Leakage of SAT Questions Linked to Lax Supervision
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
The supervisory role played by ETS, the U.S.-based organizer of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), is under scrutiny over the theft of test questions.
According to Suseo Police Station in southern Seoul, Thursday, ETS didn't know about the latest cases until Korean police informed them.
Although ETS faces an incessant string of students' cheating, it has not taken any remedial steps, which not only dents its credibility but also makes test-takers ill at ease.
"We asked the ETS to send its staff for the investigation," a policeman told The Korea Times.
Police are investigating two cases of cheating on the SAT. The first involves a lecturer who stole SAT questions in Thailand and sent them to two students just before they were scheduled to take the tests.
The lecturer, identified as Kim, took advantage of the time difference between Thailand and the United States. The lecturer was booked for obstructing the business of others.
In a different case, a SAT lecturer, Jang, was charged on counts of larceny last Saturday. Jang, along with three college students, had allegedly stolen SAT questions.
ETS headquarters in the United States said it has no immediate plans to revise its test security system.
But Korean police are eager to root out cases of cheating involving the world-renowned test.
Back in January 2007, ETS canceled the scores of all Korean students at nine test venues in Korea as exam questions were leaked to a hagwon in the affluent Gangnam district.
Last May, a college student who took the exam at a foreign school in Seoul was caught smuggling out test sheets.
Some claim that if the ETS had a permanent establishment in Korea it could provide better supervision on the tests as well as deal with problems in a more timely and efficient manner.
The U.S organization runs the SAT tests in Korea at 22 venues, seven times a year, with an increasing number of Korean applicants taking the tests.