Just a comment on kids taking international flights to take a college entrance exam…these people must have vast resources. The kinds of resources to afford $1000+ flights, the time, expensive test prep and families that also drive home prices up in major metropolitan North American markets. I truly feel for those kids and families who have to make a financial family decision if they can actually afford a single sitting let alone the above. That some of these flying test takers have to go above and beyond mere regular practice I guess does not amaze me. At the same time, how about a level playing field for Domestic students? How is bringing in the top .1% from another country “diversity” anyway, if that is a stated goal? And here my S is scouring the Internet for legitimate practice exams, no prep companies, and pulls a top 1% on both SAT components and Essay. Grateful some parents continue to teach self-reliance, discipline, time management, and essential living skills some highly selective colleges still value vs. taking an SAT in 8th grade and thrice annually until Senior year, and hire year-round AP tutors to “help” and being spoon fed guidance and support.
I rant, and know this is not everyone, but it is way too commonplace and now status quo. The bar has been raised or at least moved sideways.
I adjusted my post when I realized they have not yet started an August test date overseas @evergreen5 . But as mentioned, August is not an ideal time to visit many US colleges. Still wonder when it was decided to use that test (it has to be printed, test sites have deadlines for when and how many booklets must be ordered, etc). Does make one wonder if there was a mole or snitch somewhere.
@Center, college prep places routinely use past tests or equivalent tests to help their kids prepare for the real deal. It is not cheating if they did not know that exact same test was going to be used in August sitting this year. Shouldn’t much of the blame be placed on College Board for reusing a past test intact? BTW, any student who enrolled in the student score service has the ability to obtain the entire test booklet - so I don’t buy the story line about tests being “leaked”… It is not “leaked” if legitimately available. Unless someone can establish that a) some people had advance knowledge of the exact test being used for this August sitting, and b) used this knowledge to prepare and benefited directly from it, this is not cheating.
“It is not cheating if they did not know that exact same test was going to be used in August sitting this year.” IF. I think there are many IFS and agree that CB is not without issues. Nonetheless this would not be the first time there was large scale cheating in Asia. Agree that using an identical test --administered so recently–is idiotic. It will be interesting --I have heard that sometimes not all test taker get the same test on the same date…
This particular test form was not distributed via QAS. QAS is not available internationally except for the May test date.
I would agree that cheating in this context would need to include some type of intent.
No one knows how many domestic students locally here scoured the internet and practiced on the Oct 17 international test, nor how many local prep shops and/or tutors offered their student the same practice opportunities.
I read advise given to people to search past tests on internet ( I am sure they don’t mean the blue book official tests). I think the focus should be on making CB 1. stop reusing the entire test and start creating new test, and 2. shrink the number of test dates offered per year. If folks can live with 1 PSAT, 1 AP test date per year, why there needs to be so many SAT test dates (more tests you take, more money for CB) ?
How do you want to choose?
- You have many opportunities in a year to take a reused test (Aug 18) or a faultily curved test ( Jun 18), or
- You only have 1 or 2 chances per year to take a carefully crafted, properly curved/equated test (assuming CB is capable)
A really big assumption, thus I feel the days for this standard test is numbered. 
People who keep saying that they can see who has improved drastically are missing 2 big points -
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this may have been the first sitting for many of these students who used the tests they found online (not knowing it was going to be the one they sat for)
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there may not be a drastic improvement but just a good Improvement for some of these students. I can tell you that my own child has retaken a practice exam and still gotten questions wrong! So they may not be able to tell.
Also, I’m not sure why we’re questioning legitimate Asian students that came here to take the test because it wasn’t offered this summer in their country. It doesn’t matter if they are wealthy, it doesn’t matter if they’re poor - they came here in good faith on their own time to take the test. Nothing wrong with that. Whether they new the practice test (that ended up being the official test) was pirated or not doesn’t mean that they knew it was going to be the same test here. I have a hard time believing anyone new except the loser college board.
By the way, this is happened before and it will probably happen again. The College Board is going to do NOTHING about this sitting. Same as they have done in the past.
Yes, I’ve known students who have had their scores canceled because of “suspicious improvement” but made those gains through good old fashioned hard work, so that’s a pretty sad outcome for those kids. It’s great to see a lot of people in this thread realizing that the CB is at least partly to blame–the CB needs to stop recycling tests, since it’s proven incapable of securing them or stamping out cheaters.
Here’s another bummer: Since the August test this year was US only, I knew a few dozen students who flew to Hawaii to take it (not cheaters!), but due to the typhoon, the test was cancelled and they had to turn around and come home without taking the exam. Some of those families are wealthy enough not to be very bothered, but some of them had to extend themselves for such an expensive trip, and it’s pretty sad that they didn’t even get anything out of it 
It’s easy to demonize internationals, but the vast majority of them are just doing the best they can, like everyone else, and they’re taking significant risks and spending a lot of money, trying to get their kids the best education they can. So while I’m completely on board with blaming the filthy cheaters who make everything worse for the rest of us, it pains me when I see blanket condemnations or “solutions” that involve punishing entire demographics for the crimes of a few (crimes that could quite easily be prevented if the CB would be a little less venal and stop recycling tests altogether).
@marvin100 great points. I dont think anyone was saying punish a demographic for the crimes of a few. First there was a huge scandal in Asia 2 or 3 years ago with the SAT so that doesnt help the suspicion. I would think that CB (I may be giving them to much credit ) could look at zip codes and test scores and previous test scores if available to look for patterns or suspicious clusters.
