CHINA — An investigative report by Reuters has uncovered widespread cheating in a program designed to help foreign students excel in a U.S. college entrance test. <br /> <br />In order to get accepted into American universities, Chinese, Korean and other international students must pass entrance exams like the SAT or ACT. <br /> <br />For those taking the ACT, most do so with the help of the Global Assessment Program, or GAC, which costs about $10,000 a year per student, according to Reuters. <br /> <br />GAC centers offer prep courses intended to help non-native English speaking students pass the ACT. But there’s a conflict of interest when the same centers are the ones administering the exam. <br /> <br />Reuters reports there are cases where centers enable cheating by giving test-takers access to exam questions, either directly or through practice tests — thus ensuring high scores. <br /> <br />Administrators also reportedly turn a blind eye when students plagiarize during GAC courses and cheat in the exam. <br /> <br />The cheating allegations present a major concern for American schools relying on the test to assess the skills of foreign applicants. ACT, Inc., which owns the GAC program via a foreign subsidiary, denies the rampant cheating, but announced a potential switch to computerized tests for international test-takers in 2017.
