[讨论] Beware of Scoretop !!!

虎清兰

Business Schools Mull Scandal Options

As top MBA programs await details of a "cheat sheet" probe, penalties, including expulsion, are on the table

As the nation's top business schools wait for word on whether any of their students used a test prep site to get a sneak peak at the main business school admissions exam, school officials aren't shying away from using the "E" word—expulsion—if serious cheating is found.

A BusinessWeek survey of the top-ranked full-time MBA programs found that while admissions officials recognize there may be various levels of possible cheating arising from use of the now-shuttered Scoretop.com Web site, many are not ruling out harsh sanctions for current students, applicants, and even graduates. At the same time, the officials generally endorsed the overall validity of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and indicated they have no immediate plans to change admissions procedures because of the incident.

The scandal erupted June 23, when the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) disclosed it had won a legal judgment against the Scoretop site (BusinessWeek.com, 6/23/08) in federal district court in Virginia. GMAC had accused Scoretop of copyright infringement, saying the site had published "live" GMAT questions and other copyrighted material. The court awarded GMAC $2.3 million, plus legal costs. GMAC was subsequently able to seize Scoretop's domain name, as well as a computer hard drive containing payment and other data with about 6,000 names of users who had paid at least $30 for a subscription.

Judy Phair, a spokeswoman for GMAC, says e-mails notifying those 6,000 people of the ongoing investigation have all gone out, but she could not provide a time frame for when its investigation would be completed, which leaves open the possibility that students involved in the investigation could begin classes in the fall. Although the situation has caused a great deal of uncertainty and concern (BusinessWeek.com, 7/1/08) among applicants, Phair reiterates that users who had merely visited the site and didn't subscribe "have nothing to worry about."

"Our focus is people who actively traded questions, shared questions, verified questions, and said 'I just took the exam,'" she says.

Scope of Scoretop Activities

GMAC had previously said it could cancel scores if there is "compelling evidence" the test taker knowingly violated GMAC rules, and it will keep schools and students informed during its investigation. GMAC says it has already canceled one score of an individual who bragged in a Scoretop chat room about using the site to gain an advantage on the test.

Rod Garcia, admissions director at MIT's Sloan School of Management, says the school hadn't received any information from GMAC about any specific students. But he says conclusions regarding any student depend on the scope of his or her activities on the Scoretop site.

"There needs to be a distinction between whether he or she posted a question or just visited the Web site," Garcia says. As for penalties, he says: "We would consider kicking current students out, or rescinding admission offers. For alumni, we would definitely consider revoking degrees. In our business, it's something that we are prepared to do, because there could be similar situations in the future."

Mae Jennifer Shores, admissions director at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, says the school is "in a holding pattern until we have actual evidence that someone has cheated," adding the school would consider a number of options if any names of applicants or current students surface in the probe. "We could prevent them from being admitted if they're prospective students. Another option for current students would be to prevent them from graduating. I'm not sure what we'd do about alumni."

Pondering Penalties

Joe Fox, director of MBA programs at Washington University's Olin School of Business, says possible penalties depend on information received from GMAC. The actions could range "from simply ignoring it, if it doesn't seem like anything," to expulsion or rescindment of an admission offer, Fox says. "We wouldn't do anything without contacting the student or prospective student first to give them a chance to tell us their side of the story."

Duke University's Fuqua School of Business spokesman Chris Privett said via e-mail: "In the event that we learn of individuals who have violated the GMAC testing policies, the penalty would be consistent with that which would apply to anyone who has lied or cheated to gain an advantage either in the admission process or as a student at Fuqua." Those penalties "range from suspension to expulsion to revocation of a degree, depending on the infraction," he added.

A number of schools declined to discuss possible penalties until they heard more from GMAC. (See a full list of responses.) Brian Lohr, director of admissions at University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, says the intent of the students would be a key issue. "If there's a person that knowingly cheated to get a good score, then that's an issue and we're not going to stand for that. If it was unknowing, then we're in a real gray area. We need to step back to reevaluate. I don't know what we'll do at this point. It's serious and we want to take it seriously."

