Thursday, July 03, 2008

GMAT Cheating controversy

Businessweek reports:The cheating scandal that has engulfed the B-school world grew vastly larger on June 27, when the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) said the number of prospective MBA students facing questions about their entrance exams now totals more than 6,000—six times the original estimate.

You might wonder how one can 'cheat' on the GMAT. After all it is an online test involving logic and reasoning, not the class 12 board exam where you can scribble some formulas on your knee.

Well it appears that the controversy is actually about 'Scoretop', a site which students used to prepare for the GMAT. The site featured several 'live' questions ie questions that GMAT serves from its vast databank to actual test takers.

The unique thing about GMAT is the fact that it is a computer adaptive test and that no two test-takers get exactly the same set of questions. But no system is infallible.

Anyone who's taken the test can memorise a few questions, note them down and pass on the same to future test takers. These questions were apparently known as 'JJ' or jungle juice on the Scoretop site.

Numerous CAT prep institutes used to do this kind of thing before students were allowed to take the test paper home a couple of years ago. Of course, CAT questions are not re-used. But coaching classes liked to 'solve' the paper and indicate to students how much they could hope to score.

Since the IIMS are thinking of taking CAT online , this may be a good time to consider whether the GMAT model is practical in the Indian context. A live question bank would easily be leaked by coaching classes using the 'human memory' method.

Of course by GMAC's own admission students probably gained 'very little' by having access to questions.

Even if a site is illegally able to obtain some “real” questions, it is extremely unlikely that anyone accessing the site will see the same questions on the live exam...The reliability of the test taker’s score is less in question than the ethical behavior of those trying to “game” the system.

Either way, a system where a fixed exam is offered 4 times a year and questions are not reused would be much safer in India. Because in a test like CAT where competition is so intense that even a single question can make a difference, you don't want to take a chance. After all credibility is paramount.

I also think India must have an online + offline model in order to make the CAT fully accessible. At least for the next few years.

Getting back to the GMAT controversy, students who had purchased 'VIP' access to Scoretop over the last 5 years are currently under scrutiny. This includes those who are current students and even MBA graduates.

GMAC has won a $2.3 million copyright infringement judgment against the Scoretop site, thus shutting it down and getting access to the hard drive containing all subscriber information. The suit was filed in June 2007.

It is unlikely that all 6000 VIP members will be affected but GMAC is following the 'electronic paper trail' which indicates which users were aware of the fact that some questions were indeed live.
And not "fully owned by Scoretop [and] written by our own…tutors" as the site claimed.

Incidentally the owner of Scoretop - Lei Shi - has fled to China. There are at least 7 sites similar to Scoretop based in China and Businessweek writer Louis Lavelle reports that GMAC's lawyers have been in touch with the Chinese government re: copyright infringement.

I suspect there might be sites based in India with live questions as well... Or private tutors/ classes who share the same. Anyone with info on this could drop me a line at rashmi_b at yahoo.com.

Personally I say it is not worth the risk of getting permanently busted.

Earlier posts on CAT going online:
CAT goes online - i

CAT goes online - ii

11 comments:

  1. When I was preparing for my GMAT, I too heard about this JJ thing, though never figured what's special except more set of questions. I didn't pay the money. So I am not sure if all members were aware what they were doing can be called cheating and punishment (not allowed to take GMAT ever and cancel all previous score) is not commensurate with the crime. for those people.

    By the way, got hold of your book "Stay Hungry..." at WIMWI this weekend. Wonderfully written.

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  2. It would be extremely difficult to segregate ppl who used the Scoretop resources to prepare.
    N it would not be right justice too to the genuine test takers.
    So, though the scam is busted, not much would come out of it.Thts wht i feel.

    Regarding having the same format for India, it would be a tough call for IIM's, as even XL had failed on one such attempt.

    But ye, as and when it gets implemented, it would be a gr8 boon for prospective test takers anywhere in the world, who face problems of not being in India on test date, due to whatsoever reasons.

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  3. This feature of preparation for online exams prevail even in GRE and many other online exams.If u could see number2.com and exambell.com ,you could find that many GRE test takers lurk around them because they give the exact or the most probable questions that are to be changed monthly.So,it becomes easy for any student who had registered for such sites.

    Even if U had seen some certifications like SUN certifications for JAVA then U might find the same way,though questions may change regularly they can be anticipated easily by visiting some sites like javaranch.com because they are the real test makers.

    So,I wont accept for online pattern of CAT.Online pattern could make a diff in correction and preserving the score,but if something goes wrong its impact will be huge and takes a long time to recover just like what happened for GMAC.

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  4. Punishing the graduates and people currently pursuing MBA is definitely not the right approach. What it should do is, discourage such practices.

    As far as online tests are concerned, I would favor using technology to its best. But, not with a question bank type of pattern. Same pattern as current should be used and should be allowed as both online as well as offline. Using technology helps in making the process faster and perhaps few trees can be saved by this.

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  5. Bottom line is GMAC took action against a threat to its core business. For you neophytes who don't get what's going on -- yeah, it's obvious cheating is wrong; yet on the same token, taking any formalized GMAT prep course invalidates the legitimacy of GMAT scores. So why does GMAC allow these prep courses? GMAC is a business and like all businesses, their main purpose is to make money; and it makes a lot of money from its prep business! This Chinese fellow threatened GMAC by offering "live" questions without GMAC consent. Had a license agreement been in place with GMAC, he'd be endorsed alongside Kaplan. The hypocrisy of the matter is that GMAC of its own volition provides questions in its own prep courses, many of which come up on "live" tests, e.g. analysis of argument topics. For those of you who think otherwise, get a clue! In conclusion, colleges need to drop the GMAT (and GMAC) from its admissions process because these tests have become nothing more than a measure of mastering the test itself. In it's place, colleges should develop their own tests to objectively measure the caliber/criteria of prospective customers/students.

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  6. I was perparing for gmat in second half of 2005. It was a hot site then, for 20$ you could get load of stuff to practise.

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  7. still I guess there this system is better, there are some glitches in every system,even the CAT exam was leaked!!!

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  8. So there is questions about online CAT exams

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  9. I think Sharath's point is very valid. Its sheer hypocrisy. From what I heard of JJs or for that matter the website (now fortunately, then unfortunately; after I had taken my exam), since they had live questions of a particular month, a strategy was developed to take the exam at the month-ends so that you have that month's latest JJs.
    But frankly, jut like Sharath, I believe its all part of the preparation process. Finally on the G-day, you don't encounter the exact questions which you practiced in JJs. They just give you the idea, the pattern, the type etc. but then thats what the Kaplan, Princeton etc. also do. In fact, GMAC publication: Official Guide (widely known as OG) is flaunted as containing questions of the same 'level of difficulty', closest to the questions expected in the actual exam.

    The good thing is that the b-schools accepting the GMAT (excluding those in Indian territory) place a very good amount of stress in the other components of one's application like essays, recos etc.

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  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

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