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<p>Sure, there will always be cheaters and liars and murderers and… in every society. But we are talking about how specific cultures view cheating. I don’t know anything about the radiology exams of which you speak, but I’m guessing there were negative consequences to the cheating?</p>
<p>CollegeBoard needs to stop the recycling practice as it’s unfair to U.S. students and those international students who haven’t cheated. But do our universities care enough to push for change? Not likely.</p>
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Why do we keep on voting and electing crooked politicians?</p>
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<p>I am compelled to ask how you can state all of the above when CA thinks it’s perfectly acceptable when people sneak into the US illegally (is this cheating?) and their kids flood our school system and we grant them in-state tuition.</p>
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<p>[Exclusive:</a> Doctors cheated on exams - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/health/prescription-for-cheating]Exclusive:”>http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/13/health/prescription-for-cheating)</p>
<p>Another example of “cheating” that is common in the US:</p>
<p>Go to any stop sign in a low traffic area (or a right turn on red light situation). Count the percentage of vehicles which make a full and complete stop at the stop sign before proceeding (and hope they actually looked for traffic and pedestrians to yield to before proceeding).</p>
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<p>I am in complete agreement with you on this one, cbreeze. This is a good example of the “watering down” of the values over the years due to political reasons I didn’t want to bring up.</p>
<p>Aside from all the other points being addressed here, I am really curious to know why the recent SAT cheating scandal in Korea has not yet been reported in the English newspapers or the international media. It has already been 4 days, and domestically, the papers are reporting updates everyday, with one media outlet even disclosing a secret email sent to their offices as if they had just received an email about a plot to assassinate the president. </p>
<p>Very strange indeed. From what I have seen in other cases, it usually takes a day at the most for this kind of incident to be translated into all the English newspapers, and I certainly do not believe that this incident is small enough to warrant being overlooked by the English newspapers in Korea.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus,</p>
<p>Did you know that if you get caught doing a “rolling stop” in CA, the penalty is over $300, plus an entire day of traffic school if you don’t want it to show on your record? I know this from personal experience, unfortunately, and I did it by <em>accident</em> because my mind was elsewhere (probably on a CC thread ;)).</p>
<p>I grew up near Los Angeles, California, where I attended school most of my life, and let me tell you, California is not a place where you would want to commit a crime, even a minor one. </p>
<p>From what I recall, 16-year old kids who commit robberies are sentenced to 10 years in prison under some law that treats teenagers as they would adults who commit crimes, and I even recall a story of a Korean man who was sent to country jail to serve a 5-day sentence for soliciting a prostitute and ended up being repeatedly stabbed, murdered, and then thrown into a trash bin by several other Korean inmates. </p>
<p>Perhaps if they had similar laws in Korea for those who cheat, cheating wouldn’t be so prevalent. lol</p>
<p>Slightly off-topic, my favorite example of corruption in America is the pattern of doctors ordering unnecessary tests for financial gain (and often owning or part-owning the test laboratory). Or carrying out unnecessary procedures, for that matter.</p>
<p>So, the approach taken by the miracle 6 week writing class is not much different than the computer program we had on the mainframe 30 years ago that would prompt the user for weather, course info, and a few other trivias and produce some very entertaining letters home to our parents in a matter of a couple minutes…</p>
<p>Then, the issue is simple: come up with more creative, more original topics that don’t repeat on a regular basis. If the College Board is unable or unwilling to do that and only uses the very predictable “Are puppies better than kittens” topics, then we’ve lost the battle regardless of what the cram schools do.</p>
<p>Likewise, the College Board is guilty of allowing cut-and-paste irrelevancies to be graded as highly as they do… </p>
<p>Scary. And on top of that, the single subject that really gives the best insight to a candidate’s skills is ignored by most universities. </p>
<p>Cram school brings back so many memories - a fellow Elbonian was cramming for the TOELF back then - his father hired a very attractive 40 something tutor and let’s just say they did not discuss the intricacies of the English language in their sessions. After 3 consecutive 545’s (schools needed 550+) his father figured it out. Ah, the good old days…</p>
<p>I stand corrected and flabbergasted…</p>
<p>For the posters who continue to bring up allegations of dishonest behavior by Americans, is your point that we should ignore or excuse SAT cheating in Korea because Americans are sometimes dishonest? If that isn’t your point, what is your point?</p>
<p>@turbo93</p>
<p>Yes, indeed, that is exactly what I am talking about.</p>
<p>Let me give you a more concrete example.</p>
<p>Let’s say I get a student who received a 6 or 7 on his essay. I ask him to write a sample essay of his own in class to determine his writing skills. I immediately deduce that this kid is hopeless and cannot improve his essay score within a month of intensive tutoring only by correcting his grammatical mistakes, teaching different styles of writing, all the basics, how to structure essays, blah blah.</p>
<p>I will then use one of my preslotted templates (I have over 10 but if the student pays extra, I will create a unique template only for him or her ON THE SPOT) that can be used/preslotted for any prompt on the SAT. The dumber the kid, the more memorizing I have to make him do, and the less thinking on his part. </p>
