Reuters: How Asian test-prep companies swiftly exposed the brand-new SAT

[jgoggs]

CC should take down the SAT forum.

Or perhaps the College Board should simply rethink its current business model. Hinging one’s test security strategy on the willingness or ability of 300,000+ students to keep a secret seven times per year seems beyond reckless. Students always discuss tests after they have finished taking them, and they are not going to refrain from discussing the SAT just because the College Board wants to make more money by selling the same test twice. Moreover, trying to keep information off of the internet is generally a fool’s errand.

As I have seen it described by moderators in other threads, the position of College Confidential basically seems to be, “We’ll make as good an effort as our limited resources allow to keep test content off of our pages, but ultimately, this is not our problem to solve.” To me, that attitude seems fairly accommodating, even generous. I’m pretty sure Reddit just plain tells College Board/ETS to get lost.

Really, though, I’m surprised people are focusing on bland topics like test recycling, when there are far juicier revelations in the Reuters articles:

The breaches extended to the hour-long tests the SAT offers in specialized subjects. Those exams are often required for students applying to elite U.S. colleges. Eight of the 10 existing Mathematics Level II subject tests were compromised – three in their entirety and five in part, including two exams that had never been given anywhere, the PowerPoint shows. Ten of the 13 Biology exams were also compromised in whole or in part, including one totally new test.

I would love to hear College Board explain how “totally new test[,s]” that “had never been given anywhere” could have fallen into the hands of Asian test prep companies.

[jgoggs]

Stop giving the SAT test in Asia. They’ll always try to cheat there.

Then they’ll just cheat on the ACT instead.

[ucbalumnus]

@jgoggs

I would love to hear College Board explain how “totally new test[,s]” that “had never been given anywhere” could have fallen into the hands of Asian test prep companies.

If the new unused tests are leaking in Asia, they are probably leaking in the US as well.

Still, recycling tests just adds to the possible ways that cheaters can cheat.

[jgoggs]

But if they’re “entirely new” and have “never been given anywhere,” then no one but College Board should have them. So where are they leaking from?

[jym626]

IIRC it was discussed in this thread (apologies- don’t have time to find the post) http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19200545#Comment_19200545

[jgoggs]

Thanks for the link. I hadn’t seen that thread, as I guess I never check that particular forum.

Nevertheless, I think my point is somehow being lost. Tests that are administered can be leaked easily enough: all it takes is for someone employed at a test center to open a box and start photocopying or for some test taker to sneak in a hidden camera of some kind. That much is clear and straightforward.

In this part of the article, however, the authors are discussing leaks of tests that have never been administered:

The breaches extended to the hour-long tests the SAT offers in specialized subjects. Those exams are often required for students applying to elite U.S. colleges. Eight of the 10 existing Mathematics Level II subject tests were compromised – three in their entirety and five in part, including two exams that had never been given anywhere, the PowerPoint shows. Ten of the 13 Biology exams were also compromised in whole or in part, including one totally new test.

So if the tests are “totally new” and have “never been given anywhere”–and thus have presumably never left College Board/ETS–then who exactly could be leaking them to Asian prep centers? High-level people at CB/ETS headquarters in the U.S.?

[Periwinkle]

I would assume it’s more likely the CB’s computer systems and database have been hacked. That’s the best way to gain a perfect copy of data.

That also comes down to security. Most businesses don’t seem to be spending enough on IT security. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about leading law firms allegedly being hacked. The hackers may have wanted to perform insider trading with confidential information. http://www.wsj.com/articles/hackers-breach-cravath-swaine-other-big-law-firms-1459293504

To be blunt, the CB’s only products are tests. Security is not optional.

[ucbalumnus]

@Periwinkle

That also comes down to security. Most businesses don’t seem to be spending enough on IT security.

IT people usually have business backgrounds, not CS backgrounds. So they may not be as good at the technical aspects of computing as they need to be to have good defense against security threats.

[bluebayou]

One option that would provide easy access would be a proctored exam using physical computers or tablets in existing schools.

Nope, wouldn’t work either. Few schools have the computers and/or computer lab space to be able to handle the hordes on a Saturday morning, and that limitation is particularly acute in poor schools.

There is no easy and inexpensive answer.

[EYeager]

So are the test scored going to be voided or still count?

[jgoggs]

I would assume it’s more likely the CB’s computer systems and database have been hacked. That’s the best way to gain a perfect copy of data.

Well, that would only be possible if they kept new content on computers that were connected to the internet–which would be a bewilderingly inept thing to do.

