SAT testing planned for Saturday has been cancelled in China and Macau, the Associated Press reports. The cancellation marks another episode in a series of Chinese plagiarism and cheating scandals.
Allegedly, some students have already seen copies of the test that was to be administered Saturday. To be safe, the test was cancelled by The College Board at 45 testing centers. The College Board would not explain how students may have seen the test in advance, out of fears future cheaters would try to get around the method test administrators used to discover the alleged cheating. “Canceling tests is the most serious step taken if cheating is suspected,” Stacy Caldwell, the College Board’s vice president for college readiness assessments, told the AP.
It’s the first time since 2013 that the SAT has been cancelled, when a similar episode in South Korea occurred.
Chinese students “are known to have fabricated personal essays and inflated grades when applying to American schools,” according to Jiang Xueqin, a Chinese education researcher.
In 2015, United States prosecutors charged 15 Chinese citizens who allegedly had impostors take college entrance exams for them near Pittsburgh. One student has already pleaded guilty to organizing the scheme and admitted the Chinese citizens paid as much as $6,000 for the impostors. That scheme targeted the SAT, the GRE and the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
