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

@Legendsofleakage - you’re right that the SAT 1 is available in Korea in June. My bad. But it’s on June 4, which is the day that summer vacation starts for Andover, Deerfield, and St. Paul’s and before summer vacation starts for many other US schools. And that doesn’t change the fact that your Spring and Winter break claims are clearly inaccurate.

@marvin100

Woowee! Took you some time to go look up dates for some of those schools, didn’t it? LOL.

Looks as if this thread is as dead as a dog in a Korean soup house, so bleh.

I hadn’t focused on this on the first reading:

So, At least 50% of the SAT tests were compromised. At least 80% of Math II tests were compromised. At least 76% of the Biology exams were compromised. (at least) 18 test versions? That’s not enough. They knew that at least half of the tests were compromised at the time. With only 18 tests, the Organized Cheaters would likely have been able to predict which tests would be administered next.

In the face of this threat, Reuters reports the College Board considered (along with the option of reducing tests dates in certain countries),

[quote]
According to the PowerPoint, College Board officials also considered another approach: Push ahead with all scheduled tests in every country, regardless of the security risks. Under this scenario, one of the “benefits” listed was giving the “appearance that security situation is under control.”

The option was “not recommended,” in part because the organization feared it could result in even more cheating and that “another large-scale incident could get attention of U.S. press and universities.”/quote

Let’s say I’m running a bank. If I don’t lock the bank doors in high-crime area, I am more likely to be robbed than if I had locked the doors. The thieves are guilty of theft, but I facilitated that theft to some degree by not taking reasonable precautions.

That the thieves are nasty people does not excuse my negligence. Depositors will take past (and continuing?) negligence into account when deciding between banks.

Nah, they’re on my calendar (I have a lot of students from those schools). I was just busy–weekend sched is merciless.

But yeah, shame this appears to have petered out. I hope this conversation keeps going, here or elsewhere–it’s important that CB’s feet be held to the flame on this.

Hear, hear! The CB seems to be hoping that the “Cartels” narrative will smokescreen its negligence. Here’s hoping it’s wrong.

I sometimes wonder whether this is negligence or intentionally looking the other way. Both CB and many universities make a lot of money from international students.

The colleges don’t make a lot when students drop out or get kicked out for cheating.

Tangentially related article from last year:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/american-universities-are-addicted-to-chinese-students/394517/

^Interesting article.

“Over 60 percent of Chinese students cover the full cost of an American university education themselves, effectively subsidizing the education of their American peers.”

–It doesn’t look like US colleges will completely turn their back on the SAT/ACT, tests that help bring these students and their deep pockets to the US. Education is big business.

“According to Zinch China, an educational consulting company, 90 percent of Chinese applicants submit fake recommendations, 70 percent have other people write their essays, 50 percent have forged high school transcripts, and 10 percent list academic awards and other achievements they did not receive.”

–Not sure why many of you are dumping on the Chinese. It’s not exactly like we here in the US don’t do any of that already. Cheating is not anyone’s monopoly.

The percent reported that cheat, fake, forge or have their essays ghostwritten is staggering.

^But those aren’t real statistics nor facts. It’s some tutoring company’s estimate based on its own random survey. Not exactly true research nor journalism. Pretty reckless by the editor of that publication to publish those statistics without verifying their authenticity.

If you look carefully, that article was revised because it originally printed totally inaccurate figures. So what makes you think this round of figurus is accurate? We can say similar cheating occurs in any country and make up the numbers.

That percentage is not based on the general population but on the clients of a specific educational consulting company.

See this note to the Atlantic article:

“Additionally, the article stated that 80 percent of Chinese students expelled from American universities were removed due to cheating or failing. In fact, this figure was based on a survey of 1,657 students who used [name deleted] consulting services and is not representative of the U.S. population. Of those students included in the survey, nearly 57 percent were threatened with dismissal or expulsion based on a low GPA or poor performance, 23 percent based on issues of academic integrity, and 10 percent based on attendance problems; the rest faced miscellaneous issues.”

I took a look at the [name deleted] website. Apparently this company not only helps students with the application process, but also sells counseling/advocacy services to college students threatened with expulsion because of low GPA; alleged cheating, poor attendance, plagiarism, and similar issues.

The article didn’t say it was revised because of “totally inaccurate figures”. Where is that documented? It says " Updated on June 12, 2015: This article has been corrected to remove inaccurate information concerning disciplinary problems among Chinese students studying in the United States."
So it says that the correction was re: the disciplinary issues, not its reported figures of the cheating.

@jym626 Do you think schools who are ranked on stats including retention and graduation rates find ways to keep the international students enrolled? Either they have to detect the unqualified before they admit them or stick with them for four years?

Nope- I think (or perhaps I should say I hope) that those who cheat or can’t perform are put on probation or not permitted to return.
This was an interesting read. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2015/05/29/u-s-schools-expelled-8000-chinese-students-for-poor-grades-cheating/ While the percentage of students expelled compared to the overall # of students enrolled outside China (it seems to include all countries, not just the US) is small, it still speaks to those who are asked to leave. Any student, regardless of their nationality, who cheats or cannot perform, should be treated equally, IMO.

Changes are forthcoming: it’s just a matter of whether the Americans see the cheating Chinese cartels as a mere nuisance or as a real threat to their hallowed educational institutions.

What amazes me more than anything is the sudden emergence of the Chinese cartels. For years now dating back nearly a decade, we’ve heard of the Koreans cheating on the SAT on multiple occasions without hardly any mention of the Chinese.

Then suddenly, only beginning in 2014 did the Chinese SAT cartels arrive on the scene with such a ferocious roar.

Who can explain this?

Money

Yes, perhaps the root of all this madness can be traced back to an article written in October 2014 in a Korean newspaper about some academy guaranteeing a perfect SAT score for $50,000.

Now the Chinese are emailing every Korean academy in South Korea claiming that for $50,000, they can get advance copies of not only the SAT, but also the ACT, the APs, the LSAT, and any other standardized U.S. exam.

Astonishing considering the extent to which the cartels will, in fact, do anything to steal a test for such ludicrous sums of money.

That didn’t take long.

This is incredible on every level. Wow.