Lecturer charged with helping students cheat on SAT using time difference

SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- Police in Seoul have booked a lecturer on charges of
allegedly helping two Korean students cheat on the U.S.-based Scholastic Aptitude
Test (SAT) by taking advantage of the time difference between test centers in
Asia and the U.S., the police said Monday.

According to the Suseo Police Station, the 37-year-old lecturer, identified by
his surname Kim, was charged with interfering with the U.S.-based Educational
Testing Service (ETS), which administers the exam for students who want to obtain
admission to U.S. colleges. ETS runs test centers worldwide.
After obtaining a copy of the exam from a Thai student who took the SAT in
Bangkok last January, Kim sent the test paper via email along with answer sheets
to two Korean students who took the same test twelve hours later in a test center
somewhere in the eastern state of Connecticut in the U.S., police officers said.
Kim, who graduated from an American university, has since taught college prep
courses at a private institute in southern Seoul. The two Korean students
involved in the case are currently attending U.S. high schools but were known to
have taken classes with Kim while back in Seoul during vacation, officials said.
Kim said that he felt increasing pressure to guarantee high test scores for his
students, each of whom paid up to 3 million won for a class or 30 million won
(US$266,000) for a dozen classes, according to police.
Police said they have issued summons for the two students and are expanding the
probe into other private prep centers throughout the city.
The SAT was designed to help colleges and universities identify those students
who had a higher potential for success at their institutions. Each year more than
two million students take the SAT, according to ETS. Nearly every college in the
U.S. uses the test as an objective scale for evaluating a student's college
readiness.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)

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