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<p>The basis in fact in English will have to wait a bit, but this is the news on the ground:</p>
<p>[??? : SAT ?? ?? ??? ???](<a href=“http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/society/201302/h2013022202371721950.htm”>http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/society/201302/h2013022202371721950.htm</a>)</p>
<p>[MBC</a>?? - imnews.imbc.com](<a href=“http://imnews.imbc.com/replay/nwtoday/article/3238151_5782.html]MBC”>MBC 뉴스)</p>
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<p>Read between the lines… </p>
<p>The purpose of the SAT/ACT is to see how much the student ‘can answer’. If the creators of the SAT/ACT intended the test to require 3 nights of cram school a week for 3 years, they would have made the test harder. In my native Elbonia, the entrance exam is insanely difficult and without said cram school one is largely SOL. I did that and got in there.</p>
<p>The ACT/SAT is not like that. While I applaud those who spend the time and money to ace it, I feel it’s the equivalent of hiring McLaren to ‘help’ with your kid’s pine derby car. Sure, the kid does work too, but is the end result representative of the kid’s skills and intelligence or that of immense effort of coaching?</p>
<p>Case in point. I walked into TOEFL with no prep and scored a comfortable 610. Later when I came to the US I saw kids that had 600’s and could not order a hamburger. Yet they had crammed forever and got thru the gate. Likewise, I walked into GRE and did pretty well with no prep (got a call the last minute I needed to take it because of department rules), the same as many kids who had spent months or years preparing for it.</p>
<p>It’s not cheating to spend 3 years worth of cram school, sure, but it simply circumvents the system. Those kids not able to do it (figure US cost of $300-400 a month for 3 years) whether in the US or in Elbonia are getting the short end of the stick and ultimately displace others…</p>
<p>This is real and the investigation is in progress. Several hagwons have been raided (six, from what I’ve been told), and the investigation has been ongoing for months (again, six, from what I’ve been told).</p>
<p>Both the College Board and the cheating teachers/students/parents are to blame. The former for leaving this door open by recycling tests–it’s very possible to buy illegal unreleased tests in Thailand, China, India, Egypt, among other places. It’s also possible to fully reverse-engineer tests based on available info here on CC. The College Board administrators could make those methods futile by ending the practice of recycling past exams. They’re very aware that this happens ([it</a> happened in 2007 Jan in Korea](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/sat-exam-recycling-causes-test-security-fiasco]it”>http://www.fairtest.org/sat-exam-recycling-causes-test-security-fiasco), as well, and this kind of cheating has been endemic since then and before), but they take no meaningful action.</p>
<p>Of course the dirty cheaters are also to blame. What kind of parents do this? What message are you sending to your kid when you pay $10,000 US for a month of “prep” that consists of little more than memorizing the answers to past unreleased exams? And as for the teachers, well, I’m sure the money’s good, but word is some of them are going to be prosecuted this time under Korean law. One teacher last time actually served a jail sentence. I hope he’s not the last.</p>
<p>I hope this attracts some attention outside Korea. If it doesn’t I’m not sure the College Board will ever change. I also hope the tests are cancelled (although TONS of my students put up extremely high finishing scores) because a message needs to be sent and the kids/teachers/parents who cheated shouldn’t be rewarded for what they’ve done (which, if the exam is cancelled, screwing many hard-working kids out of their legitimately earned scores).</p>
<p>Despicable.</p>
<p>I wish someone on this thread would explain why it is offensive to them that another person believes that the record indicates that a certain foreign country tolerates a culture of cheating for entry into US colleges. I truly don’t get why this would offend anyone.</p>
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<p>Remember that these are likely very wealthy parents who can full-pay university in the US (since international students typically get no financial aid or scholarships, and are out-of-state at state universities), but whose kids did not have the academic credentials to get into a desirable-enough university in the home country.</p>
<p>Such a demographic is a tiny minority among all students in that country, or any country, and should not be used to imply that the entire country or ethnic group is more dishonest or prone to cheating.</p>
<p>At the end everyone pays for it. In the early 80’s in Louisiana the (ethnic) student association maintained a magnetic tape with every assignment ever assigned in the last N years. Other (ethnic) groups were known to have assignments done for them for $$$. After a couple years the CompSci Dept gave up and cut the value of programming assignments from 35-45% to 20%, relying instead on tests and much easier assignments. </p>
<p>Maybe a few people were doing it but they killed it for a lot of people. My batch was the last of the high stakes assignments and there was a noticeable gap in skill between us and them.</p>
<p>Look at how math is graded. Homework only 10% where it should be a lot higher. Same reason…</p>
<p>I would never cast such a generalization on Korean students. I’ve been teaching them since 2002 and have worked with hundreds of remarkable, ethical kids.</p>
