Recycled tests in Asia

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

I’m going to rant a bit about the College Board.

As you know, there have been a lot of instances where students are caught cheating on the SAT in China, and many times, scores are withheld. I honestly think college board is the one allowing this cheating to happen. I’m an international student (American citizen) living in Shanghai. I took the SAT for the first time in October. Afterwards, people found out that the test we took was the exact same as the one administered in America in March 2015. I couldn’t believe it. I went onto college confidential and searched the March 2015 SAT thread, and it was true. I remembered doing many of the problems people were discussing.

Of course, the March 2015 exam is copyrighted, shouldn’t be released, yada yada yada. Still, the truth of the matter is, people can obtain old tests in China. Even at the place where I did SAT prep I’m pretty sure we did a few illegal exams when we ran out of legal ones. Considering we’re paying so much for the SAT (it costs more if you’re taking it outside the US) and it’s such a big factor in college admissions, I think the least the college board could do would be to write up a new test to ensure fairness. But no, they’re just too lazy. Well that’s okay then, why can’t they just use the same test as the one they created to be administered in the US October 2015? Sure, then US students could possibly use the time difference to cheat, but isn’t the main problem that Asian students are cheating? And since the SAT in Asia would be administered first and it’s a completely new test, there would be little possibility of people finding out the questions beforehand.

Thankfully, my score was not withheld. I told myself that I didn’t care some people had an advantage–it was better for me to receive a score I truly deserved rather than get a higher score because I had seen the test before. Honestly, though, if I had done the test as a practice and it happened to be the same as the real exam I don’t think I would be too upset. So it’s not that I’m an oh-so-moral person, I’m just trying to make myself feel better…

Now, it’s happened AGAIN. I didn’t take the november test, but I heard from people that it was the exact same as the one administered in the US March 2013. March 2013 is so long ago, I’m sure tons of people obtained a copy illegally and did the questions before. You see, even if people didn’t know that the college board was using the March 2013 test, they still could have done it as practice. I just keep asking myself, WHY would the college board do this. They KNOW cheating’s a problem in China, are they trying to make it easier for students to cheat?!

Also, there’s a rumor that the curve was harsher for us because so many people did well. I’m okay with not getting the same unethical advantage as others, but if they did get this advantage and made the curve harsher to affect MY score, that’s a different story. Do any of you know if the curve’s the same everywhere in the world or if they base curves on different regions? When I got my score report, I think my scores pretty much correlated with how many I got wrong, so the rumor’s probably false. -4 for reading was 750, -4 for math was 700, a 9 on my essay and -3 on writing was 720. But then again, many of my friends who scored 10s and 11s on their practice essays only got 8s on the real essay. I also regularly scored 10s on practices and I felt the essay I wrote on the exam was a pretty good one. I think it’s possible that because others knew the topic and wrote better essays the readers looked at ours more critically also.

In Shanghai, there’s lots of Korean “academies” that prepare students for tests. A Korean friend told me that she knew an academy who once obtained a copy of the test–not her academy, but she knew people who went there. And the students in the academy got away with taking the SAT knowing the questions beforehand. My friend just accepted that it was unfair, and that there wasn’t really anything to be done about it. I mean, even if I knew about cheating I wouldn’t really want to complain or report it because then our scores may be canceled–it’s happened before many times at our school, even though most people are innocent.

I don’t know…I feel like the SAT’s such a hoax. It’s supposed to be this hugely important test that can impact your future a lot and yet there’s so many problems with its administration. It’s really not fair to students in the US that the SATs administered in China are repeats. I just don’t understand why the College Board does this. Ok.

2

Hey I registered immediately after I saw this post so I could reply… I totally agree with you. I’m not taking the reasoning test this month but I swear I saw today’s Asia SAT essay prompt on one of those China SAT forums a few days ago (“Is it foolish to develop or improve ideas or products that already exists”). I’m so shocked after a friend of mine told me that that was the actual essay prompt. :frowning:

I just can’t understand why college board is letting this happen. I mean hundreds or even thousands of Asian SAT takers are obtaining unreleased papers and doing the questions beforehand ( I heard some even buy answers from cram schools) but college board continues to recycle old tests. I feel like SAT is such a hoax too. These mass cheating is making the test so unfair to those people like us who actually studied hard for the test then getting a “lower” score because the cheaters are making the curve so much stricter…

3

This is so incredibly unfair and has gone on for years. Once again, the US test was a new one and the International test was a re-cycled one. Something must be done about this. Although the Washington Post has written about it in the past, it has not received the nationwide attention and outrage it deserves. Any ideas about how to combat this?

