I am seriously concerned about certain incidents of students cheating I have witnessed this past open exam. After the exam, I found at a student at my school had taken it at a testing center owned and proctored by his close relative. This is highly suspicious as I know this student is struggling in biology even at school, AND the exam is offered at school where everyone else took it. The proctor, his close relative, not only knows the questions beforehand but also takes home the tests at the end of the day. Thus, it is almost certain he cheated on this exam.
I also took the physics open exam, and I discovered the same person took it again at his close relative’s testing center, even though it was also offered at the school. He is not even taking physics in school yet managed to pass the open exam by an extremely wide margin; his score was even higher than my other friend’s who has taken all 3 AP physics classes and has even done research related to it.
He could also cheat in the same way to pass the semifinal exams and make both camps. This is absolutely ridiculous!
The long testing period, as well as the tests being given at private testing centers that have clear conflicts of interest, make it way too easy for people to cheat on the USABO and USAPHO exams. This directly impacts all of us as each spot a cheater gets is one less spot a person who worked legitimately hard for it can get.
These olympiads should be structured like the USNCO, where tests MUST be given at accredited high schools, and each region takes the test at the same time. Close relatives of students are not allowed to proctor exams, and they are put through a vetting process.
To protect the integrity of such prestigious programs, we need to take action to prevent this from continuing to happen. I suggest everyone email the USABO and USAPHO coordinators as well as their parent organizations, CEE and AAPT, respectively, to ask them to address our concerns.
@PercyFowl Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any such rule as I was so upset over this. I talked to my teacher about it who said there is nothing she can do because the student registered with an outside test site, which was apparently one of the options to sign up for when you register on their website.
Yeah, this year has seen a lot of cheating on competitions. I have a friend who I’m almost certain cheated on the AMC 12B; a lot of other people also cheated. That’s why MAA said that they would investigate the incidents, but the overall cutoffs for AIME this year were not changed at all. Thus, I think even though the organizations overseeing a competition may agree to investigate cheating incidents, they will not find much that can benefit legitimate test takers. The cutoffs may increase by 1-2 points, but that would be it.
Yeah, I have already emailed them. But I think it would be better if more people would email them to raise this concern about these cheating incidents. I know that AIME now requires everyone to take it on the same day as does the chemistry olympiad.
@MathemagicalWasp Yes, I am, but I’m not sure if I’ll qualify to be a semifinalist. However, I think it’s better to start studying now and to not qualify than to waste this precious time and then fail at the semifinal exam.
Yes, that’s a good point. The problem is, right now is also kinda Science Olympiad prime time :(( (maybe for some other ppl too), so I’m trying super hard to prioritize. rip
@MathemagicalWasp Yes, do I ever know what you mean! I just had my state SO competition last Saturday, and because I was also studying for my SO events, I felt like I didn’t perform as well as I could have on the USABO open exam. It’s too bad that everything is at the same time.
