Students who used the wrong online study guide may have the GMAT scores cancelled

FrijolMalo · Jun 24, 2008

http://www.businessweek.com/bschool...3_153722.htm?chan=rss_topEmailedStories_ssi_5

More than 1,000 prospective MBA students who paid $30 to use a now-defunct Web site to get a sneak peak at live questions from the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) before taking the exam may have their scores canceled in coming weeks. For many, their B-school dreams may be effectively over.

On June 20, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted the test's publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), a $2.3 million judgment against the operator of the site, Scoretop.com. GMAC has seized the site's domain name and shut down the site, and is analyzing a hard drive containing payment information.

GMAC said any students found to have used the Scoretop site will have their test scores canceled, the schools that received them will be notified, and the student will not be permitted to take the test again. Since most top B-schools require the GMAT, the students will have little chance of enrolling. "This is illegal," said Judy Phair, GMAC's vice-president for communications. "We have a hard drive, and we're going to be analyzing it. If you used the site and paid your $30 to cheat, your scores will be canceled. They're in big trouble."
Small Advantage to Test Takers

GMAC sued the operator of the site, Lei Shi, for using it to distribute copyrighted GMAT-related materials without GMAC's permission. Shi, who has reportedly returned from the site's base in Ohio to his native China, is under investigation by the FBI, GMAC says. Shi, who did not have legal representation for the GMAC lawsuit, could not be reached for comment.

While the consequences for students may be severe, the advantage they gained by using Scoretop is almost inconsequential. Unlike other GMAT test-prep sites, which use retired questions, Scoretop and others claim to provide access to "live" questions that test takers might encounter when they show up for the exam. Participants on the site would debate the proper answers. But the GMAT uses a computer adaptive format that generates a new test for every user based on responses to previous questions from a stockpile that contains thousands of possible questions. "Even if a site is illegally able to obtain some real questions, it is extremely unlikely that a test taker will see the same questions on the live exam," says Larry Rudner, GMAC vice-president for research and development.

Scoretop has been in operation since 2003. Visitors to the Scoretop Web site before it was shut down would have encountered posts from happy users and a list of "test experiences," users' firsthand reports about the most recent test questions. But on June 23, they found this message from GMAC: "GMAC takes cheating very seriously, especially attempts to obtain access to live test questions in advance of an exam. We also take very seriously any unauthorized distribution of our copyrighted GMAT preparation materials. If you are caught disclosing, accessing, or using 'real' GMAT questions your GMAT score will be cancelled [and] you may be subject to a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution."

The news about the cheating scandal was the talk of the annual GMAC conference in Chicago over the weekend, where the organization's President and CEO David Wilson described the latest developments for an audience of 700.

It's unclear how individual schools will respond. More than 4,000 graduate management programs use the test as part of the admissions process, but many of those using sites like Scoretop seek admission to the most competitive programs. So the fallout is likely to be limited to top schools.

Several schools, contacted June 23, said it was far too early to determine what fate awaits students or prospective students whose scores are canceled. "It's impossible to say at this point what that means," said Ed Anderson, Duke's associate director of admissions.
Some Scoretop Users May Have MBAs

Joe Fox, director of MBA programs at Washington University's Olin Business School, said a lot depends on what information GMAC can provide about individual students, especially the frequency with which they used the site. "There's an infraction, that's for sure," Fox said. "At a minimum it flies in the face of our code of professional conduct. We could do anything we wanted—from a slap on the wrist to expulsion from the program—and we'd be well within our rights."
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Based on comments to the article (viewable at the link above), it appears that the site in question never actually claimed to offer access to live questions, but rather questions prepared by the site's tutors. Clearly ScoreTop is in the the wrong for publishing live test questions, but how were these students to know that the site was using stolen materials? Must one assume that all unofficial study guides are considered cheating then?

Baba · Jun 24, 2008

They can anylize documents these days with computers. Kinda like there is a site teachers and proffessors can go to and check papers in a database for plagerizm.

Yelling Bird · Jun 24, 2008

That sucks. I would have been pissed last year if my GMAT scores were cancelled.

Volpone · Jun 24, 2008

Good. People that lie and cheat and then turn out to be idiots ruin the reputation of those of us that do it the hard way and can pull our weight. I hope they nail everyone who's used the site to cheat and those people wind up having to be janitors in porno theaters.

FrijolMalo · Jun 24, 2008

So using an unofficial study guide is cheating? How were these people to know that the site was using "live" questions?

From a comment posted to the article:

for anyone interested, you can check out archived versions of the Scoretop.com page at webarchive.org. The disclosure for the VIP service exactly reads: "New VIP membership has openned today! In the new service, we will provide our own math/Verbal practise questions(fully owned by Scoretop, not copyrighted of anybody else!) written by our 780+ tutors, with explanations to those questions posted on a daily basis. By practising these questions, members definitely can improve their skills." Looking elsewhere, there is indeed no indication that Score advertised the use of "live" GMAT questions
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oldfella1962 · Jun 24, 2008

Baba - I can pretty much assume nobody will ever accuse you of plagiarism buy putting an example of your writing into a computer.

All the computers in the world couldn't crack that code.

You could make the Navajo "Wind Talkers" eat a grenade in frustration.

Jeff Cooper Disciple · Jun 24, 2008

I wanted to eat a grenade in frustration after sitting through Windtalkers.

Ancalagon · Jun 25, 2008

Volpone said: ↑

Good. People that lie and cheat and then turn out to be idiots ruin the reputation of those of us that do it the hard way and can pull our weight. I hope they nail everyone who's used the site to cheat and those people wind up having to be janitors in porno theaters.
Click to expand...

Some people cheat b/c their lazy, not b/c they're stupid...

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Students who used the wrong online study guide may have the GMAT scores cancelled

FrijolMalo A huddled mass

Baba Rep Giver

Yelling Bird Probably a Dual

Volpone Zombie Hunter

FrijolMalo A huddled mass

oldfella1962 the only real finish line

Jeff Cooper Disciple You've gotta be shittin' me.

Ancalagon Scalawag Administrator Formerly Important

Log in or Sign up

Students who used the wrong online study guide may have the GMAT scores cancelled

FrijolMalo A huddled mass

Baba Rep Giver

Yelling Bird Probably a Dual

Volpone Zombie Hunter

FrijolMalo A huddled mass

oldfella1962 the only real finish line

Jeff Cooper Disciple You've gotta be shittin' me.

Ancalagon Scalawag Administrator Formerly Important

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