Greg MacDonald, admissions director at University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business, says: "Of course, every B-school enrollment manager hopes they don't see any names of their students on that list. …If we find students enrolled here with names on that list, we have to find out what that means. We'll follow up, and investigate further. I don't know what the outcomes will be, but we have to go through it deliberately and carefully."

"We wouldn't enroll someone who had knowingly cheated, but at this point, it's difficult to pinpoint who's guilty and who's not, so we're leaving it up to the officials and the legal team at GMAC," says David Hofmann, associate dean for University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Reconsidering the GMAT?

Meanwhile, school officials say there's no rush to change internal procedures or their reliance on the GMAT as an admissions requirement because of the scandal.

"Based on info we have so far, I'm a lot more concerned with the cheating and less concerned with the overall validity of the GMAT," says Dawna Clarke, admissions director at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. "The incident surrounding Scoretop is an unfortunate anomaly. But in the grand scheme of the thousands who take the GMAT—we're just hoping it's an unfortunate anomaly. And I'm not going to let this one anomaly change my opinion of the whole GMAT."

John Roeder, admissions director at Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, says the number of people who had used the Scoretop site was "alarming to us and to any school," but says any penalties involving Vanderbilt students would be handled on a "case-by-case basis." He adds: "As far as the GMAT test goes, I really do feel confident there are enough security measures in place to prevent some of these things from occurring in the future."

Individual Motives

The incident is the second major ethical scandal to hit business schools in two years. In spring 2007, two dozen Duke MBA students were either suspended or expelled by the school for their involvement in a final exam cheating incident.

Donald McCabe, a Rutgers University professor who has studied cheating and plagiarism among undergraduate and graduate business students, says that in the current situation business schools are in the difficult position of evaluating the individual motivation of each student.

"If you've got somebody and you're convinced they knew what they were doing, they were trying to beat the system, then you shouldn't accept them," McCabe says. "If you got somebody who could somehow convince you they were concerned about being left behind, that they paid for the site but didn't use it much or didn't get that much help, they might say, 'Apply a penalty but please consider my application.' I might consider that."

Reporting by Andrea Castillo, Sara Hennessey, Matthew Lawyue, Louis Lavelle, Francesca Levy, and Dan Macsai.
    

虎清兰

MBA Schools on Scoretop Penalties

BusinessWeek asked top MBA programs what penalties they might apply if students gained any advantage from using the Scoretop site

The Graduate Management Admission Council is looking at a computer hard drive containing the names of 6,000 people who allegedly subscribed to the Scoretop.com Web site. The subscribers may have gotten an advance look at live questions being used in the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT).

Last week, BusinessWeek contacted the top-ranked U.S. business programs and asked what penalties might be imposed on applicants, students, and alumni if the GMAC identified them as people who may have gained advantage on the exam from the Scoretop site. Here's a sampling of what they said:

University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business.

"If someone's test score is canceled, we would talk to GMAC about what they've done. I would look at this as analogous to cheating. Someone who is willing to resort to unethical ways get into B-school is not someone I want in my program and definitely not someone I want in the professional world." —Peter Johnson, MBA admissions director

University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
    

Stacey Kole, deputy dean for the full-time MBA program at the University of Chicago, previously said a lack of hard evidence implicating someone in actual cheating will make the decision-making process difficult. "Without hard evidence, it's very hard to say you're going to throw someone out," she said. "We don't have a problem taking action when we know someone has cheated. I have a tough time taking action when I don't know."

Dartmouth College-Tuck School of Business
    

"It's way too hypothetical to predict how were going to handle it right now. Until the investigation is complete, it's not fair for us to address the issue." —Dawna Clarke, director of admissions

Duke University-Fuqua School of Business
    

"All students are required to read and sign the honor code of Duke University's Fuqua School of Business before submitting the application for admission. The scope of the honor code includes the commitment to the principles of honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, and respect for others. A signature indicates that the applicant has read the honor code and agrees to accept and abide by the honor code and its bylaws.

