GMAT Cheating Scandal Causes Students to Sweat Their Future
Over 6,000 MBA students have been implicated in a huge cheating
scandal involving the website Scoretop which illegally
provided “live” prep questions to students taking their Graduate Management
Admission Test, or GMAT — the test that many MBA programs
require for admission to graduate school, according to an article in
Business Week (“GMAT
Cheating Controversy Grows,” June 27, 2008).
Contrary to authorized test preparation companies like Kaplan or Manhattan
GMAT which legally purchase retired test questions from GMAT to
help prepare their member students, Scoretop extended 30-day VIP
service to students who paid the $30-fee to access questions that
were actively being used on GMAT exams.
On June 23, the Graduate Management Admission
Council, the owner of the GMAT, won a lawsuit against Scoretop
for copyright infringement, since Scoretop published the “live” GMAT
questions online without permission. The judgment allowed the court
to seize Scoretop’s hard drive, which contained payment and other
data, and to identify more than 6,000 individuals who had paid for
the website’s service.
GMAC originally said it would cancel the scores of all students who
cheated on the exam, make sure they could never take the GMAT again,
and notify the respective business schools of students who had
cheated on the exam.
Robert Burgoyne, GMAC’s legal counsel recently said, however, that
GMAC probably wouldn’t cancel the scores of all 6,000 Scoretop VIP
members who took the test, just those who knew using the questions
was illegal. “We'll look for something that actually links people to
conduct they should have known was improper,” Burgoyne said.
MBA students across the country are justifiably nervous. Those who
have applied to business schools and used the Scoretop website may
have their scores cancelled and may not be able to apply to an MBA
program in the future. And currently enrolled students may be thrown
out of their MBA program.
“I am extremely stressed out,” one GMAT test-taker who used Scoretop
questions commented in response to BusinessWeek.com's original story
about the cheating scandal. “I am so upset and worried right
now."