4

Yes. Take the ACT. Then maybe the SAT will address this obvious inequality.

5

It’s beyond despicable at this point. The College Board is willfully enabling cheating and a non-trivial segment of the test-prep market is unethical enough to go for it. Sickening.

6

You can literally buy any unreleased SAT set in China. It’s pretty common in China that cram schools let their students do unreleased SATs before the real test and THOUSANDS of students have already done November’s test before. Unbelievably unfair. I REALLY HATE CHEATING. I’m a Chinese student, and many of us have decided to report those cheaters. If CB release the results at the end of this month without addressing this problem, I’m gonna send emails to inform universities about such situation.

7

Yhh, it happened to me, too. I attended the SAT test on 3th Oct. 2015, and after my test I was surprised to learn that our writing topic, was released just before I entered the test center, about 8:10am. Well, now then, it is no longer a surprise, since I again received the similar topic before this test started, the Nov one. Now I was outraged, and I also know there is no need harshly criticized college board. It’s just unfair, we, Asian students, paid equivalent effort on this test as the Americans do, but are tested according to the old questions already used in the US test center. The college board several times cancelled our score, including some innocent students whose scores were real. But the only reason they gave to us is the cheating system in Asia, in particular, China. Well, that’s unfair, should we be judged by our nationalities? Should we judged by our skin colors? Trying not to let us attending the equal test as those white boys? I do not know what the college board think about this issue, but it’s time for both of us, the college boards and our students, to do something. I am preparing for my test on Dec. HK., and I do not hope this thing will happen again on me, using the old questions for our Asians, interfering with us applying for the universities, or even worse, depriving our future education.

8

^^ @cappex read!!!

9

Wow, and then they use that score to take an American student’s spot in an American university. The students doing this are the ones who cannot get accepted to the top Chinese universities. When they get here and fail because they cannot learn effectively, then they will see the importance of allowing the college to accurately gauge your college-readiness. Hope a lot of those students end up wasting 60k and a year of their lives, sacrificing any real shot at an education.

10

False. They took the spot of a more deserving international. Most selective US schools have (informal but predictable and consistent) quotas for international enrollment. @cappex

11

@marvin100 Maybe you should read this thread http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1831287-wsj-a-million-international-stdents-pinch-us-admissions.html
Actually, the numbers of internationals are going up, especially at public universities (Where the residents of the state should be given priority, much less country). Considering they are full-pay, universities clearly are using them to make ends meet.
This is very sad, I can’t imagine how it would feel to be a resident who paid for the school with their taxes and not even be able to attend. Especially when you are academically qualified, but some cheating asian who has rich parents steals your spot.
Go look at UC Berkeley and UCLA, heck, even look at UT-Austin. But the full-pay allure is obviously affecting privates as well.

12

That would be most people in the state. How many California high schoolers can get into the UCs? Taxes are paying for community colleges, too, after all.

And if you’re somehow suggesting that state resident taxpayers deserve all the spots at their state universities, well, your logic applies equally to out-of-state applicants as to internationals.

Also worth noting that voters’ aversion to taxation has contributed to the budget crunches faced by many universities.

13

@marvin100 Well for the 18’s in the state, yeah, they can’t handle it. But I am talking about the state residents that are qualified. 28+ that get rejected because they pay less and lose the spot to a cheater.
State residents definitely deserve a much larger majority of the seats at their flagship, even over OOS. OOS students are used in the same way as nationals, to pay more. Noticeably easier at certain state unis to get accepted if you are OOS vs In state, simply because you pay more. Which is wrong, considering you already have payed the taxes and deserve the in-state tuition as a resident.
Yes, a lot has to do with the voters, but the purpose of the state uni was to educated members of the state with priority. Not for everyone to be forced to go to a uni states away to pay the extra tuition, because the twisted game states unis are playing.
But all that doesn’t even compare to an international who was basically allowed to cheat stealing your spot at a state uni, who will most likely waste it because they had to cheat.

14

Nobody’s being “forced” to do anything. A tiny percentage of internationals are cheaters, and it’s very, very hard to figure out who they are (partly bc the CB isn’t doing its best to lock down the tests, to be honest), so I’m not sure what you’re suggesting. If you’re just venting, well, okay, that’s fine and sometimes even healthy, but mostly you seem to be subscribing to some xenophobic and worrying storylines.