This has happened in the past and innocent, hard-working students I know have had their scores invalidated. It’s awful, and the cheaters are ruining it for everyone. That said, the ACT has traditionally been even less secure than the SAT–in Asia there were even ACT-licensed test centers that were also private test-prep academies, so they were paid to prep kids, got the test 2 weeks in advance, and somehow their students put up 35 and 36 with alarming frequency. The ACT only put a stop to it when Reuters reported on the practice. But rumor has it that the ACT is about as secure now as the SAT was 5-6 years ago, which is to say, not very.
Does the ACT recycle entire tests too?
I have a pony in this game and my DS, like many of his fellow test-takers, don’t know anything about the leaked tests, the only tests he ever used were from the CB published “bluebook”! Posters here use “plenty” “many” “several” to describe their personal anecdotal experiences about the number of students who have had taken advantage of the leaked tests or outright cheated, but I just could not believe them to be that many when compared with the vast majority domestic test-takers. DS could retake the SAT, of course, but if the CB invalidated the 8/25 test wholesale, there would be whitehouse petition to get rid of CB!
@marvin100 I totally agree, and said so on page 2. You just said it more eloquently than I. 
So there is no “curving.” It is called “equating” and it is done before the test. It doesn’t matter if there are a thousand perfects on this one. The scores are already set based on the CB’s difficulty algorythm. Hypohetically I suppose they could change the scoring for this administration based on their experience when it was given in 2017 but the test takers on Aug 25 ‘18 wouldn’t impact that. With that said, it doesn’t take away from another colossal case of ineptitude by the CB on this test…
I chuckled as CB just sent an email to my S19 of the reasons why he should register for the October test. This issue was NOT one of them:).
My daughter had been studying the whole summer to prepare for the test, and this is her first SAT. Just want to get over with it before the school starts. She has been so upset after heard about the possible of invalidation. Most of the kids did nothing wrong! It is unfair for those kids if they cancel the score.
@TheBlueJay Don’t worry about invalidation - that is nothing but a rampant rumor. College Board administered this test knowing full well what it was doing and is not going to cancel everyone’s test scores.
@TheBlueJay my daughter is in the same boat - first SAT, studied a bunch of the summer. I really agree with @evergreen5, it’s not going to get invalidated. We just got an email from the College Board about sending her score to colleges and from everything they’ve been saying publicly, they have absolutely no intention of doing any invalidating!
Unfortunately, all are somewhat and seemingly missing the point here: the “cheaters” didn’t cheat. They had no idea CB would administer the same test they practiced on (and I’m sure they practiced on many). The issue is it is unfair to those who did not have equal opportunity to practice (“cheat”) on same material, least of whom are the socioeconomically disadvantaged.
It is a curve issue. I say bend the curve in US and leave it tight for all International from any region with a leg up vis a vis practice exams from 10 months previous.
Even if they don’t invalidate the scores, scoring will be skewed by those that had an unfair advantage.
Again, they are not cheaters by showing up for CB’s stupidity. For that matter, just because they flew here doesn’t indicate all Chinese took the Oct 17 exam (in part why perhaps they flew here to take it when ready).
@CAtransplant @evergreen5 Well said. Makes me feel much better. Thanks!
Wouldnt CB’s international test results from 10/17 inform those international students 8/18 SAT “equated” scores? And adjust that as curved (easier)? As pointed out, they knew full well they were administering the test to thousands who didn’t have that exam and some that reasonably had practiced or actually taken it. I’m short, if one took same test in China again here in US, that score is INVALID on its face. They have the data but perhaps not the will to make it fair (and I mean fair as a score presented to an Adcom against another score from a different applicant to same school from 8/18).
So the question really is what will colleges do if anything for those international applicants?
While we often use the term “curve” casually to refer to the scoring scale, the SAT isn’t actually curved in the traditional sense. The scoring scale is predetermined using a method called equating. The scoring scale should not change from what it was for the October 2017 international administration.
I imagine that CB will try to ferret out which students had the same form twice officially, although CB doesn’t seem to have done so in the past. However, CB will be unable to know which students had access to the widely-disseminated test for practice prior to sitting the exam. One would think this will be a slight problem for the resulting aggregate data CB collects for Class of 2019, although I’m not sure the extent to which CB reports data for international students.
It would be interesting to know what adcoms think, but I suspect this incident does nothing more than put another nail in the coffin of standardized testing due to decreasing quality of score data.
@bigfandave yes it seems that it is the case that there were cheaters: if so then MANY cheaters did cheat. If they KNEW the test would be the same --someone knew because that test was apparently being sold for thousands of dollars in Asia and portions of the test and/or the whole test was being circulated on the internet. If you purposely took the test knowing it was the same that is cheating; if you bought the test that is cheating; if you found the test online and saw it was the same test you took before that is cheating. If you took it again with no prior knowledge and thought wow this is the same test-that is still technically cheating. (meaning an ethical person would report it)
The same person taking an official sitting of the same test form twice does occur occasionally and I’m surprised CB hasn’t seemed, in the past, to do anything to prevent that. This can happen when a student takes a rare form that turns up later as a form given to the majority of takers at a later administration. I have seen such anecdotes many times on reddit. Perhaps that would make test days far too complicated for test centers as anyone having taken an official SAT before would need to have the test form numbers on their admission ticket and then someone would have to check before handing them a booklet. If anything, CB should offer a refund to these people and perhaps a special make-up test day if their score were to be cancelled.
As an aside, I have questions about CB’s current method of equating compared to the past. I was under the impression that a normal equating process involves the questions asked experimentally in a section 5 and then compared to that test taker’s other relevant section score on the same day. When CB uses uncommon forms, is that merely an effort to spread different questions around the test room to prevent copying, or is there something more experimental about them? Would that even be appropriate, to give a paying customer an experimental test, for which a scale has yet to be determined? Or does the process involve doing both in a multi-step process?
@center
I’m unclear how studying a test as practiced used previously is de fact cheating. Isn’t that was CB and Kahn do routinely to prep students?
The issue is how would same people “practicing” this test KNOW this was the exact same test at 8/18? And the general leg up given they practiced on material…that’s not cheating, that’s preparation. What you may be inferring is wholly nefarious if someone knew SAT would use that same exam. That I highly doubt.
If the CB has not released an exam, which they did not do in this case, then that exam is pirated (or call it like it is - stolen). So use whatever verb you want to describe “practicing” from a stole test; “cheating” works for me.
It is common knowledge, on this site and many others, that the CB routinely recycles entire tests verbatim
I guess I am really new to the SAT world and CC for that matter! I have no idea that “CB routinely recycles entire tests verbatim!” I understand the rationale to recycle questions, but the whole test verbatim?! Does. Not. Make. Sense.
Has there been “uproars” about the practice of recycling test in the past? @skieurope