<p>For instance, I might create a template as such:</p>
<p>“Roses are red, violets are blue,” so goes a famous poem, but the question of whether (simply copy and rewrite the prompt) is not so clear or easy to answer. There are undoubtedly many extenuating circumstances or certain exceptions to the rule in which one may argue to the contrary. Nevertheless, for the most, (SIMPLY REWRITE THE PROMPT AGAIN AND AGREE OR DISAGREE WITH IT. IF UNSURE, SIMPLY WRITE: I AGREE/DISAGREE WITH). (Give two simple reasons of your own, but if you can’t, DON’T, BECAUSE YOU CANNOT TRUST YOUR OWN WRITING, AND MOVE ON) Numerous social, historical, personal, literary examples will substantiate the aforementioned statement. </p>
<p>I then create 2 examples that the student can memorize and jam into any prompt. I warn him or her that this works for 80% of the questions and that I am not accountable for the other 20%. I then give the analogy of gambling, where if you win consistently at a rate of little over 55% of the time, you will be rich. So, 70-80% is damn good, I tell him, and that if you want to go over the other 20%, we can, but not really necessary. </p>
<p>Sometimes, I create these examples on my own but if I’m lazy on that particular day, I will simply copy and paste them from Wikipedia. I make them memorize the examples WORD FOR WORD and then write only 1-2 sentences of their own, somehow repeating the prompt and tying it in at the end. I TELL THEM THE LESS THEY WRITE THE BETTER. Then I get over 50 prompts and make them practice using the exact same template and the exact 2 examples. You honestly don’t need more than 2 examples, although people on here say that you should know at least 10 to 20. </p>
<p>Works beautifully, as students with horrible grammar can easily get a 10 or an 11 within a month using this method, whereas if they tried to improve their writing skills the honest way, it could take months, if not years.</p>
<p>Donnykim – I can see how your method can work. My question is, what happens to these kids when they get into college and actually have write a cohesive paper on their own?</p>
<p>@agentninetynine…</p>
<p>Well, one of two things happen. Some parents call me even after they get into college and ask me to help with any writing assignments they might have…(which basically means to write it for them lol). I then create preslotted templates that can also be used for business papers, science papers, etc…and then teach them how to use the damn Internet to cull all of the resources they need. Of course, this is a lot more difficult, as colleges in America can easily detect plagiarism, more so than any SAT essay grader, and also because most of the students I’ve come across, with the exception of those from top-notch international schools, have not learned how to properly document their papers through MLA format. And for me to do all that is an extremely big headache, so even if I am offered a large sum of money, I shy away from doing any types of college-level, research-based papers for kids I used to teach. Colleges, from what I recall, require concise language, factually supported papers, not the fabricated, embellished style of writing I am accustomed to teaching on the SAT.</p>
<p>However, as most of these students hate writing as it is, they will almost always major in the sciences or math or business, subjects which do not require too much writing as let’s say an English major, and if you’re good enough at these subjects, it is not that hard to graduate even though you are not a phenomenal writer. </p>
<p>Or secondly, I simply tell them that if they fail in college, that’s not my problem, and to figure it out on their own since they are adults now. Cold but true. lol</p>
<p>I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of these kids are fantastic in other subjects and very smart; it just happens that because English is not their first language, they struggle immensely with writing and want to get a good score with quick results.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that they don’t have write in these science classes. DD took a H.S. physics class last semester and wrote numerous (7 or 8) papers, not essays. And this was an elective.</p>
<p>@agentyninetynine</p>
<p>Well, I honestly do not know how much writing is or is not required in science courses. I am simply trying to explain or elaborate on the nature of the SAT industry in Korea. I do not have any moral qualms about what I do, nor do I feel the need “to hide” what I am doing, as another poster on here, who also seems to be a SAT tutor in Korea, said something to the nature of not being able to discuss too much of how the SAT essay is taught. </p>
<p>I also do not fear any types of repercussions in terms of any types of countermeasures taken by College Board to quell cheating in Korea, as I am confident enough in my abilities as a teacher to teach the SAT legitimately and do not need to rely solely on such “cheat” tactics to make a living. But I am also realistic and a businessman in that I have to do what will produce a profit. </p>
<p>Of course, there is a limit to what I would or can do, as in I would definitely not do something illegal enough to land me in jail.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how this BBC article indicates that a certain culture tolerates cheating more than other cultures.</p>
<p>Those kids that followed the prescribed essay method then come to other kids (ehem) for which writing comes naturally (ehem) and miracle of miracles, the paper gets written. </p>
<p>Today this can be done over them Internets…</p>
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<p>Oldfort, here is an anecdote to think about:</p>
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<p>And, no, the above quotation does NOT mean that I think that my poor writing is worthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as the greatest poet who might have lived. What it means is that a writer might have put a lot more thought in a few words that the reader might expect.</p>
<p>In this case --yes, this could be any case I’d like to refer to-- I did explain it a number of times, directly and indirectly. I tried and, if you were to try reading with a tad more attention, and without trying to build “your case” it would be quite apparent when I described “Asian Culture” and when I did not. </p>
<p>As it was in this case.</p>