Tainted Graduate Record Examination tests are causing worldwide panic at colleges and universities.
According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Educational Testing Services informed graduate schools in the U.S. that China, South Korea and Taiwan are all suspected of producing GRE scores for students who cheated on the tests.
ETS creates and administers the GRE, which is the qualifying test to enter graduate school.
ETS started an investigation of test scores involving 40 countries. The investigation found test takers used Web sites to post questions and sometimes answers they had memorized for other students to access.
The three countries had a significant rise in scores on the verbal section only. An increase of as much as 100 points occurred in China, and 50 points in South Korea and Taiwan, on a scale where test scores range 200-800 points.
Carol A. Beere, associate provost for graduate studies and outreach at Northern Kentucky University and the chairperson of the GRE board, said the board had to make the difficult decision on whether to tell graduate schools of the cheating and possibly make suspects out of the students who did not cheat.
They were also worried that publicizing the method of cheating would alert other possible cheaters of the scheme. Ultimately, they decided graduate schools had to know.
“Our challenge is to protect the test scores and reputation of the students who are putting their honest energy into preparing for graduate school,” Beere said.
Students who have already taken the test in their respective countries may have to face some doubts from graduate schools if their GRE test scores are not consistent with their life and academic history, said Elliot E. Slotnick, associate dean at the graduate school.
“I suspect the allegations about cheating will place doubts in the minds of those who evaluate students from these countries for admissions and financial assistance,” Slotnick said.
At the same time Beere and the board stressed that many Asian students took the test under honorable conditions. The ETS has not identified any tests that are definitely tainted, and Ohio State has not been contacted specifically about any problems with GRE scores.
To avoid the possibility of further cheating in those three countries, the GRE will no longer be provided on computer. Starting Sept. 30, students must take paper examinations with questions that will only be used once. This policy will affect more than 55,000 students.
Regardless of what country students are from, they are all affected by those who cheat.
“The artificially high cheater scores disadvantage students who receive lower scores and who did not cheat,” said Susan Huntington, dean of the graduate school.
“For example, a student who scores a 680 on the quantitative portion of the test might be at a 50th percentile if all test scores are honest; however, if a significant number of students who have cheated receive artificially high scores, the percentile ranking of the 680 might go down, to say, the 40th percentile,” she said.
The widespread cheating on the test affects the accuracy of the percentiles for all the students taking the same test, and also makes judging the educational level and ability of the students harder, said Beere.
“False GRE scores make it difficult for U.S. institutions to accurately assess the abilities and educational preparation of international students in the three countries where cheating is a problem,” said Beere.
The Web sites where the cheating schemes took place appear to have been strictly ran by students whose motivation was simply help their fellow students, said Beere.
According to The Chronicle, the ETS considers the web sites where students posted GRE questions and answers to be illegal.
All students taking the GRE are required to sign a statement agreeing not to revel any questions from the test to others.