"Our honor code is nonnegotiable, and we treat violations very seriously. Our honor code details our core values as an institution and we depend on and require every member of the Fuqua community to uphold the code in both spirit and action. In the event that we learn of individuals who have violated the GMAC testing policies, the penalty would be consistent with that which would apply to anyone who has lied or cheated to gain an advantage either in the admission process or as a student at Fuqua."

[Penalties] "could range from suspension to expulsion to revocation of a degree, depending on the infraction." —Chris Privett, spokesman

Georgetown University-McDonough School of Business
    

"If it's determined that a candidate's score is canceled by GMAC through participation through Scoretop, and we've used that score for admission into the program, we'll rescind the offer of admission." —Kelly Wilson, assistant dean and director, full-time MBA admissions

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Indiana University-Kelley School of Business
    

"We obviously care deeply about the integrity of our students and of the admissions process, but we prefer not to comment at this time on the Scoretop incident until there is more information available. We haven't had any inquiries from prospects or current students about Scoretop." —Jim Holmen, director of admissions and financial aid for MBA programs

MIT Sloan School of Management
    

"We would consider kicking current students out or rescinding admission offers. For alumni, we would definitely consider revoking degrees. In our business, it's something that we are prepared to do, because there could be similar situations in future. But we don't want to rush into judgment. GMAC is doing due diligence, and I'm sure they will take their own legal action." —Rod Garcia, director of admissions

University of North Carolina-Kenan Flagler Business School
    

"We require the GMAT as part of the application process. Therefore, if the GMAC cancels the test scores of students, their applications wouldn't be complete, and they wouldn't be admitted with an incomplete application. We wouldn't enroll someone who had knowingly cheated, but at this point, it's difficult to pinpoint who's guilty and who's not, so we're leaving it up to the officials and the legal team at GMAC." —David Hoffmann, associate dean for UNC Kenan-Flagler's MBA program

University of Notre Dame-Mendoza College of Business
    

"If there's a person that knowingly cheated to get a good score, then that's an issue and we're not going to stand for that. If it was unknowing, then we're in a real gray area. We need to step back and re-evaluate. I don't know what we'll do at this point. It's serious and we want to take it seriously." —Brian Lohr, director of MBA admissions

Purdue University-Krannert School of Management
    

"It comes down to information we get from GMAC. If there is evidence to support that they did cheat, we'll follow up and prosecute cases that appear to have misconduct. Applicants will be denied admission; current students will be dealt with through student disciplinary code, which gives students rights of due process." —Chuck Johnson, director of master's and executive programs

University of Rochester-Simon Graduate School of Business
    

"Obviously, if we find students enrolled here whose names are on that list, we'll have to find out what that means. We'll follow up, and investigate further. I don't know what the outcomes will be but we have to go through it deliberately and carefully." —Greg MacDonald, executive director of admissions & administration

Stanford University Graduate School of Business
    

"We have not yet heard from GMAC of any score cancellations. As such, we do not want to speculate on any actions or policies." —Derrick Bolton, MBA admissions director

University of Texas, Austin-McCombs School of Business
    

"We have no idea. I don't think GMAC has even said the actions they're going to take. We have nothing to respond to right now, so it's in a holding pattern." —Rob Meyer, media relations, McComb School of Business

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UCLA-Anderson School of Management
    

"We have not yet made a decision. Like many MBA programs, we're in a holding pattern until we have actual evidence that someone has cheated…We would consider a number of options. We could prevent them from being admitted if they're prospective students. Another option for current students would be to prevent them from graduating. I'm not sure what we'd do about alumni." —Mae Jennifer Shores, assistant dean and director of MBA admissions

