New concerns over security of SAT
August test-takers say reused reading exam was posted online.
Last month, Huzail Hassan was one of the thousands of anxious students across the United States who took the SAT, the college entrance exam that’s been a dreaded rite of passage for millions of American high school students since 1926.
“As soon as I walked out, I was feeling like I didn’t do my best,” Huzail said.
The 16-year-old junior at Etiwanda High School in Rancho Cucamonga said he spent more than 200 hours studying for the exam. He was also taking classes at a community college.
“I didn’t really have a break,” he said. “I just really wanted to do good on the SAT.”
But none of that seemed to matter after he got a text from a friend who told him that the nonprofit group that runs the SAT had reused an exam from October and that the answers to the reading test had been leaked online.
“I checked on Twitter and so many people had taken screenshots,” Huzail said. “I looked it up and it was the same exam. It had the exact same questions and it had the answer key.”
The SAT is administered by the College Board, which is made up of more than 6,000 educational institutions. Officials with the board declined to comment on the students’ specific allegations regarding the Aug. 26 test.
But Zachary Goldberg, senior director of media relations, said the organization has systems in place to thwart would-be cheaters.
“We have a comprehensive approach to test security and go to great lengths to make sure that all test scores we report are accurate and valid,” Goldberg said last week. “As part of our approach, after every test administration, we take additional quality control steps before scores are released. If we determine a student gained an unfair advantage, we will take appropriate actions, including canceling test scores.”
Millions of high school students around the world take the college entrance exam every year. The test lasts about three hours and is intended to assess whether a student is prepared for college. U.S. colleges have long relied on SAT scores to help them decide which applicants to admit.
But in recent years, a string of scandals has called into question the credibility of the College Board and the integrity of its exam.
In 2015, more than a dozen Chinese nationals were swept up in a federal investigation of a Pittsburgh-based cheating ring. Students were accused of paying up to $6,000 for others to take the exam for them.
It echoed an alleged plot detailed by federal investigators in 2011 in which students at an elite high school were accused of paying thousands of dollars so a 19-year-old college student, Sam Eshaghoff, would take the SAT for them.
The severity of the College Board’s problems was revealed in a 2016 investigation by Reuters. The news agency found not only that leaks were pervasive, but also that the organization continued to administer SAT tests that included questions whose answers were widely available online.
The security breaches and scandals undermined the trust that college officials once had in the College Board. A survey conducted by the National Assn. for College Admission Counseling found that nearly 60% of four-year colleges had concerns over fraudulent application materials.