In November 2013, South Korean prosecutors said they had indicted eight “SAT brokers” who had hired students to memorize questions of exams taken abroad or posed as test-takers themselves, using secret cameras to take pictures of questions. Prosecutors also indicted 22 managers and teachers at test preparation companies in South Korea for buying the illegally acquired SAT data.
The announcement by administrators of the SAT college entrance test that scores are being withheld for students from China and South Korea who took the exam earlier this month has infuriated many and raised anxiety about what for a number of them is a high-stakes college application process.
The Educational Testing Service, the company that administers the test worldwide, said Wednesday that it was withholding the scores of those who took the test on Oct. 11, at least temporarily, because of suspicions of cheating “based on specific, reliable information.” The company referred in a statement to “organizations that seek to illegally obtain test materials for their own profit, to the ultimate detriment of all students.
The announcement about the withholding of scores came just days before deadlines for early application for many colleges and universities in the United States. Some students in China and South Korea complained that the move was too broad, and that the administrators should be taking action against only those students suspected of cheating.
“I’m very anxious and angry,” said Wei Jialiang, 18, a senior at Miyun High School, in a Beijing suburb. “Why the Chinese? If there were cheaters, just single out them; don’t drag us all into the mess. Every exam has cheaters, and it’s not like that it happens only in Asia.”
[…]
