About old SAT: yes, people do cheat. one way is to get a hint of possible test materials from the discussion of CC. there are people who closely look at every post and summarize them for test takers. another way is to take photos of test materials for future use. old SAT cheating is not a secret among Chinese students and almost every one is using it.
About new SAT: no, at present people find no way to cheat because there have not been any repetitive tests. but if CB use current tests again. who knows? I hope CB would not recycle test anymore. people would rather spend more on taking the test to cover the cost of CB making new tests.
About ACT: most of people avoid ACT in previous years. however, this year, due to SAT being redesigned, many start to take ACT test. Cheating? the same way as old SAT. not so popularized anyway because ACT is rather easy.
BTW, about TOEFL. People do have ways to cheat, but the test is rather easy.
you may start to condemn Chinese students. but there are some reasons why Chinese students have to cheat.
old SAT is difficult to Chinese students. if you do not cheat, it is very likely that you will never achieve a 2300+. if everyone else has a 2300+ through cheating and you get 2000+, you have to cheat. you parents will tell you to cheat. or you will be shut off from Ivy League or likely TOP20/30/50. competition is harsher in China.
Personally I took both old SAT and new SAT. I did not want to cheat and my old SAT is 2000+. I was stressed out because everyone else have a good score at least 2200+. so I took redesigned one, and through my effort get 1550 and very few peers get 1500+.
I post this simply hope CB will not ruin the new SAT and create a fair test environment and also, Chinese students are not cheaters. many of them have a lot of peer pressure and they concern a lot about their future. And I, who is also a Chinese student, never cheated!
There are literally thousands of colleges in the USA. Do what the USA students do and attend one outside of the narrow range. Many of the schools outside of the Ivy or the top 20/30/50 are amazing schools.
How about instead of cheating, spend your time researching other great schools in the USA that would be happy to have you.
In addition, how about putting pressure on China’s government to reform the higher education system in China.
Get rid of the cheating on the gaokao
Get rid of zou houmen into elementary schools/ middle schools/ high schools/ universities/ jobs/ government.
How much money do you have to pay in China to get into a “good” elementary school? Maybe cut the bribing and the bribe taking.
How about making the rural schools just as good as the urban schools, and boost education throughout China, instead of just for the urban elite?
How about creating an education system that values something more than rote memorization? Maybe create an education system that values the progressive approach and creativity.
There are many things that can be reformed in Chinese education beyond not cheating on the SAT. Maybe if you do that, the impulse to cheat to get into USA schools won’t be as strong.
I can’t believe that some test takers in China think cheating can be anyhow justified…
My Chinese friends cried after getting 2100 on her SAT because she thought she would never get into any colleges. It seems even more stressing out and unfair for the honest Chinese International students in the States who are competing with those almost perfect score Chinese students from China.
@T26E4 but if admission committees get too paranoid then basically there’s nothing that can prove a non-fraud 'cause every possible proof can also be questioned as forged lol. why not stop admitting Chinese applicants altogether
Honestly I can’t even begin to grasp how unfair and cynical this whole “Chinese people=cheaters” idea is. To be fair, one of the first things I came across while searching the SAT tag was a Chinese ad for “代考”…sitting the exam for someone else. But I’m a firm believer of the innocent until proven guilty thing and seeing Chinese kids having to fly over to Taiwan/Singapore/HK for their SATs (I’m Taiwanese, and every single time Chinese students make up >=50% of the test takers on any given site) just…baffles me.
There are deep-rooted problems in East Asian education systems. A lot of them. Having survived both types (the local and the international school system) I totally agree. But at least give people some freaking trust.
I’m ethnic Chinese – I’m saddened by it too. But from the stand point of the colleges, the schemes they witness are too pervasive to ignore. TEN years ago I was first made aware of this – my college (a highly sought after destination) rec’d 6 applications from one Chinese school. There were five different versions of the transcripts (all perfect marks, of course) submitted for the six students. A simply phone call showed which one submitted an actual transcript. But that is kid stuff. Now, that won’t happen because the schemes are so sophisticated. Because extremely rich people want their kids to go to top western colleges, especially US colleges:
** teachers and headmasters are bribed or coerced to give perfect marks and superior recommendations deserved or not. Also, they are bribed/coerced to sabotage competitors’ transcripts. You work hard? Well your transcript gets false poor marks because your classmate’s super-rich father has found out you’re applying to the same college as his son.
