New | SAT scores delayed in China and South Korea amid fraud allegations
SAT examination results are being withheld in China and South Korea amid concerns that some students had illegally obtained test materials, the College Board and Educational Testing Service said.
The exam is a prerequisite to enrol in most US universities and taken by thousands of students in China every year. The US-based College Board prepares the tests for domestic exams and ETS oversees them internationally.
“College Board and ETS received specific and credible information which resulted in us deciding to put a hold on scores until we could complete an administrative review,” Thomas Ewing, a spokesman for ETS wrote in an email. “There are any number of ways students can gain unfair advantage over other honest students.”
Test takers in China and South Korea who took the October 11 exam have been affected by the probe. Hong Kong did not host SAT exams on that day, Ewing said.
More than 236,000 Chinese students and more than 72,000 South Korean students were enrolled in US colleges in the academic year 2012-13, the consultancy said. One in every 25 students in the US is a foreign national.
Ewing could not say how many people had been affected by the suspension, which has caused an anxious debate on Chinese social media as first application deadlines for early university admissions approach in November.
On Thursday, Beijing-based SAT provider New Oriental Education and Technology tried to ease concern by telling its test takers that 15 US colleges they had contacted agreed to wait for the delayed release of the results.
Ewing said ETS was “hopeful scores will be released in mid-November”.