<p>(It’s also worth noting that MANY–maybe even most–of the students at the known cheating hagwons are from international schools here: they’re US citizens.)</p>
<p>I’ve watched the kids we have in our hostels in rural south India, from poor or no families, with no chance to escape except to get into the publicly financed university (which is like getting into the Ivy League here), study day and night, seven days a week, for years, for the one exam that will make or break them. Every night, if I got up at three a.m., there would be three or more girls huddled under blankets and sweaters, with flashlights (in 1981, we’d get 20 hours of electricity a day; now we get 4-6); and I do mean every night. The only breaks they ever took were to pray, and to wash their clothes. Not even time for eating. </p>
<p>If I could give them the answers to the university entrance exam, I would do so in a heartbeat. This routine does not build character; it grinds character out of them. They are being cheated of their childhoods, and of their lives. The best I could do was teach memory “tricks” - the same ones the memory champions use (and which have been known for 2,500 years, but no teacher I’ve ever met teaches because they don’t know them.) In doing so, I collaborate in devaluing learning, and help make a sham of what continues to pass for education.</p>
<p>Whether its a few rich international students as ucb contends, or many US citizens attending high school in Korea as marvin contends, that doesn’t alter OP’s premise that a notable amount of cheating on US college entrance requirements is coming out of Korea. </p>
<p>My guess is that other countries probably don’t care much about their students cheating to get into the colleges of countries other than their own.</p>
<p>so mini --why the hell do you do it???</p>
<p>oh, nevermind. i see why now…</p>
<p>From fake reports of WMD, to Lance Armstrong, to cheating by Harvard students in a government course, to Bernie Madoff, to the causes of the global financial meltdown …</p>
<p>… the whole world knows that the US is no slouch when it comes to dishonesty and cheating for personal gain.</p>
<p>Sure, Koreans cheating on the SAT is bad, but the implications here that ‘Asians’ inherently cheat more than ‘Americans’ is silly.</p>
<p>And, collecting all possible (published) past test questions and studying them hours a day is not cheating or unethical AT ALL. If I was struggling to LEARN and do well in a Chinese language test, I would be doing that too.</p>
<p>Sorghum “the whole world knows that the US is no slouch when it comes to dishonesty and cheating for personal gain.” </p>
<p>C’mon what a bunch of nonsense. As you become further educated, you might learn that a healthy middle class is an affirmative sign of an honest society. America is basically an honest place, which is why there is so much opportunity. Opportunity that does not exist in Asain countries because of dishonesty and corruption. To infer otherwise is ignorance.</p>
<p>^ By that logic, we are rapidly becoming a less honest society- rapidly. </p>
<p>But I don’t buy that argument.</p>
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<p>I don’t know that that is the assumption. But, I can believe that if you only compare groups of students who endeavor to be accepted to their dream school in the United States, the rate of cheating among international students appears to be higher than the rate of cheating in American students.</p>
<p>I’d love to see your data, scubasue.</p>
<p>yikes…I have no data…just said that I could believe it…mostly because previous posters have convinced me that security in the international testing is lax compared to that here in the states.</p>
<p>Security isn’t the problem: recycled tests is.</p>
<p>The CB won’t issue recycled tests in the US anymore, but do so consistently abroad. The last six Int’l tests have been given before.</p>
<p>Even without doing anything illegal, even JUST using the answers publicly available here on CC, students can go into the exam knowing the answers in advance.</p>
<p>(and I would be wary of making broad generalizations from afar based solely on anecdata and hearsay)</p>
<p>yeah, I’m gullible that way…I heard on TV that there was a massive cheating scandal on Long Island and I believed that was possible too. </p>
<p>And Marvin, FYI…you helped me to see that it’s possibly a worse problem with the international tests:</p>
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<p>Both the College Board and the cheating teachers/students/parents are to blame. The former for leaving this door open by recycling tests–it’s very possible to buy illegal unreleased tests in Thailand, China, India, Egypt, among other places. It’s also possible to fully reverse-engineer tests based on available info here on CC. The College Board administrators could make those methods futile by ending the practice of recycling past exams. They’re very aware that this happens (it happened in 2007 Jan in Korea, as well, and this kind of cheating has been endemic since then and before), but they take no meaningful action.</p>
<p>Of course the dirty cheaters are also to blame. What kind of parents do this? What message are you sending to your kid when you pay $10,000 US for a month of “prep” that consists of little more than memorizing the answers to past unreleased exams? And as for the teachers, well, I’m sure the money’s good, but word is some of them are going to be prosecuted this time under Korean law. One teacher last time actually served a jail sentence. I hope he’s not the last.<</p>
<p>So, what’s up now?</p>