** Besides the SAT testing cheats, actual test takers are substituted. Lots of fraudulent identity schemes @kurtgu9903, I advised you earlier that you’d be videotaped during your interview. You know why? So they can prove you are who you say you are – that your English skills are actually yours – and not a paid substitute.
** Top Chinese candidates are all interviewed – to gauge their suitability. One applicant had a Skype interview. It ended badly for her when her mother, who was hiding beneath the table feeding her answers, hit the table and became visible. Now, fewer or no more Skype interviews since even THEY can’t be trusted.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg. @jamieevren1210 “giving people some freaking trust” has led to qualified applicants being overlooked and schemers and fraudsters coming in. The efforts and expense far outweigh what any one student’s tuition can bring the school. (kurtgu9903 was asked by a college he/she applied to to travel many hours in order to be interviewed by a company that verifies credentials). The schools ACTUALLY WANT great Chinese students. But they need to institute these filters in order to get them and not the cheaters. Perhaps in Taiwan, the infrastructure is more resilient against the cheaters – but for the PRC, the top colleges have no choice to spend a ton in order to get the few top Chinese applicants.
Hypocritical much?? There is NO excuse for cheating. None. Most colleges here have an Honor code, and if you continue to cheat, you will get thrown out. Tell your classmates to stop cheating.
There are plenty of qualified Asian AMERICANS that get shut out because of Asian quotas and are losing against these cheaters. Rich Ivy schools should stop or reduce admitting from China and admit Asian Americans instead.
Regardless of your ethnicity, it blows my mind how people cheat. Especially in the United States, they spread the desks out far enough you cannot see anyone in front of, behind, next to, etc. 2) You have no idea who is sitting next to you and how do you know they aren’t thinking the same thing. 3) Different Test Versions. If any cheaters are reading this, just study! There is no point in falsely getting a high school and getting into a good school, eventually failing out because you cannot keep up, etc. Just study, you have been prepping your whole life!
@T26E4 I had my interviews w/ two alumni actually haha. But I did find out about companies like varicant and initialview recently. These companies are such a slap in the face and the prices are ridiculous af.
@jamieevren1210 I spent my entire academic life in the traditional school system in a second-tier city and so far I couldn’t be more disappointed. Back in elementary school I refused a classmate’s request to help her cheat and she physically assaulted me. I took this to the teacher and I remember the exact words she said,“why did she pick on you and not everybody else?” To me it’s just that the entire system is too result-oriented, and with no supervision, after a while it just became too twisted.
IMO this reputation of dishonesty could go on for a long time if the tutoring agencies continue to go unregulated and our traditional systems remain stagnant and continue to drive students abroad. But I do have hope for the future. PRC is still a country in the making, and it could use the effort of great people like you guys to help change things for the better.
@kurtgu9903
You’re definitely bringing back some childhood memories. I too was bullied for being “top-of-the-class and refusing to cheat”. I can’t grasp how twisted some parents and students are over there if this thing continues into secondary education (I’m lucky in a sense since this kind of behavior basically stopped after middle school. Or it could be my high school being academically “elite”…too proud to cheat??? I don’t know)
It saddens me to see you guys (and us… to a certain extent) having to fight like this for even a sliver of chance at our dream schools. Someone’s got to regulate this madness.
@jamieevren1210 hahaha I’ve only heard about it like a million times. From the experience of my brief stay there though, it’s only kinda true. My host back then was one of the most hard working undergrads there and he stays up to 3am almost every night. Dude always look tired lol. But according to him there arere only a few others like him, most students don’t stay up that late unless mid-terms and finals are coming up.
Now that you brought this up, there are some made-up “harvard mottos” on the walls of my high school. I simply don’t understand why they even exist, so crazy.