<p>@PaulPierce34 SAT is curved per edition, not per year. Since I can’t link to this particular site, do a search for “past SAT curves”.</p>
<p>Even if there is only an annual curve, students cheating in one year still impact the students tested the next year. It may be a more indirect effect, but it is still an effect on others. Cheaters are not harming only themselves in either case.</p>
<p>You’re a good kid, BT. Best wishes.</p>
<p>Just because the ACT does it one way doesn’t mean the SAT is the same, and in fact it isn’t. Also, the whole argument about scores getting canceled is a red herring. That isn’t going to happen. So both of PaulPierce’s arguments (rationalizations?) are invalid.</p>
<p><<then filled="" in="" unanswered="" sections="" from="" another="" test="">></then></p>
<p><<if he="" quickly="" filled="" in="" the="" entire="" section="" with="" one="" letter,="" then="" it’s="" fairly="" obvious="" something="" is="" amiss="">></if></p>
<p><<when a="" proctor="" suspects="" student="" of="" cheating,="" he="" or="" she="" alerts="" the="" college="" board,="" which="" invalidates="" student’s="" score.="" is="" then="" allowed="" to="" retake="" test,="" free="" charge="">></when></p>
<hr>
<p>So …</p>
<p>An idiot who neither understood how SAT scores are calculated nor finished the test in time decided to flip back to unfinished answer sheets to bubble in answers randomly. Right? So … his scores will not raise. No one will be affected. The curve will not change. I don’t think it’s realistic to believe that the classes scores will be invalidated. It’s happened before? Really? One guy accused another guy of filling in a bubble sheet after time had elapsed and the entire room’s scores were invalidated? I doubt it. Let’s say that his scores will be k0’ed. He gets another chance to retake the test, free of charge. He was not going to get a good score. Now at best, he improves his score a bit. At worst, he does bad again. OK. Justice served? If he annoyed you then go ahead - report him. He broke and rule and you got bothered, so there’s nothing wrong with info-matin’ tha authorities. Is there anything particularly brave about that? I don’t really see it. All these people who wouldn’t report him don’t have the courage? WAT. The OP said he doesn’t know the guy. He said he will never see him again. Right? After he reported him, he get worried about his own scores. OP didn’t do anything bad, but I don’t see how this makes him more courageous than the other posters. </p>
<p>YES cheating is wrong but the biggest mistake here is the proctor. Don’t worry about his effect because you are applying to your own college and you are working to get accepted. Worrying about him cheating would only cause distraction. Snitching on him runs a risk on you and the whole class. Again, the proctor is a blame for this small slippage.
If the school was strict and smart about the College Board rules, then they will definitely cancel out all scores. Otherwise. they would not to jeopardize everyone’s scores. </p>
<p>@fallenchemist
One score wouldn’t ruin his curve and considering he “failed” the last SAT, who said the answers he bubbled in later were correct? </p>
<p>In other words, why play the long arm of the law when you get no benefit whatsoever. This is OP’s college admissions we’re talking about, and missing an early decision deadline is not worth having one person who he’ll never see again get his score canceled. </p>
<p>@GranTurismo330 We’ve gone over this in previous posts. One score can affect the curve, and even if he bombed the test (which is most likely what happened) he should at least retake it honestly. It is highly unlikely that my score will be cancelled. It may be delayed, but I’m sure an email to the ED college will clear things up. I’ve also already taken the ACT and SAT before, so this was just for me to see if I could raise my scores at all and have a better chance at acceptance/scholarships. The rest of the test-takers in the room will be ok, because I’m fairly sure it was just this one person. As other posters have already said, CollegeBoard is not going to penalize everybody in the room because one person cheated. It’s all going to be ok. :)</p>
<p>@GranTurismo330 - I repeat, that is a red herring argument. He will miss no deadlines., because no scores will get cancelled. Why would they cancel the scores of anyone else because one person got reported for that kind of cheating? It makes no sense and there is no history of CB doing anything like that. So from that perspective alone your argument makes no sense.</p>
<p>But even if that were the case, some people just have a stronger sense of right and wrong than others, a greater depth of ethics. It isn’t a matter of playing cop, it is a matter of being a good citizen. Look back to my quote usually attributed to Edmund Burke.</p>
<p>Let’s say for sake of argument that the cheater in this case, student X, was able to raise his scores. If so, someone, somewhere is going to be hurt. With higher scores than he deserved student X will gain a spot at a university or college that he didn’t deserve and student Y will lose a spot that might have otherwise been open. If X is accepted to multiple schools, then there could be multiple Y’s losing a spot. Sure it may be only one or a few students affected and probably not the OP, but as a friend once said to me, do we really want to live in a world where no one cares about Student Y? A big justification for cheating in high schools is that it doesn’t hurt anyone else, but in a world based on competition, it absolutely does and anyone denying that fact is rationalizing. Kudos to the OP. I hope my children would behave in the same way. And if your scores are delayed, let your GC explain why. I think most adcom’s would applaud the OP’s actions and all else equal jump at the chance to welcome someone with such integrity into their community. Bravo OP.</p>
