does anyone have an article that talks specifically about how the March test was compromised?
I also find it astonishing that the colleges and universities who use these scores in the admissions process don’t demand higher standards. If a coalition of America’s best and most respected schools threatened to or stopped accepting the SAT due to severe and unfixed security concerns, I bet College Board would find a solution––fast.
Sort of shows that all colleges care about is their stats with regards to the SAT, all test prep companies care about is finding a way to cheat, and all CB cares about is money.
It’s not just the SAT. According to lengthy discussions elsewhere online (not sure if I can mention the site here), the ACT given yesterday in the U.S. was a recycled test.
According to those same discussions, a different old ACT was recycled in East Asia, and at least one Chinese outfit claimed to have had the answers in advance.
organizations like collegeboard and act are making so much money by charging such high prices for a single test, so why can’t they just afford to make different tests for each date, and a different one for international and u.s. ones? recycling tests give unfair advantages to some people, but it also isnt fair to higher standards for internationals because not everyone was given the opportunity to cheat.
notalltestprep
Yes. This is absolutely happening and isn’t new. The ACT does things pretty much exactly as the CB has been doing them and thus provides the exact same vulnerabilities. So infuriating.
Most international students pay full freight. This gives colleges a second reason to look the other way.
You can’t have it both ways- either internationals are cheating to get their stats up (therefore their stats are IMPORTANT to admissions) or admissions doesn’t care about their stats as much so since they are full pay.
I suspect admissions looks VERY carefully at stats (SATs, etc.) and that’s why there is so much cheating. They want Full Pay and High Stats. There is no way colleges are excluding International student stats from numbers given to ranking companies like USWR - the stats are helping not hurting the colleges.
Why is this trying to have it both ways? Institutions care about how SAT/ACT stats look to USNWR, but the institutions don’t care whether these stats are obtained by cheating (as long as the cheating doesn’t make it into the press).
I think the institutions care (anecdata: students in Korea with high SAT/ACT scores but uninspiring GPAs are having a much harder time getting into top-25 schools than they did even a decade ago) but they are also at a loss–it’s hard to figure out which applicants are “legit” (and many of them are!). It’s a crappy situation, and the cheaters (who deserve punishment) and the College Board (who should be further pressured to change their policies) share the blame. I just feel for the many, many honest, hard-working international students who are disadvantaged unfairly by this BS.
@Plotinus I was speaking to a comment upthread about many colleges improving their average ACT/SAT scores by not counting the international students scores- which is bizarre since there are so many internationals with top test scores (cheaters and non cheaters alike). If colleges routinely exclude international students test scores (since its implied that international test scores are poor and colleges are just accepting these kids because of their full pay abilities), so many internationals wouldn’t be spending money cheating.
What if colleges and universities state a strong preference for the ACT from international students? Could that be something they do to cut down on all the cheating?
The ACT is vulnerable to the same kind of cheating (and it’s been happening for years). The Reuters investigation, though, focused solely on the SAT. @JenJenJenJen
These tests need to only be administered in the USA. That way, international students can still take these tests by coming to the U.S., while these tests are administered and monitored consistently.
The CB and ACT will never do that, @tasmom --the loss of revenue would simply be too great. A policy like that would also even further disadvantage students who aren’t wealthy; just as the current cheating vulnerabilities benefit those with great wealth, forcing prospective applicants to fly to the US for an exam would have a similar effect.
Something needs to happen, yes, and here’s what it is:
**The College Board and ACT need to stop recycling tests, create new tests for every test date, and release all tests after they’re administered.
They have enough money to do so.**
Apparently they’re not “administered and monitored” all that “consistently” in the U.S. Remember, the impetus for this thread was an article about how the March 2016 U.S. SAT (the March test is given only in the U.S.) was leaked. Apparently, College Board can’t stop people from sneaking cameras into test centers, even in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the ACT given in April in the U.S. was apparently a repeat of an ACT that had already been given in the U.S. in 2013.
When we visited Georgia Tech, they made a point of stating that international students were required to do an interview via Skype. It was clear that they were at least confirming that the TOEFL (another test that has seen widespread fraud) scores were legit and probably also trying to weed out the obvious fraud on the other tests (i.e., the kid who can’t understand the interviewer or express their thoughts in English, yet got a 750 in CR). I think schools do what they can. It’s a burden on faculty and academic support centers to deal with students who aren’t adequately prepared.
@jgoggs The April 2016 test just given was a retread from 2013? Can you tell us which test form from 2013 or which month? I hadn’t seen a reference to the April test being one that had recently been used in the US until you mentioned it. Any more information you can provide would be helpful as this (if true) is completely unacceptable. With definitive information, I would be inclined to take action by contacting ACT. Thank you.
Released tests are always retreads. The April ACT is a Released test. But once a test is released, it will never be used again.
@mmk2015 Sorry - I don’t understand your comment. I am aware that the April ACT test is always one that a student can pay to have returned (releases).
However, it appears you are saying the ACT always chooses to reuse a previously deployed test on each of the 3 times (Dec, Apr, and June) per year that it offers the TIR service. Are you saying the ACT uses old tests - already given in the US - three times every year?
If so, I would be interested in understanding more about details about your assertion…what month & year was a test originally given and what month & year was the test reused…what test form # was originally used on a particular date and then reused on another date, etc.
I find the notion of the ACT reusing tests already deployed in the US again in the US as alleged by @jgoggs and yourself to be outrageous and unconscionable. I am certainly willing to contact the ACT, my state government (our state mandates ACT testing), our attorney general, etc.
However - more information is needed. If you have more substantial information please post.