Prospective and current graduate business students, possibly as many as 2,000, who used a Web site to cheat on entrance examinations over the past five years could have their scores thrown out.
The exam’s publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council, is tracking down users of Scoretop.com after winning a lawsuit to shut down the site and seize a computer hard drive containing payment information and user identifications.
The council plans to match data with test-takers and cancel the scores of anyone it determines knowingly used Scoretop to cheat. It will also notify the schools receiving scores, and perhaps prevent the cheaters from retaking the test. There must be a lot of MBA graduates sweating on the final announcement.
Scoretop sold VIP access for $30 per month, giving users previews of questions on the latest Graduate Management Admission Test. Some were posted by users after taking the exam.
In court documents, the exam publisher cited a posting by a user who said the information offered on the site was ‘inestimable,’ saying that he saw 10 to 12 ‘word by word’ items and ‘many of the other questions felt very familiar.’
About 6,000 test scores, from when the Web site started in 2003 to the present, are in question.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered site operator Lei Shi to pay $2.35 million plus legal costs in a ruling in the copyright infringement lawsuit.
He was told LeiShi has returned to his native China and couldn’t be reached.
Source: SF Gate