By Cho Choong-yeon
A famous SAT teacher in Korea was caught illegally discussing what was on the exam. He used the time difference between the United States and other countries to tell his students what will be on the test.
As students talked after the test, some of them, without noticing, told others that they had known what was going to be on the exam.
Since SAT scores are based on percentages, the other students felt this was unfair and reported the incident to the College Board. All the tests taken in Korea were voided and the efforts of those who actually worked hard came to naught.
However, the worst part starts here. As more and more people found out about the SAT teacher, more and more parents tried to send their kids to him so their children could attain high scores. It is shocking that some parents care more about children’s short-term goal of getting into a good college instead of looking to the distant future of their children.
There is another incident that has made colleges distrust Korean students. One of the foreign language high schools faked its students’ grades so it could send more students to higher-ranked universities. However, the school was caught and from then on, the school was not able send students to colleges in the United States.
These two incidents show that cheating is rampant in Korea. Teachers and schools cheat and use their students to make more money. Even parents only care about results instead of how their children learn. Education is not just for entering a good college, but also for a desirable life. If students succeed by cheating, they are not having a proper life.
It is known that about half of the students who go to colleges in the United States right after graduating Korean high schools, return to Korea because they have a hard time getting used to the new culture and education system.
If students using fake scores get into colleges that are too challenging for them, they are likely to have a hard time and come back with regrets.
Furthermore, colleges doubt Korean students’ abilities so future college applicants will be affected too.
Cheating is one of the most selfish acts. By cheating, people want to achieve beyond what they can with their ability. As a result, the cheaters take up high ranks while the actual hard workers do not get what they deserve.
In the bigger picture, the cheaters will remain as such in order to succeed constantly in their area. Conversely, hard workers may give if they continue to not achieve the results they expect.
In addition, society is formed of beliefs between people. If students learn about cheating and faking their true selves, they may grow up as people who do not trust others.
When there is no trust between people, there can be no work done in any area because everywhere including companies, schools and governments are formed with trust toward each other.
It is not an easy task to change people’s greed toward better grades. In order to prevent further dishonesty, there must be new methods that do not let students try to cheat in the first hand.
The College Board recently changed the way they give SAT subject tests. They give out different tests so people cannot know the problems beforehand using time differences. Since the problems that were illegally made known were from the SAT Reasoning Test, the College Board should do the same thing for that exam. Making extra problems will be a difficult task for the College Board but since it is a nonprofit organization they should make efforts to act as a proper test maker. If every possible way of cheating is blocked, students will grow up as hard-working, not cheaters.
The writer is a sophomore at St. Mark’s School in Massachusetts.