A site in the United States called Scoretop, run by Lei Shi who is said to come from the city of Zibo in Shandong province, is accused of helping entrants for MBA courses to cheat in the vital GMAT entrance examination. This is an examination that Lei Shi himself took at least three times in 2002 and 2003.
The GMAT organization is examining a seized Scoretop hard drive with about 6,000 user names.
This is pretty devastating for prospective B-school students who have used Scoretop. Virtually all U.S. business schools require the GMAT as part of the admissions process.
There is a large GMAT preparation for the exams industry, with many legitimate players, such as McGraw-Hill.
A Virginia court ruled last month against Scoretop for copyright infringement but that is not the same as saying it helped students to cheat.
Priya H, who defended students who used Scoretop on BusinessWeek.com, said, ‘The GMAT is such a hard test to crack, and everybody wants more questions to practice from. Nowhere in the Web site does it say you would be violating the rules.’
In Web posts, many students argue that they thought the site’s questions were legitimate.
Students differentiated between those who knowingly cheated and others who trusted Scoretop’s disclaimers that the material was original
One commenter on BusinessWeek.com, wrote, ‘GMAC, have empathy and please don’t ruin careers.’
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