Vanderbilt University-Owen Graduate School of Management
    

"I haven't seen enough info regarding the content available to VIP users of the site, or how apparent it would have been to those using the VIP site that they were accessing live questions…I expect that GMAC would have hard evidence implicating a student in actual cheating to cancel a score. We're waiting on GMAC to determine what to do. A lot depends on the information available to GMAC. From Vanderbilt's standpoint, we will take this very seriously." —John Roeder, director of admissions

Washington University-Olin Business School
    

"We need to wait to find out more information from GMAC. Based on that information, the steps could be anywhere from simply ignoring it, if it doesn't seem like anything, to if seems they violated in a serious way the appropriateness of the test and therefore the appropriateness of the process. If it's serious enough we could say the test score is canceled and the application canceled. If they're in the program we could expel them and if they've not started we could rescind the offer. If we thought it was both factual and serious. We wouldn't do anything without contacting the student or prospective student first to give them a chance to tell us their side of the story." —Joe Fox, assistant dean, director of MBA programs

Yale University School of Management
    

"We'll take it on case-by-case basis. We reserve the right to action we feel is appropriate. We want to know what [the students'] conduct was and what level of implication will be, whether they used the site innocently or innocuously, or if they were breaching GMAC requirements if they were posting to the site." &mdashBruce DelMonico, director of admissions

Unavailable or did not provide comment: Columbia University, Cornell University, Emory University, Harvard University, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, New York University, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Virginia.
    

Reporting by Andrea Castillo, Sara Hennessey, Matthew Lawyue, Francesca Levy, and Dan Macsai.
    

虎清兰

Courts Give Graduate Management Admission Council Domain Name Ownership, Hard Drive in Copyright Infringement Suit

Contact: Judy Phair, +1-703-245-0660, jphair@gmac.com

June 20, 2008

(McLean, VA) – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has issued a default judgment awarding the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) damages in the amount of $2.3 million, attorneys’ fees, court costs, and other relief in a copyright infringement case brought by GMAC against Lei Shi and other operators of the U.S.-based web site known as Scoretop.com.  As part of the judgment, Scoretop representatives are prohibited from further infringements of GMAC’s intellectual property rights.

GMAC sued Shi for distributing copyrighted GMAT-related materials without GMAC’s permission through the Scoretop web site. Shi, who was living in the United States at the time the suit was filed and has since returned to his native China, is also the subject of a criminal investigation by federal law enforcement authorities. GMAC has worked extensively with federal law enforcement authorities on this case.

As part of its efforts to collect on the judgment, GMAC has seized various assets owned or controlled by Shi, including a computer hard drive that contains substantial information about the individuals who participated in Scoretop’s unlawful activities either as employees or agents of Shi or as “members” of the Scoretop site. GMAC has also seized the Scoretop domain name, which it now owns and controls. GMAC will review contents of the hard drive and other materials to determine if individuals have violated its testing policies through their participation in Scoretop. Violators may have their GMAT scores canceled, and business schools will be notified of those cancellations.

Comments GMAC President Dave Wilson, “GMAC vigorously protects its intellectual property rights in order to protect the integrity of the GMAT exam. This case is just one example of our continued pursuit of those who fail to respect our intellectual property rights and our testing policies.”

Wilson noted that GMAC is also “committed to reporting to schools any unethical behavior that we uncover regarding our testing policy and lack of compliance with that policy by candidates for admission who are sending their scores to schools.” He says that GMAC may refer appropriate cases to law enforcement authorities for criminal investigation, as it did in this case, in addition to canceling the GMAT scores of individuals who violate GMAC testing rules.

The GMAT exam, owned and administered by GMAC, was designed for candidates for the MBA degree and is used as part of the admissions process by more than 4,000 graduate management education programs worldwide. The test uses a computer adaptive format that is generally considered one of the most secure available. Each candidate receives different questions based on his or her response to the previous question.

Larry Rudner, GMAC vice president for research and development, says that accessing the limited content available from sites such as Scoretop does not guarantee a higher score on the GMAT: “Even if a site is illegally able to obtain some ‘real’ questions, it is extremely unlikely that a test taker will see the same questions on the live exam – a computer adaptive test has a bank of thousands of questions.”

