<p>As thousands of US kids are sleeping poorly the night before the first SAT of this school year, plenty of students in Asia are enjoying yet another recycled test. Deja vu all over again!</p>
<p>The initial reports confirm that the international test is the recycled US November 2010. Inasmuch as this test was not released, it would be surprising for any competitive "tutoring" company in India, China, and Korea not to have it recompiled. Why is TCB pretending to combat those cheating empires on the one hand, and rewarding them so predictably on the other hand?</p>
<p>More remedial classes will be necessary for all those high scoring foreigners.</p>
<p>Since some unethical universities know about the cheating and lying on the applications but look the other way as long as these unprepared int’ls are full pay, why don’t these universities just save everyone a lot of trouble and just give the obviously cheats a diploma without their having to show up.</p>
<p>Think of the benefits: </p>
<ul>
<li>schools gets the money and don’t have to hire more teachers and build more dorms</li>
<li>the recruiter gets his cut</li>
<li>the cheats get a credential and save money on the airfare…</li>
</ul>
<p>GMTplus7 - I guess you assume American students are lily white. They are very prepared because cheating just doesn’t happen in the US? </p>
<p>I would like to say that my kids never cheated in high school because that’s the way I brought them up, and her friends are also the same. But recently I took out my kid’s friends from college out to eat, at the table her friends openly talked about how easy it was for them to cheat while in high school. I was appalled. I had to think if they got into college through cheating then maybe they are not ready.</p>
<p>It is unfortunate that CB can’t do a better job of testing when people are paying them very good money to do it and the colleges depend on the information to give everyone a level playing field. But no one should be ignorant to think that American students are above it all. On the flip side, not all international students got admitted through cheating either.</p>
<p>Agree that cheating is rampant in HS AND in college for that matter. But I haven’t heard too much about US kids cheating on SATs. It looks like something could be done about the international cheating. I wonder how the extra money universities get for international students plays into the equation.</p>
<p>Many top tier universities could also get as many full pay American students as they want. They don’t need to look another way in order to get full pay.</p>
<p>And, yes, cheaters come in ALL nationalities, including American. But at least in the U.S. test venues, the CB does make some effort to stem the cheating.</p>
<p>And when you do, it gets headlines like the scandal on Long Island and results in changes to minimize the risk. The photo requirement for registration is a direct result of that scandal.
There are ways to minimize the chances of cheating outside the US. Instead of taking the SAT as a pencil/paper exam, have it administered via computer at a test center where a webcam can verify who is taking the exam. By doing it that way, you don’t have to worry that an unscrupulous proctor could open the exam early and prep students or give them more time. As for the writing part, you could give people the option of writing or typing that section as many State Bar exams do.
Does anyone know if the College Board breaks down the SATs by domestic/international and what the trend on those scores has been recently?</p>
<p>Staying in, and completing the full requirements for a degree is another thing entirely. Possibly several other things entirely when you come to it.</p>
<p>I’m not too worried about these “cheaters” wrecking higher ed in the US.</p>
<p>“And, yes, cheaters come in ALL nationalities, including American. But at least in the U.S. test venues, the CB does make some effort to stem the cheating.”
I think that is the crux of the matter. Why is the CB, with all the moneys parents and students spend on it, recycling a test, especially in an area that has been flagged as problematic, as far as cheating is concerned?</p>
<p>It may be a bit harder to actually fail out of HYPSMetc., but students do. Not to mention that a fair number scrape through with a 2.5 or the like.</p>
<p>But truly, given the number of spaces at “top” institutions, do you all honestly believe that many spaces will be taken up by “cheaters” from outside the country? Most of those institutions have a fixed limited number of slots for internationals, and won’t suddenly take on any extras just because of SAT (or other) test scores. A cash hungry state U might, but in my experience those same cash hungry state Us have cash-blind grading systems that will quickly eliminate any slackers no matter how fat the slackers’ checkbooks might be.</p>
<p>Suddenly is not applicable here as this has been a deep-rooted problem for a long time. It is good to remember that the availability of cheating crutches to some is really hurting the honest students, be it overseas or here in the US. </p>
<p>One of the bigger problems is that the use of recycled tests has become predictable. Something the outfits that are scrutinizing the past tests are pouncing on. </p>
<p>One solution would be to make the experimental section grading available to the schools on a confidential basis, and make sure this section is expanded to include verbal testing.</p>
<p>A high scoring student who aces the recycled sections but fails miserably on the experimental could easily be flagged by TCB and the schools.</p>
<p>happymom
My point was that I don’t think you can make the assumption that a SAT-cheating international student will naturally be a likely flunk-out at a U.S. college. For example, their “honest” score might be 600 CR, but with cheating, they submitted a 750 and that is what tipped them in. A 600 CR scoring student will do just fine at any college; he won’t flunk out, but he snagged a spot with a lie. He didn’t affect a college’s grad rates at all. Its the integrity of the system that suffers.</p>
<p>I didn’t knew that some international students cheat on SAT! I myself am an international student(I live in Bangladesh) I am going to take the october SAT. The people I know who went to Good USA colleges or in Canada to study they never cheated on their SATs. They worked hard and got the marks they got. I myself know them(they scored 2200,2360, but they got in on their own!) it would be utterly wrong to think that international students cheat their way,they work hard,very hard to get into universities in the USA and Canada.</p>
<p>I would call it prejudice against the international student to be honest! At least in my country those who go to study abroad work real hard,and reading this thread really hurt me! if every university would think that internation students cheated their way then it would be slandering the honesty and hard work of those hardworking honest students!</p>
<p>Amyharvard, it is not the revelation of cheating which diminishes the worth of your hard work; it is the presence of cheating. Cheating hurts honest students.</p>
<p>@amy, if cheating by int’l applicants wasn’t so prevalent in some countries, then there wouldn’t be such booming business for 3rd-party vetting services like Vericant. </p>
<p>Not only is there cheating on the SAT (the May & June test dates in SKorea were cancelled for the ENTIRE country), but also manufactured transcripts/teachers recs and consultant-written essays. The need to translate the documents to English provides an easy opportunity to cheat. There was a New York Times article about how less selective, budget-poor U.S. universities are willing to look the other way and admit full-pay obvious cheaters from China whose essays and high test scores did not jibe with their poor command of English. </p>
<p>There are plenty of American cheaters too. But it is much harder for a U.S. domestic applicant to cheat in the same way because SAT testing security is taken seriously in the U.S., and transcripts and teachers recs are sent directly from the source to the university.</p>