@Center - thanks for the measured response. There are definitely calls earlier in this thread for blanket cancellation of scores from Asian test-takers. As for previous scandals, well, as an SAT teacher in Asia since 2002, I’m all too aware–but as I wrote, I’m also aware that cheaters are a small minority and most students (I teach a couple hundred ever summer, for instance) are not cheating.
My impression is that at the undergraduate level internationals are not competing for the same admission slots as domestic students. Many colleges are not need blind and international full fare payers might even help to fund aid to domestic students. Thus any cheating by international students would really harm other internationals, but would not upset the rankings within the domestic student population, unless there are a significant number of domestic US students that somehow got a hold of the international 2017 test from the internet for practice.
That’s more or less accurate, yes. Selective private colleges in the US have tacit limits for # of internationals, as well, and less selective ones (and more cash-strapped ones) use internationals as a cash cow.
I’d also be shocked if there weren’t US students who got the illegal test since it was online, and–as a teacher in Asia–I know many, many Asian students have friends and acquaintances in the US.
It is unfortunate when innocent students get punished because others cheat. But it is articles like this (from last year) that make one’s hair stand up on end. Girls hiding transmitters in their private parts?? Yikes! http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/09/cheating-to-get-into-college-keeps-getting-worse-in-china/
This last sentence… words fail…
And from USA today (apologies if this already been posted) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/28/august-sat-test-reuse-cheating-college-board-october-2017/1120558002/
@marvin100
I am having difficulty understanding why US students are flying 5-11 hours to Hawaii to attempt an SAT exam when it is offered at their nearest / local high school or library.
Can you also imagine the logistics of flying, renting a car, a hotel, getting to an all new locale and testing on the Islands? That is a lot of effort involved regardless of any bona fide reason.
Flying West, ie picking up time, would seem a blatant attempt to use that delta in time to pick up “tips” on line from Eastern sittings, no?
I also have difficulty understanding why Far East kids need to fly to the US to test in August. Can they not take a test in June or October there, and use that score for ED or RD respectively? Perhaps I’m missing something with the need (not the benefit which seems apparent) of flying to test.
Moreover, CB knows who these kids are vis a vis their home address and their administered test site.
@bigfandave I agree. We couldnt get a seat in the closest location but went to the next closest location which was a pain and called for an earlier morning but there are lots of sites. And, just to clarify, I started this thread because my own kid took the test on the 25th so I do have a vested interest. However, I knew nothing about all this until I started this thread on Saturday afternoon or Sunday (I cant recall)–and I did so because I was curious about perceived difficulty following the debacle about the “easy” June test. I was quickly enlightened by this board. As @jym626 pointed out and per those linked articles and the widespread cancellation last year of Chinese tests (see below) makes it hard not be very skeptical of large numbers of Chinese (asians) flying to the US for one sitting ,
I am quite sure that there has been plenty of cheating or attempts at cheating here in the US and elsewhere but I did note from one of the linked articles that the ACT no longer administers the test on Mainland china except in schools for expats.
And for all those that say this isnt cheating–yes it is. Just because the CB is being sloppy or lazy doesnt change anything. If a bank employee leaves her handwritten access codes on a post it in an unlocked drawer and someone goes looking through the desk and uses those codes to steal does that make it fair game? No -the employee was irresponsible and probably broke protocol but it is still theft.
I seem to recall hearing that the CB has fine print about treatment of its materials–I have not bothered to look for it but I imagine circulating it in anyway is prohibited. Lastly–per the reports that it was all over the internet I am curious if it was referenced as just another old test or 1)was there an indication that this was going to be the test and 2) I would be curious to know how long the materials that were supposedly on sites like reddit etc were up?
I agree, it is cheating.
Of course it’s cheating. Center said it beautifully. Sorry if some honest test takers are unfairly victimized. Both CB and the source of the cheaters should be addressed. Am still shaking my head at the “there is no fairness if you do not let us cheat” line. Anyone remember this? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/indian-parents-scale-school-wall-to-help-students-cheat-on-exams/
@bigfandave , I think marvin100, who teaches in Korea, is talking about internationals traveling to Hawaii in August to take the SAT, not domestic US students taking it in Hawaii (unless, for example, they happened to have had a pre-existing family vacation long planned before realizing their student wanted/needed to take the SAT during that time, but I’d guess thats pretty unlikely).
Just another perspective on defining “cheating”…yes, if they knew if would or could likely be same test. No, if they simply paid $500 for a test prep company and as part of that prep practice material, an over zealous prep testing company included pirated or previously authorized and released material; that is not a student’s fault. Yes, if in any way they were complicit in using known stolen material. Yes, it is a general ethics issue-not cheating-if and when a student realizes, “…holy cow…this is what I studied last month…” and should tell CB about the issue…still, that ion itself is not cheating by definition. It is using an unfair advantage that one did not create…it is similar to finding a $100 bill in a public area…you turn it in and do the right thing, but you didn’t not take it out of someone’s wallet, ie, cheated. Honest test takers are not victimized unless CB allows this to occur, which they do, and your or my D or S, who pulls a 1500, loses their college admit spot to one of these cheaters-as defined-who pulls a 1580. Now that stinks.
@jym626 - what kind of lesson are you teaching kids if the parents are helping them cheat? Utterly baffling to me. Makes me question why ANY eminently qualified American kids are getting rejected at elite universities to make room for foreign applicants. (And I know not all internationals are cheating.)