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B-SCHOOL NEWS
By Louis Lavelle
In China, GMAT Cheaters May Prosper
Some Chinese B-school candidates' studying methods are less than aboveboard as they struggle to avoid poverty by securing spots at top universities
With the score he received on the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), the 21-year-old finance student at Shanghai's Fudan University easily could have been admitted to a top-ten U.S. B-school. He scored 650 out of a possible 800 points -- a score that's 58 points above the Chinese national average, but one he considers so low that it nearly brings him to tears. So he hit the books this summer, studying several hours a day to prepare for a second shot at the exam. He also did something a lot of would-be MBAs in China are doing these days: He peeked at the testOn a Chinese-language Web site, GMAT test takers disclose questions they have memorized so that others can use them. It's a violation of the GMAT confidentiality agreement, but it's a remarkably efficient way to study. Some students say that half the questions they encounter on the test were previously posted on the site.
"DO-OR-DIE SITUATION." In the hypercompetitive world of Chinese B-school admissions, students say the Web site is an advantage that's too good to pass up. And the strategy apparently works: The combination of book studying and online test preparation added 40 points to the Fudan student's score when he retook the test in September. Says his roommate, who scored 720 in June: "If everyone else is using it, why would we put ourselves at a disadvantage?"
The GMAT isn't the only admissions exam to test the mettle -- and determine the fate -- of young Chinese students. The national university entrance boards, China's version of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, is a grueling three-day exam that determines if they'll enter one of China's elite universities. The stakes are so high that public buses change their routes each June to avoid disturbing students; cities invoke noise ordinances; and parents seek professional psychiatric counseling for their teenagers -- all to help ambitious high school seniors do as well as they can on the test.
"For these kids, this is a do-or-die situation," says Rolf Cremer, dean of the China Europe International Business School, an educator in China for two decades. In the starkest circumstances, "a high score means the best universities China can offer, and a low one -- lifelong poverty."
STEPPING UP SECURITY. So the temptation to cut corners is immense. To stem security breaches, the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), the GMAT's overseer, must work harder in China. Some security measures are already built into the GMAT. The test, taken on computers, is programmed to choose new questions based on the answers to previous questions -- making it virtually impossible for two students to take the same exam.
Yet such measures have been defeated before. The Graduate Record Examination, a graduate-school admissions test administered by Princeton (N.J.)-based Educational Testing Service, takes similar precautions. But in 2002, a sudden rise in verbal scores among GRE test takers in some Asian countries led ETS to suspect that students were sharing questions. ETS now requires test takers in China, Korea, and Taiwan to use GRE's one-time-use paper version for everything but essay questions.
Students taking the GMAT already encounter a raft of security measures, including cameras, videotaping, and fingerprinting. In January, when a new test administrator takes over for ETS, security will be ramped up even further, GMAC says.
MORAL AMBIGUITY. Even so, no security system is perfect. In 2003, GMAC, along with ETS, sued the New Oriental School, China's largest test-preparation service, alleging that it gave students copies of actual exam questions that were then in use. Last December, China's highest court awarded GMAC and ETS $774,000 in damages and a public apology.
New Oriental says it has since cleaned up its act, but others have rushed in to fill the void. Several Web sites and university bulletin boards purport to have potential GMAT questions and other helpful hints for beating the system. The site used by the two Fudan students goes a step further, supplying verbatim questions from the test.
In the intense fight for B-school admission and all the advantages it confers, many Chinese students believe the end justifies the means. In the business world, such moral ambiguity is often a prelude to disaster. Apparently that's a lesson every generation has to learn for itself.
 With bureau reports
Lavelle is BusinessWeek's B-Schools editor
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发表于 2006-2-15 06:57:00
发表于 2006-2-15 07:21:00
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