Cheating SAT hagwon to be closed for good

Some applicants for June test disqualified

By Bahk Eun-ji

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) said Sunday it permanently ban private academies from providing classes for the U.S. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), if they are found to be stealing and leaking test questions.

Some students who are registered to take tests in June have been disqualified, although no full explanations have been given.

SMOE said those academies will have their licenses revoked and barred from setting up new SAT institutes in other locations.

The education supervisor said it will launch an intensive inspection of 12 private academies from June 27 to 31, to determine whether they leaked test questions.

A broader inspection is scheduled for the June-September summer vacation, affecting all registered SAT institutes. The summer vacation is the peak season when students studying abroad come back home to enlist the help from institutes to prepare for the SATs.

All 63 private academies are located in Gangnam.

The inspection was initially launched in May, coming after the organizer of the SAT had decided to cancel the test in Korea in May, on the grounds that the questions had been leaked.

Two academies were suspended and another five were slapped with a 12 million won fine.

College Board and Education Testing Service (ETS), the SAT arbiters, said the May test was cancelled because a number of test-takers were given access to its questions.

The education office also said it will seek help from the prosecution and the tax agency in order to beef up punishment for those who leak exam questions.

College Board and ETS said Sunday it has disqualified some students in Korea from taking the test next month in connection with the leakage of test questions.

They sent e-mails to the students individually Saturday, and said the majority of test-takers will be able to proceed with the test in June.

It declined to clarify the exact number of students who received the e-mails and why it disqualified them.

“ETS has based its decision on clear and fair grounds, and those students who got the e-mails are also banned from taking the test in other countries,” said an official from the College Board and ETS.

Asked how many applicants received the emails, the official said, “Only a small number” of students.

“The only June 2013 test that has been cancelled is the SAT subject Test in Biology” the official said

College Board and ETS said, however, those disqualified students will be allowed to proceed with the test for July.