<p>Alright I don’t think it’s beneficial for any of us to speculate what will happen and freak OP out for potentially no reason (and also criticize OP for having any morals.) As others have said, I would contact your ED school and explain the situation (assuming your scores will be cancelled). I also would assume (though this is a 100% assumption) that the college board would contact you if your scores are invalidated…</p>
<p>Best of luck and kudos to you! I would have done the exact same thing.</p>
<p>Yes, Student Y will never know, but more to the point Student Y won’t get hurt because OP did the right thing. </p>
<p>Agreed however that college is what you make of it and you don’t need a top flight college to succeed in life. Sad then that Student X is diminishing his integrity by cheating on the SATs. Maybe we need to look at the societal pressures that are making students feel like integrity is a luxury and that high GPAs and high SATs are a necessity.</p>
<p>@BedfordTiger Bravo for reporting cheating! </p>
<p>It seems like OP was on his high horse and wanted some petty justice. </p>
<p>It seems like some CC members can’t do the same this and try to tear down someone who does and can.</p>
<p>Wow! You created a problem … If he cheated , it’s his problem…he would be caught someday and punished! I believe in karma… But I hate when people report others as if they themselves are angels. I think negative energy shouldn’t be coming from you! It was not your job to make sure that nobody is cheating… Anyways, if it doesn’t 't affect you , don’t get involved! That’s for the future! </p>
<p>The grubby underbelly of the American dream slithers ever onward through the mud.</p>
<p>Good for you! If your score gets delayed I’m sure your ED uni would understand if you fully explain the circumstances…
Congrats for standing up to cheating!</p>
<p>You did the right thing. I’m honestly really disappointed by the CC community right now.</p>
<p>I can’t believe this thread! I am horrified at the total lack of ethics and conscience displayed by these posters. I don’t recall ever seeing such a display of cowardice and backbone on CC. I really hope that the posters who are attacking the OP’s honor and integrity are kids and not parents. Somewhere along the way, someone dropped the ball with some of you. I hope that none of you are applying to schools with any manner of honor system. A sad state of affairs, indeed.</p>
<p>OP, PLEASE know that you did the honorable and courageous thing. I wish you well and hope that you end up with an equally honorable college cohort. If your score is cancelled, I hope that you will explain the reason for the delay to your schools. Most admissions officers will respect your integrity. If some do not… well, do you really want to be at the school they represent? Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Look, we can all pretend that one choice was more moral than the other, but that would be moronic. To properly analyze this, we must invoke economics, which is really the study of how decisions are made.
The fact is that each choice has an opportunity cost: by reporting him, you kept the testing room honest, and you ensured that the rules of law prevailed of selfishness, while, on the other hand, your ill-conceived actions have potentially jeopardized the scores of everyone who was in that room.
You chose to inconvenience everyone for to satiate a self-righteous cause. Whether it was the more morally scrupulous decision, I cannot say, though I would not have done it. It has nothing to do with ethics, but it is a disutility to oneself and to many people in the long run to have reported him, and I will remind everyone in this thread that incentives play the greatest role in decisions and reasonable degree of selfishness is a virtue. Anyone who says that you did the moral and courageous thing is sermonizing ignorantly a blind ideal. The whole premise of reporting him being a venerable act of valor and rectitude overlooks one key point: the College Board is no one’s friend. It is a business, and like all businesses, its only goal is profit, which admittedly is not at all a bad thing, but serves to majorly inconvenience its customers, who are at its mercy, rather than the other way around as is typical for a business. I think that that is sufficient censorious rhetoric.
I’d like to say something positive about your decision, but I am having immense difficulty doing so because you had nothing to gain and everything to lose. Ok, fine, you diligently and painstakingly prepared and took the test honestly. That alone is something of which to be proud. Cheating the system because of a myopic, blithe, and indolent outlook is despicable in its own way. You stood up for your principles, and satiated your inner voice. Great. But the opportunity cost of this decision was greater than the opportunity cost of not reporting him.
In essence, the College Board has created a prisoner’s dilemma. For those unfamiliar, two prisoners are captured and immediately isolated and interrogated. If one confesses that the other committed a crime his sentence will be reduced. If one stays silent his sentence will be increased, but not as much as if one was guilty of the crime. The smart thing to do would be to stay silent, because the detriment is minimized. But prisoners will tend to rat each other out, which will raise both of their sentences to their greatest point. </p>