<p>What a surprise! Captain Louis Renault should be proud.</p>
<p>Added to the pesky fact that The College Board routinely uses the US past exams that are widely leaked and copied, this reliance on cheating should force the US colleges to review their admissions policies of international students. The best, but difficult, alternative would be to offer only temporary admissions subject to a retest for admitted students to be taken under strict controls. </p>
<p>Oh well, nothing new here!</p>
<p>One of my kids is involved in a martial art and we have spent years interacting with diverse families from across the globe. I have seen cheating at every level by people of every race and background. The one thing in common? Out of control parents & coaches. </p>
<p>I think the pressure in Korea from parents to “succeed” is so high that parents and kids will do anything to meet that bar.</p>
<p>People will cheat as long as the rewards exceed the penalties. Rampant cheating only develops when it is … working. In this case, it is hopeless to change a culture that finds cheating a necessary but acceptable evil.</p>
<p>My friend teaches English in SK. She has described what teaching there is like as insane, so this does not surprise me in the least.</p>
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<p>What penalties? CB – and its member colleges – just sweeps these things under the rug. (“See no evil…”)</p>
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<p>Then why do you keep posting these threads? Your anti-Asian sentiments are well recognized here.</p>
<p>I’ve heard of some colleges finding some way to have a separate proctored writing test for international applicants. The goal is to see if their writing corresponds to their test scores.</p>
<p>I’ve also heard about how a single test on a single day is used in South Korea to decide the future of applicants to South Korean universities. It is extremely stressful, and that stress may cause people to look at less ethically alternatives.</p>
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<p>Does the truth bother you so much that you feel cpmpelled to post the usual and idiotic rebuttal that attacks the messenger versus the real issue. Feel free to label me as you please, but it will not change a darn thing about the issue of rampant cheating in Asia.</p>
<p>And like it or not, that is where it has happened and is still happening on a growing scale. Of course, it is easier to deny the facts and criticize whoever has the gall to bring it up an issue of cheating on standardized tests on a … college forum. </p>
<p>And, in case you missed it, the link to the story is another CC forum, and this issue was reported by a student who took the test and is worried that the actions of the cheaters will invalidate his or her own test. </p>
<p>But again, if it makes you feel better to make this an issue of expressing “anti-Asian sentiments” … be my guest. The same old trite story!</p>
<p>If the cheating is that the test prep centers somehow obtained access to the actual tests, this is not the same situation as hundreds of individual students sharing forbidden information…unless the students knew it in advance of taking the courses.</p>
<p>It’s no secret that there is cheating occurring and that some countries have more episodes of it than other. I know universities that will not take foreign grad students unless someone trusted and known to the department knows the student personally. A shame, because, yes, that does eliminate those who don’t have connections,b ut the cheating was rampant.</p>
<p>And, alas, they are out-cheating us and the gap is growing larger every year.</p>
<p>Many years ago I was teaching a class with several hundred students. During the midterm exam, the head TA caught a couple of students cheating. When I told him how impressed I was, he smiled and said, “In Korea, we start to take tests early, and we learn how to take tests.”</p>
<p>It does not surprise me. As US companies moved into the Asian markets for manufacturing they consistently found in some markets their intellectual property “appropriated.” If adults cheat, then kids cheat.</p>
<p>Unsurprised! Korean students study on an unprecedented scale! (and they are really good at memorizing!)</p>
<p>I just returned from India; the girls at the hostel at my house spend most of their waking hours (day and night) memorizing. But teachers never teach them how to memorize (because they never learned the techniques themselves). So I spent two evenings teaching them. By the end of the two evenings, I had an eight-year-old who could memorize 30 unrelated “facts” or words or things in a row, and could repeat them back, verbatim, up to two weeks later.</p>
<p>Are we saying there is no SAT cheating in the US? Did some people miss the 5:00 news? The fact of matter is that for the amount of money CB collects, it doesn’t take enough fiduciary responsibility to make sure it is hard for people to cheat.</p>
<p>I think the headline should be, “Surprise, students cheat on SAT”</p>
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<p>Nope, because that is a strawman argument! </p>
<p>Oldfort, with all due respect, there are few parallels between the cheating in the U.S. and what has developed in a number of countries in Asia. As the cases in New Jersey --and others-- did show, there is indeed cheating on tests in the United States, and probably elsewhere. And, there have been cases of outfits such as Karen Dillard in Dallas that did get in trouble with ETS and the College Board. And some paid heavy fines for playing fast and loose with the rules of disclosing protected material. </p>
<p>Now, it would take just a few google strokes to learn about the depths and focus of the cheating in countries where the test have gained such importance. Cheating on standardized tests represent the tip of the iceberg as companies are creating stellar academic records from thin air. Some of those companies are nothing else than members of the organized crime, and have not hesitated to rely on bribing, kidnapping, extorsion, and “other” measures to accomplish their objectives. </p>
<p>Those companies do not have great problems finding customers --pressured or willing-- as many are led to believe that without the “assistance” of those outfits that masquerade as tutors they will NOT score high enough on all the sections of the tests. </p>
<p>As far as TCB, it is a given that they are hardly innocent in the matter. As much as they pretend to address the issue by introducing devices that would curb the very popular “rent a student” stratagems, they continue to play in the hands of the cheaters by routinely offering tests to “well-prepared” students who laugh at the stupidity of TCB as the test were previously used in the US. Google “SAT November was the same as …” or read the SAT forum for some clarifications. It happens over and over! This is especially helpful for students who struggle with the verbal components of the SAT. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that cheating IS rampant in Asia, and that it has been for a long time, and a much larger scale than in the domestic market.</p>
<p>Cheating is cheating, isn’t it? I didn’t realize there was a degree of cheating. </p>
<p>When I googled “SAT cheating scandal,” it is LI which came up, not NJ. Even when I googled “SAT cheating scandal Asia,” it is LI which came up. Either we (Americans) really do not care about Asians cheating, or it really doesn’t have that big of impact on the US college application process, because it is not making the headline.</p>
<p>I know English is not my first language, but every time I see “straw man argument” I would have to look it up.
When we focus on Asia’s cheating, we are in a way saying that we do not cheat on SAT in the US and it is not an overall problem of how the tests are conducted and how the US colleges do admission, but rather fundamentally Asians are immoral. As an Asian, I find it offensive, with all due respect.</p>
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I think if you truly know of any Asian culture (they are not all the same), you would know that cheating is not acceptable or the norm. I am disappointed that this type of post could be on CC.</p>
<p>Also, implying that cheating is an inherent cultural characteristic based on a small set of students is stretching it.</p>
<p>International undergraduate students trying to go to university in the US are typically those who:</p>
<p>a. Come from very wealthy families who can afford to full-pay at a US university without financial aid or scholarships, and
b. Did not do well enough on their home country university entrance exams or high school grades (whatever is used there) to be admitted to what they consider a desirable-enough university in their home country.</p>
<p>Perhaps these characteristics of the students may be more relevant to any supposed increased tendency to cheat, rather than ethnicity, culture, or region.</p>