Yeah, the cover may be synthetic.
No one in Asia should taking the tests honestly should take the SAT. Take the ACT. Colleges will not take SAT scores from Asia seriously.
Hard to parse that garbled first sentence, but the second is definitely not the case, as the vast majority of test-takers in Asia do not cheat (I know–I teach hundreds of them a year).
Not much. Several have complained, and the only response has been from mods who state they don’t have the time to monitor the threads where the SAT is discussed. Maybe instead of notifying the mods, posters who notice tests being discussed on CC should notify CB? The article states that “After the test ended, the website College Confidential was full of talk about the exam. The site said last week that it received and complied with one take-down request from the College Board after the new test.”
The College Board (according to Reuters’ reporting) has known that their test security has been lax for some time. “Refuse to acknowledge problems publicly” is not a viable tactic. Sending out boxes of tests taped shut is not tight security. Recycling whole tests in regions known to be hotbeds of cheating is not tight security.
Yes, I blame the College Board. Their tests, their security setup, their problem.
When, within days of an entirely new test, potential test takers can receive copies of the test:
You’ll always do better on a test if you get to see it beforehand. Technology has raced ahead. It’s now certain that any test used must be considered compromised as of its first use. In today’s world, the only way to maintain credibility would be to move to one-time tests.
Admittedly, the market is reacting to the unintended side effects of the CB’s sloppiness. Many universities are moving to become test-optional. Many US students (particularly those with informed advisors) are moving to the ACT.
For some time now, there have been anecdotes of students with perfect SAT scores who were not fluent in English showing up on college campuses. Perhaps the colleges put a thumb on the scales when considering applications. It’s ironic if they do this, as that would mean a test which should give a rather precise measure of a student’s abilities is regarded as unreliable and inexact. The students who are most harmed by this are the students from Asia who do not use these services.
No one is excusing college board from taking responsibility for tightening security, getting rid of employees who are easily bought off, etc. But cheaters will find a way to cheat.
CC should take down the SAT forum.
Sad that a site focused on college planning should possibly have to take down something so intrinsic to the process.
If it were a one-time, one-use test, there would be no problem in students discussing SAT questions. It’s only that the CB does not want to move to that model which makes it problematic. And it’s problematic because some entities are harvesting the discussions to recreate the tests. Which they then market to their subscribers.
@jym626, cheaters will always cheat. There’s a level beyond which it becomes unconscionable, though. And that’s the word my husband used, after he read the Reuters piece. Admittedly, he used that word to describe the College Board’s behavior.
I also think the descriptions of the test-prep cram outfits in Asia sound like one of Dante’s levels of hell. If some of the students are memorizing old SAT tests, it resembles a piece from The Onion, doesn’t it? Isn’t there some better use of the students’ and teachers’ time?
If the College Board were to assemble one-time tests from a huge question bank, it wouldn’t matter as much if some of the questions were widely known in Asia. Go ahead, try to memorize 30,000 questions. It’s the set up by which they reuse whole sections and whole tests, in a world in which a piece of information–such as which particular test has been reused–can literally cross the globe in minutes.
Stop giving the SAT test in Asia. They’ll always try to cheat there.
If I recall, this is how the National Board of Medical Examiners handles US Medical Licensing Exam Step 1 (322 questions) and Step 2CK (max 355, but the amount can vary). I don’t know the exact number of questions in the bank, but no two students take the same test, even if they are doing their tests at the same time on the same day at the same center. When you register you have to provide an image of your fingerprint, along with your name, address, telephone number, date of birth, ID number, and a scanned copy of your ID (such as your driver’s license or passport), which includes your photograph. I don’t know how they determine when to do it, but eventually questions are retired and sold in a bunch as a practice exam by the NBME itself. The exam is offered internationally at licensed test centers in many other countries.
To my knowledge, they don’t have a rampant cheating problem.
Better to stop recycling tests. If the new SATs were first given in Asia and then recycled in the US at later dates, we would be reading about this type of cheating by US SAT preparation companies.
Re: #30
Similar cheating in the medical profession is not unknown. The radiology board exams had a cheating scandal a few years ago: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/health/prescription-for-cheating/ .
According to the article, only about half of the radiology test is new every year. That’s very different from a test generated from a massive question bank.
Cheaters are reprehensible and should be punished. But the College Board has an easy solution, one that it clearly has the resources to enact: STOP RECYCLING TESTS and RELEASE EVERY EXAM.
Re 32 true, but that’s a different test run by a different organization. Ironically, it’s a test with far lower stakes than USMLE step 1
They have too many dates to not recycle. I suppose they could give a max of 6 exams per year, all same time, regardless of time zone, and only in the US. Period.
Why? They made a $99 million profit last year and each test costs about $1 million to produce. The CB clearly has the resources to produce unique tests for every sitting.
They would have a dozen tests several times a year (different time zones). Why not just slim down the offering and cut off the problem sites? That is what a normal company would do.
A test cost is more than just developing it. It must also be administered and graded, each test graded differently. $99 million doesn’t buy as much as it used to;)
It still buys a helluva lot, and absolutely can buy unique tests for each sitting, @HRSMom