Zanat0s strikes again.
This is a quite relevant topic for MBA applicants! The GMAT is a very difficult test that gets more and more competitive every year due to competition. Personally I only know a 800 GMAT holder. The GMAT started many many years ago(I should say decades) as a test to measure somebody’s ability to acquire business skills. I could start arguing here about the test’s merits and drawbacks but that would be futile. The Test is here to stay and nothing can change. So applicants need to do well if they want to join a good Business School.
It was to be expected that the proliferation of MBA schools and applicants has given a great amount of leverage and power to the GMAT council. In 1953, the organization now called the Graduate Management Admission Council(GMAC) began as an association of nine business schools, whose goal was to develop a standardized test to help business schools select qualified applicants. In the first year it was offered, the assessment (now known as the Graduate Management Admission Test), was taken just over 2,000 times; in recent years, it has been taken more than 200,000 times annually. Initially used in admissions by 54 schools, the test is now used by more than 1,500 schools and 1,800 programs worldwide.
The human ingenuity of course sprawled a massive new industry for services. Like every other exam a supporting artillery of experts came up willing to help the candidate “ace” the test for a fee. Publishing houses drew up complex tests and sold the books at a premium of course. GMAT prep cramp school were organized near undergraduate campuses. New technological advances helped fuel the boom for “online tutoring”. I am not here to criticize the industry or to eulogize it. Like most entrepreneurs these people show an opening, an opportunity and went for it.
Unfortunately this system is self-feeding and it become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When people start preparing their applications they also prepare for their GMAT. It will be common for many students to start registering for GMAT courses or buying GMAT prep material (Crack the GMAT, Break the GMAT, etc). The ones outside the cycle will emulate their example when their time comes. We humans tend to copy conventional wisdom and right now spending in order to take the GMAT exam is the prevalent practice.
If one thinks he needs help to do well at the exam and he/she is willing to pay for that help then no harm is done. It is not like the guy is doing steroids or he has an unfair advantage over the other applicants. These services are offered to any interested applicant without any prejudice. I do understand the need to prepare thoroughly for the test. Not only are the questions difficult and the time limited but people are battling for a limited amount of seats in famous programs along the world’s top. They be damned if they do not prepare as good as they need. Some friends I have or some MBA professors will argue that these “helping hands” are just another camouflaged way to rob people of their discretionary income”.
On my Birthday a Scandal was unearthed. A website called Scroteto.com(do not go now it is defunct) was providing students with “live” questions. What are live questions? Questions still used in the GMAT Test. All other books or helping material use “retired” questions. The council now has a hard drive( I wonder how they found it) and will be analyzing payment information. Form snooping around I found it takes $30 to get access to those questions(the sensitive ones). The site was operated by a chinese guy(lei Shi) and I guess the issue was that he distributed copyrighted GMAT-related material.
The council dared to threaten students who used the service that their result will be void and business schools will be notified about the “cheating”. On top of that the “unlucky” students will be barred from taking the exam again so NO MBA for them! According to reporting by some online forums scoretop.com users will have access to “live” questions and users will debate which is the right answer. But GMAT is a computer adaptive format test that generates a random test for every new test-taker based on answers/feedback. The list of possible questions may number the thousands. It will be statistically improbable for a guy to cheat since there will be only 45 questions which he needs to give an answer to. The probability is virtually zero to see the same questions on the same exams.
On the website’s forum users will be posting their experiences and giving their reports. Imagine their surprise when they found this message on the board…
"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. If you are caught disclosing, accessing, or using 'real' GMAT questions your GMAT score will be cancelled [and] you may be subject to a civil lawsuit or criminal prosecution."
I, personally would be intimated a bit. The power relation is all towards the council. They hold the keys to power. It's unclear how individual schools will respond. More than 4,000 graduate management programs use the test as part of the admissions process, but many of those using sites like Scoretop seek admission to the most competitive programs. So the fallout is likely to be limited to top schools.
I am not sure if the students actually cheated or even if they did whether they knew they were “bending” the rules. GMAC can behave like a tyrant and just ban all the takers whose information were found on the drive. There will still be enough candidates to fill the gaps. People won’t have an alternative so they will be forced to follow what the GMAC rules and decrees. On top of that I do not believe that this preparation gave the students an unfair advantage over other applicants. Come on lets be serious… Of course I have no access to the website so my opinion doesn’t count a lot. The most important factor is the answer to the question whether the students knew that they were breaking the rules..
Since the Scoretop site has been in operation since 2003, it's possible that students with tainted GMAT scores are in the application process, currently enrolled, or already graduated. For those in the application process, the applicants may be rejected, and for those currently enrolled, expulsion is a possibility, although a faint one.
Several years ago, when a Chinese national(what is with Chinese and cheating?) was caught taking the GMAT for dozens of prospective students. That case is completely different. The intention and knowledge about the cheating is obvious and that conferred an unfair advantage.
TO all prospective applicants I have to say this: try to game the test but along the rules. Get as much help as you can but above all take the test yourselves.
Cheers!