[jym626]

What day was this administered in China? The same day as in the US (with the time zone difference). When was it hacked? When the packets arrived in China?

[jgoggs]

Talking about separate issues.

The March test is given in the U.S. only, so whatever photographs were taken of that test would need to have been taken in the U.S.

But the Reuters article mentions that tests that have never been used anywhere (i.e., have never left College Board/ETS) have also been compromised. That’s a bigger story, I would say.

[marvin100]

The CB obviously wants to push the “unscrupulous Asian cartels that will stop at nothing” narrative, and I certainly understand the appeal. I’m less excited that people on here are so eager to parrot it, but again, I understand how pervasive and appealing that narrative is.

But the reality is that the CB has been recycling tests internationally and not domestically because it’s been able to get away with it. Despite the frequency of cheating scandals, they’ve never really hit the mainstream American media consciousness, after all. But why hasn’t the CB enacted this recycling policy in the US? Because the same cheating would likely occur, and when it did, it would be a huge PR nightmare.

Well guess what–thanks to some great long-term reporting by Reuters, it’s now going to have a very hard time maintaining its immensely profitable test recycling policy in Asia. Great, great, great.

So while it’s true that “cheaters gonna cheat” and that there may be no way to really prevent all forms of cheating, it’s eminently clear that test recycling enables some of the easiest, most widespread, and most pernicious forms.

The more pressure put on the CB to cease this untenable practice the better. It’s about time the CB got its feet held to the fire.

If the CB recycles the March exam as it clearly planned to do, it’s in for an even bigger, more disruptive PR debacle. This Reuters series might not end the CB’s enabling of cheating, but it’s a really big push in the right direction, and I’m quite sure that the higher-ups are circling their wagons.

Again, as I’ve always said, the cheaters deserve blame and punishment. But if we allow the CB to continue to frame the narrative, passing all blame to the cheaters and continuing to follow policies that enable such cheating, we won’t seen substantive changes–changes that are long overdue. Let’s not lose sight of the real goal: less cheating; more fairness for the majority of honest, hard-working students; and a better, more trustworthy system overall.

[sattut]

The CB does recycle exams domestically. The snow makeup exam for the last old SAT was exactly the December 2013 exam. This test was available online. I can’t mention where on this site. Many students not intending to cheat took it as a practice test and had a big advantage.

I don’t think they recycle MCATs or AP exams. This is just being penny wise and pound foolish and will cause them to lose even more market share to the ACT.

[marvin100]

Yes, the CB has occasionally recycled in the US and has done so recently because it ceased investing resources in the (now-obsolete) old form of the exam. On the other hand, every test in Asia has been recycled for at least 8 years.

As for the ACT, well, it’s only a matter of time before the ACT gets the same treatment. It’s international recycling and security policies are not substantively different from those of the SAT.

[i_wanna_be_Brown]

I don’t think they recycle MCATs or AP exams.

My AP Chem teacher had a packet, provided to her piece by piece by collegeboard, of literally decades of former free response questions so yeah, definitely seems like they don’t recycle those.

[sattut]

That’s the way they do A-levels in England. They are offered once a year, and they publish all the past exams. Actuarial exams are done that way also, as I think are most professional exams.

As for the exams in Asia, that could at least give them the same day, as few hours later due to time zones, or else make up separate exams to give there. I understand they didn’t want to invest in the old exam, but you could study all the exams available online for the snow make up, and get a much higher score than otherwise. I don’t think this is good policy.

[ucbalumnus]

The College Board has two distinct cheating vulnerabilities:

1. Recycling entire tests.
2. Leaks of new unused tests.

1 is only mostly in Asia because recycled tests (as opposed to new ones) are used in Asia. #2 may have become public in Asia, but it would not be surprising if US cheaters also cracked the College Board to leak the tests, but kept more quiet about it. (Or someone cracked the College Board and sold the tests it found to whomever, wherever.)

[CValle]

What I find interesting is that the SAT cheating scandal hasn’t yet caught up India (unless I missed a story.)

What I see here is that SAT tests are given at fairly prestigious international schools in large cities.

Perhaps the schools handle security better because they know it would put a bit dent in the reputation of the school?

I do think it is also offered in some testing centers as well.

I am not saying India doesn’t have cheating problems…they just had to cancel the Chemistry board exam in my state FOR THE SECOND TIME because the paper was leaked AGAIN.

I’m just wondering what is happening differently in India than in China.