The Graduate Management Admission Council (www.gmac.com) based in McLean, Va., is a non-profit education organization of leading graduate business schools worldwide dedicated to creating access to and disseminating information about graduate management education. For more information about GMAT, visit www.mba.com.

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A message from the Graduate Management Admission Council® (GMAC®) Owner of the GMAT® Exam

GMAC® takes cheating very seriously, especially attempts to obtain access to live test questions in advance of an exam. We also take very seriously any unauthorized distribution of our copyrighted GMAT® preparation materials. GMAC® constantly patrols the Internet for: Sites that claim to sell or distribute purportedly “real” GMAT® questions. Unauthorized copies of our official study guides and supplements, GMATPrep® software, and other GMAC® products. If you are caught disclosing, accessing, or using "real" GMAT® questions: Your GMAT® scores will be cancelled. You will not be allowed to take the GMAT® exam again. Business schools will be notified. You may be subject to a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution. You are responsible for making sure your preparation materials don’t violate our intellectual property rights. In other words: Do not purchase, request, or share materials that claim to be “real” GMAT® questions in any form. Do not download GMATPrep® software from anywhere but www.mba.com, where authorized GMATPrep® software is available for                                     free.                              Do not request or distribute pirated software or books such as the GMAT® Paper Tests, GMAT FocusTM or the Official GMAT® Guide.

To learn more about what’s acceptable and unacceptable as you prepare for the GMAT® exam—or to report possible illegal activity—send an e-mail to pvtestsecurity@pearson.com.

锦江III

这么说来，新东方亦很容易〝成也老美，败也老美〞，司法权，考试权，道德高点都在人家手上，大白鲨来便立刻步汇源后尘了。

[此贴子已经被作者于2008-9-9 19:34:46编辑过]

UtadaHikaru

以下是引用锦江III在2008-9-9 19:30:00的发言：

这么说来，新东方亦很容易〝成也老美，败也老美〞，司法权，考试权，道德高点都在人家手上，大白鲨来便立刻步汇源后尘了。

    

If that happens, a fashsionable way to say is ' that is Karma!'.

 

虎清兰

Nearly 100 Would-Be MBAs Nailed in GMAT Scandal

The scores of 84 MBA seekers are canceled after they were found to have peeked at test questions. Some have already enrolled or graduated

by Louis Lavelle
    

The GMAT cheating scandal that has roiled the business school world for nearly three months, threatening to shatter the dreams of thousands, ended this week with more of a whimper than a bang. The exam administrator voided the scores of just 84 test takers and is allowing the vast majority of them to retake the exam immediately. At least some of the voided scores belong to students who have either already been accepted to business school or have graduated.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which operates the GMAT test worldwide, said Tuesday that its investigation is over and that all test takers with canceled scores have been notified. GMAC has also notified more than 100 business schools that received the now-canceled scores—schools that are struggling to decide what to do about current students or graduates cast into admissions limbo by GMAC's decision. Some of the test takers had sent results to more than one school.

Few top business schools were spared. At No. 1-ranked University of Chicago, two students enrolled for fall admission were among those whose scores were canceled. GMAC's notification leaves the school just two weeks before the start of classes to figure out what to do. "We have professional standards and there has to be a discussion here if what happened was a violation of those standards," said Stacey Kole, deputy dean for Chicago's full-time MBA program.

Scoretop's Hard Drive Examined

The cheating scandal erupted in June, when GMAC announced that it shut down a test-prep Web site, Scoretop.com, that it had successfully sued for copyright infringement after discovering that it was posting "live" GMAT questions. Unlike the retired questions used by legitimate test-prep publications and services, the "live" questions on Scoretop were still in use on the GMAT exam. While the operator of the Scoretop site had already left the U.S. to return to his native China, thousands of Scoretop users were left worrying that their hopes of getting an MBA would be derailed by GMAC's probe.

