Barron’s by Abby Schultz.
The first revision of the SAT in more than 10 years was given to students in the U.S. on March 5, but thousands of test takers received notice less than a week beforehand that they would instead sit for their exams on the next scheduled test date of May 7. The May date is when the test also will be offered in Asia and other international sites.
Those bumped didn’t take the news quietly. The College Board’s phones started ringing and, before long, employees from test preparation companies jammed customer service lines “with invalid information, calling five or more times,” according to the non-profit College Board, which administers the SAT, the standardized test widely used for U.S. college admissions.
Many of these callers worked for companies that prepare students for college entrance exams — a booming industry in Asia where parents are especially anxious to get their kids into U.S. universities. These test-prep pros were desperate to sit for the first revised version of the test in the U.S. Some of the employees gave the College Board different stories across multiple calls, sometimes giving different information or false credentials like names and birth dates within the same call, according to the College Board.
The outsized reaction from test prep employees shows what the College Board is up against in trying to stamp out cheating, which has plagued the high-stakes exam in Asia and elsewhere. Cheating can take place in myriad and mysterious forms, but there have been reports of unscrupulous test-prep companies sending multiple employees to take a test and memorize different sections, so the exam can be subsequently pieced together.
As a result, and as we’ve previously reported, materials from prior tests, sometimes even whole test booklets have been leaked to test takers before an exam. One reason this happens is exams given in the U.S. have later been given to international students overseas, according to test prep specialists in Hong Kong and the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), an organization that advocates for test-optional policies.
With test preparation such big business, it isn’t surprising what companies would do to jostle for an edge. “We noticed that many test prep individuals were working together to game the system,” a College Board representative said in a detailed e-mail reply to Barron’s. “For example, a large number of test prep employees all came back to us testing for the same loophole, which was different from their original claim: Suddenly they all had to apply to the same summer school program, at the same school in the rural south, with the same deadline they claimed meant they needed to test in March.”
Not surprisingly, the College Board has had to find more creative ways to outwit those seeking to game the system. For the March exam, it analyzed registrations and identified those who weren’t planning to apply or go to college, or to use the results for other legitimate purposes. The non-profit did this by examining the number of times the same registrant has taken the test, as well as the test dates when he or she previously took the exam. The College Board declined to list all the screening measures it used, citing security reasons.
“We instituted the new security measure for March to make sure that those who are taking the SAT for its intended purpose get the chance to do so,” but also to ensure that “the temptation from bad guys to steal our test content and profit off of students is far lower than in May when the test content is made public,” the statement said. “Everyone can test in May. We did not ban anyone from taking the test, we’re just prioritizing the welfare of students.”
More than 277,000 registered for the March 5 test, and less than 1% was affected by the new security measures, the College Board said.
The difference between the March and May SAT dates is significant and takes some explaining: The March test is offered in the U.S., while the May test is administered both in the U.S. and abroad. Also, students who take the test in May can request their SAT test questions and answers back from the College Board for an $18 fee — but that option is not available for the March test. Understandably, the College Board is unlikely to repeat questions used in the May test since these are subsequently made available widely in the Q&As, but it could conceivably re-use questions from the March exam. As a result, security has to be tighter for the March test.
Each year, the College Board administers the test on seven separate days in the U.S., and on six days internationally. But only tests administered in the U.S. in October, January and May allow students the option of requesting their questions and answers back for $18, while international test takers can do so only with the test in May.
Security surrounding tests for which questions and answers aren’t subsequently made available goes to the heart of the cheating concerns, which have been a huge issue in Asia previously detailed in this column. Just this past January, the College Board cancelled scheduled exams in China and Macau out of concern students saw test materials. The test scores of a few international students are still being withheld from that exam, the College Board says. Last year, students in Asia repeatedly had test scores withheld so the College Board could investigate possible cheating.
Cheating isn’t a challenge just for the College Board. The ACT, a widely-used and competing college entrance exam, explicitly proclaimed its ability to prohibit test prep professionals from taking the exam two years ago. “We are seeing an increase in organized businesses based on cheating,” says Rachel Schoenig, the ACT’s head of test security. “We understand that and want to be in a position to proactively address it.”
The problem, she adds, isn’t more prevalent internationally than in the U.S. “Based on my experience, the vast majority of test takers are honest,” Schoenig says. “There are what I will call a dedicated and determined few who are willing to engage in dishonest testing, and that knows no geographic boundaries. There are no national or cultural limitations.”
The reaction by test prep employees to the transfer of their registration “validated our decision to put this new security measure in place,” the College Board said. The enhanced security protocol could be instituted again, in the U.S. or internationally, it indicated: “We constantly enhance our security efforts to ensure the integrity of each administration, and are considering this measure for future administrations.”
Cheating by test-prep companies could be substantially minimized if standardized test administrators did not recycle questions, of course.
Zach Goldberg, a spokesman for the College Board, said in a January email that “there are instances where questions or forms are re-used.”
By preventing test-prep professionals from taking the March exam in the U.S., the College Board may succeed in closing a door to dishonest companies. One Hong Kong educational consultant called it “a good start.”
But other doors remain open. Students who took the March test immediately went to online chat groups to discuss specific questions. On College Confidential, one of these chat boards, some students came to the conclusion that there were different versions of the test. A Reddit thread had a link to a Google document that quickly disappeared if you didn’t copy it. The document has questions and answers to the March 5 test, and dissents to the answers were provided.
“They stopped the pros from directly accessing the test content,” says Robert Schaeffer, FairTest’s public education director. “They didn’t stop the kids.”
