Exclusive SSAT test results void due to cheatings
By Yun Suh-young
The U.S.-based administrator of the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT), an entrance exam for private American high schools, has cancelled the results of a test taken in December due to cheating by students and teachers, multiple sources said.
Though the cheating has allegedly taken place secretly for years, this is the first time that the SSAT scores have been annulled, according to the sources.
The 137 students who took the exam on Dec. 10 at Duksung Women’s University in Seoul were informed of the nullification of the scores five days after the test.
An American parent of a student who took the exam on that day said he was notified by mail from the SSAT Board (SSATB) that it could not accept the test scores.
The parent, who declined to be named, said the board did not give a full explanation of the reasons behind the cancellation.
“I received a message overnight from the test board in the U.S. saying they cannot recognize the results. They said it was because of irregularities on the test, which I presume was cheating, but they didn’t give a clear explanation on why the scores were cancelled. I have written a letter of complaint to them that I want my money back,” said the 58 year-old parent.
According to an investigation by The Korea Times, a Korean teacher and director of a major test preparatory academy in Seoul blew the whistle on the cheating to the SSATB, which took immediate measures to invalidate the scores.
The New Jersey-based board received the report from the informant on Dec. 13 and decided not to score the tests of those students. Instead, it decided to allow the students to retake the test on Jan. 7 at no charge.
The SSATB did not give any official response to an e-mail inquiry regarding the nullification of the scores.
However, Heather Hoerle, executive director of SSATB, said on her blog linked to its website that the board made the test null and void.
“Though we had to pull 137 tests from Korea due to an irregularity which was reported, that challenge has also been managed professionally, with regard for both the affected students and schools,” she said, without further elaboration.
It is unknown how many test-takers were involved in the cheating.
The SSATB will send an official to Seoul to oversee the exam on Jan. 7. The questions will be completely different and the board’s official will personally deliver the test materials to the test site.
However, parents and students are unhappy about the measure.
“The admission deadline is Jan. 15 and my daughter will be forced to apply under time pressure. It’s unfair that the hundred-some kids who took the test have to suffer due to people who cheated,” said the parent.
The local informant told The Korea Times that he blew the whistle because he could no longer turn a blind eye to “the test’s integrity being compromised.”
“This is a long-overlooked issue. I don’t know how long this had been going on for but during the past few years, I’ve witnessed numerous cases of academies and teachers, both in Korea and the United States, openly declaring that they have the actual questions that will appear on the test and guaranteeing students’ scores,” he said.
He also added that academies and teachers capitalize on these stolen tests in grotesque ways.
“They give the students copies of the stolen tests to solve but don’t give them the answers. If the students want the answers, they need to take an additional class. This way, the desperate parents are charged an additional amount,” he said.
“The classes cost 150,000 won per hour. Students take those classes for about a little over a month during the summer vacations and pay about 30 to 40 million won in total. They take these classes expecting they’ll get to see the answers.”
The other method is selling the actual tests and answers to the parents directly.
“This can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars but desperate parents are willing to pay any price for this type of service,” said the source.
A full set of one of the nine SSAT sets obtained by The Korea Times backs allegations that the tests are being traded at high prices between students and teachers.
The informant said he was first informed of the dubious transactions by a parent.
“A parent told me she was asked by a teacher to deposit 20 million won into the teacher’s bank account. But the parent thought this was peculiar since the teacher did not give any proper lectures. The parent found out that the teacher, instead of teaching, was selling students answers to the tests,” the source said.
He said about 10 to 20 percent of the students taking the SSAT must have accessed the stolen tests, and most of the parents know which teachers to go to if they want guaranteed results.
“Most parents who want to send a child to high schools in the United States have visited academies that offer such means of cheating. There are more than ten teachers in Gangnam who habitually and openly offer this method of cheating,” he said. “This is possible because there are only nine sets of tests and they are recycled every year.”
The informant stressed that parents and students must realize that cheating does not promote knowledge or guarantee success.
“Rather it devalues students’ morale and self-worth as they begin to believe that they are incapable of achieving true feats on their own. If they learn to justify cheating when going into high school, they will look for ways to cheat in preparing for college and in life,” he said.