to also)!</p>
<p>i mean come on everyone cheats now and then, i cheated on my physics midterm today and my FRIEND didnt have a problem we helped each other out.</p>
<p>sorry godot for the implication. awhile back i read a story in the NY times about tutors charging 250 an hour and they have their schedules backed up. Most of the clients are probably preppy rich white kids ( which i could qualify as anyway, jewish white). I am just incredulous over the amount of money people spend for it. I havent taken the SAT I yet but I did take 2 SAT IIs, and did pretty good (not by CC standards) on WH, 720, through mostly self study, with a bad book, kaplans, instead of barrons.
The base score is more important anyway, a guy at my school without studying got in the 1400s on a practice, then studied and got a 1600 on the real thing.</p>
<p>basically, cheating is essential! It's really fun.,......just try and you'll see what i mean!</p>
<p>its essential, but i do it cuz i dont studying i.e. it pays to have smart friends</p>
<p>I actually think cheating in general is more common and accepted than it was 15 or 20 years ago. One reason is that teachers are less diligent. Therefore, students are usually not caught, and when they ARE caught, the punishment is often pretty mild, making it a very ineffective deterrent. What's more, I don't think high schools really teach ethics or values anymore. As some of you so ably demonstrate, many students actually think that cheating is "essential" or "fun." I guess it's partly that teachers do not instill these values, and partly the pressure cooker environment, with all the stress involved in getting the best grades and getting into the best colleges, that high school can often represent, that combine to create this culture of cheating. Cheating's always been around, but you guys today cheat A LOT more. It's unfortunate.</p>
<p>Yo Godot,</p>
<p>Yeah, cheating sucks, but hey, the only ones who care the ones who suck themselves. If you're a badass, why care? If one goes into an SAT administration and gets a 1400+ or a 1500+ why the hell would he care about that one dumb kid who's cheating? If it were me, I'd feel pity for the poor fellow, and then return to kicking the SAT's ass and getting my awesome score. So... let's not expend too much energy on this thing. Oh, and Godot, you keep saying, "Let's solve this problem!"... Well, offer some damned suggestions! You keep saying that, but all you are is a silent crusader that does, well, nothing. </p>
<p>And as to your and all other SAT tutoring companies, I think they're the biggest sham these days. I mean, are you as naive as to not think that after your students do practice upon practice of SATs, they'll inevitably get better? That's all you do -- you tutor-guys just sit there with the student while they do the SAT and then tell them "strategies" to help solve problems they couldn't. Dude... get real, the math on the SAT is from 8th grade; you don't need "strategies" to solve it. And the Verbal, either one has the vocabulary or doesn't -- that's the end of it. There are no strategies you or any other tutor could use to better to a student's Verbal score that doesn't require his/her going out and learning NEW words or reading more. Oh, and as to your claim that students cannot make significant leaps without tutoring, I rose my scores by 440 points. On my PSATs, I got a 970; on my first SAT, 1220; and on my second, 1410. So, you know what, please do us all a favor and the parents, who for some God-forsaken reason believe in you "tutors", and quit "stealing" money because that's pretty much what you guys are doing. You guys charge for something any student could do on his/her (much like what I did). </p>
<p>With 100+ hours of studying, it's quite pathetic that you're students only manage 1300s... and yeah, you had that one student break 1500, but you know what? With 100+ of SAT "studying", as you call it, no one should be getting less than a 1580, if not all 1600s. And if anyone needs THAT much time to score a mere 1300, he/she must not be the sharpest tool in the shed. Honestly, it takes no more than 6 complete practice tests to raise one's score by about 150 points, and if you're not getting a 1400+ after the tenth practice test, you must either be doing something wrong or really aren't the brightest bulb in the box.</p>
<p>To conclude, I'm honestly more concerned about "tutoring" institutions like yours stealing good parents' money than the SAT "cheating". I mean, they could use that money to send their kids off to college. I'll be forever grateful to you if you quit the defrauding business you're running, and also, oblige other SAT "tutors" to do so. I mean, c'mon, dude! How much do you charge for 2 weeks? $400? $700? That's NUTS!</p>
<p>Sincerely,
S_B</p>
<p>PS: Please don't reply and defend yourself and your practice, just do us all a great favor and acquiesce. Thank you very much for your time, good sir.</p>
<p>OH MAN .,......I LOVE cheating!!!!.....sometimes i have cheating parties with my friends and we practice cheating on fake tests. In my school I founded "cheat club".....i hope it looks good on college apps! Someday I hope to found "University Of Cheaters" where the world's elite cheating high school students can get major in CHEATING and then ENGINEERING......</p>
<p>**** MAN I WONDER IF HE'LL GET THE SARCASM THIS TIME*** u crack me up godot! get a life man....lol thought i was serious...ur a funny man!</p>
<p>Man, I can't believe this wasn't obviously a sarcastic or joking tone and u used it for ur argument.........halarious! u must be out of touch or something(maybe u take things too seriously)</p>
<p>"cheating rocks! It's soooooo fun! I sincerely hope u guys all cheat(tell ur friends to also)!"</p>
<p>"basically, cheating is essential! It's really fun.,......just try and you'll see what i mean!"</p>
<p>HOW OBVIOUS IS THAT>>>even REAL cheaters don't say stuff like "cheating ROCKS!!" or "its REALLY FUN".........u seem to think cheaters count the days to cheat on the next test.....like its their birthday or something.</p>
<p>HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH</p>
<p>Oh dude, rpproductions1987, you brightened up my day, haha. Good stuff, good stuff!
Hm... I wonder what the average SAT score would be at U. of Cheaters..</p>
<p>S_B :D</p>