GMAC officials said Sept. 9 that the organization has analyzed data on more than 6,000 subscribers contained in a Scoretop hard drive obtained after it shut down the site. GMAC correlated the information with its own testing records—including the actual exam questions answered by individual test takers—to identify individuals who used the site to break GMAC rules. (See the GMAC statement on probe results.)

In all it found 72 test-takers who had access to live questions on Scoretop, and another 12 who posted questions to the site from memory after taking the test. The 72 who accessed live questions will be permitted to retake the exam immediately; the 12 who posted questions will not be permitted to retake the exam for a minimum of three years. In all, GMAC canceled 569 score reports sent to business schools on behalf of the 84 individuals.

Students' Mixed Reaction

GMAC President David Wilson said the total number of test takers affected is far smaller than Scoretop's subscriber base because the trail of evidence needed to warrant score cancelation just wasn't available for the vast majority of users. GMAC meted out harsher punishment to those who posted live questions because, in GMAC's view, they committed the far more egregious offense: theft of intellectual property. "Posters are taking our material and for the first time, putting it on a public site," he said. "They were involved in stealing our material."

虎清兰

Efforts to reach Scoretop users whose scores were revoked were unsuccessful, but reaction to the news of the canceled scores on BusinessWeek's "Getting In" blog appeared to be evenly split between those who applauded GMAC's actions and those who thought it didn't go far enough.

"Hope GMAC…didn't punish anyone [who was] innocent," wrote one commenter. "People's lives are at stake here."

Wrote another: "Excellent work by GMAC, but more could have been canceled. Shows cheating, fraud, bribes won't work in the Western universities…."

For schools that received tainted scores, the job of reconciling the applicants' behavior with their own institutional standards and meting out appropriate punishment—or none at all—has just begun. For some programs—including Columbia University, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, there is no action to be taken because the questionable scores reported by GMAC were submitted by individuals who either never formally applied or were rejected.

Applying the Honor Code

For other schools, though, the problem is more difficult and may not be resolved for weeks. At the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, officials are reviewing the list of tainted scores to determine if any belong to current students or graduates. The school's honor code prohibits cheating—defined as "any attempt to gain an improper advantage over other students in an academic setting"—and Dean Robert Dolan said he's prepared to enforce it.

"We will take any proven violations of either GMAT testing policies or our school's honor code with utmost seriousness," Dolan says. "If any of the test takers identified by GMAC are current students at Ross, or have been granted a degree, we will contact those individuals and pursue each case in a manner consistent with the school's honor code and disciplinary procedures."

At Stanford University, 20 scores have been canceled, including those of 10 applicants who were denied admission and one student who has already graduated. Derrick Bolton, director of MBA admissions, said if any of the 10 rejected applicants reapplies to Stanford, the school will require a detailed explanation about what the person did and why. The graduate in question will meet with the dean to discuss the situation, but no additional information was available regarding any penalties the school might be considering.

Expert: Doing Nothing Is Not an Option

"We are disappointed by the actions of any individual who knowingly violated GMAC policy," Bolton said. "As an educational institution, we would like those involved to learn from this incident. Those whose scores GMAC canceled will learn from that outcome, of course. We hope that they also might learn from the experience by reflecting on their actions and taking ownership for their errors, then sharing those explanations and insights with us."

Donald McCabe, a management professor at Rutgers Business School who has done extensive research on academic cheating, said each school must decide for itself how to handle the tainted scores, but that doing nothing is not an option. "If they're convinced the GMAC evidence is solid, I think they need to do something," says McCabe. "I'm not of the school of thought that we let them all off scot-free."

If the schools do take a tough stand, will it affect the behavior of future business school applicants? McCabe, whose research has shown more self-reported cheating among business students than in any other major, thinks it will. "That's one of the few ways I see a real positive coming out of this," he said. "I hope something gets done because it will send a message—and in the case of business, you need to send a message more than in most disciplines."

ouis_Lavelle@businessweek.com" target="_blank">Lavelle is an associate editor at BusinessWeek.