Test publisher seeks Web cheaters

Prospective and current graduate business students who used a website to cheat on entrance examinations over the last five years could have their scores thrown out.

The exam’s publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council, is tracking down users of Scoretop.com after winning a lawsuit to shut down the site and seize a computer hard drive containing payment information and user identifications.

Scoretop sold premium access for $30 a month, giving users previews of questions on the latest Graduate Management Admission Test. Some were posted by users after they took the exam.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema also ordered site operator Lei Shi to pay $2.35 million plus legal costs in a June 20 ruling in the copyright-infringement lawsuit.

In court documents, GMAC cited a posting by a user who said the value of the information offered on the site was “inestimable,” adding that he saw 10 to 12 “word by word” items and “many of the other questions felt very familiar.”

About 6,000 scores from when the website started in 2003 to the present are in question, GMAC spokeswoman Judy Phair said Wednesday. It’s unclear how many test-takers are involved because they can take the test several times a year.

The council plans to match data with test-takers and cancel the scores of anyone who it determines knowingly used Scoretop to cheat on the test. It will also notify the schools that received scores, and perhaps prevent cheaters from retaking the test. Phair said she couldn’t offer a timetable on the process.

McLean, Va.-based GMAC said Shi had returned to his native China and couldn’t be reached.

About 200,000 students a year take the test. Its scores are used by more than 4,000 graduate management programs at 1,800 business schools worldwide, GMAC said.