GMAT Cheating Scandal re-erupts

December 16, 2009

As MBA aspirants in India continue to deal with the implications of the technical glitches that marred the delivery of the first-ever online CAT, a bigger and more scandalous issue rocks the global MBA testing world. On November 23, a Chinese court issued a ruling in favour of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) to the effect that a Chinese test-prep website (under an organization ironically named Beijing Passion Consultancy) had infringed GMAC copyrights. Irregularities charged against them included providing exclusive GMAT materials to test-takers for a fee, such as reconstructed "live" questions from actual GMAT exams, GMAT preparation material, and PDFs of actual test books. The website not only had to apologise publicly in a national newspaper and post a warning from GMAC on its website about the consequences of unfair means, but was also directed to pay a penalty of RMB 520,000 (US$76,000) in compensation to the Council.
(For full report, see http://gmac.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=92)

Now, according to a recent report released by Businessweek, the GMAC is not only trying to nail organizations that leak copyrighted material to GMAT candidates, but is also ensuring, through the use of high-tech gadgets, the identification and expulsion of proxy test takers. China appears to be a ground for rampant abuse as the report mentions that 32 scores from the country in 2009 alone have been revoked by the Council. It also mentions 25 test- takers being banned from writing the exam for the next five years. However since the GMAC could not obtain the names of students who had used the Passion website to prepare for the test, no action could be initiated against them.

The issue undoubtedly raises some concerns about the sanctity of the most popular online exam in the MBA world, especially since this is not the first case of its kind. In 2008, an Ohio-based website Scoretop.com was found guilty of leaking live GMAT questions to test-takers. The GMAC has also won earlier copyright infringement suits against other firms such as the Beijing New Oriental School. While there are no doubts about the fact that offenders found guilty will be dealt the harshest of punishments, but the rising incidence of such cases raises the question: are there more skeletons in the cupboard yet to be discovered? Certainly a matter to be deliberated upon by the global B-school fraternity.