Lei Shi is on the run, a fugitive in a foreign country. A U.S. court slapped him with $2.3 million in damages and seized his assets in the U.S. His problem: he operated a website, www.scoretop.com, that misappropriated and distributed actual questions appearing on the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). For some $30 he sold subscriptions to the questions on the web site. The owner of the test, the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) ((Truth-in-blogging disclosure: I am a member of the Board of Directors of GMAC.)), tracked him down and sued him for distributing copyrighted material. Mr. Shi is now the focus of a criminal investigation by the F.B.I.
Worse for ScoreTop’s customers is that in the seizure of assets, GMAC obtained the hard drive to Mr. Shi’s computer. A GMAC official said, “GMAC is principally focusing its efforts to pursue those individuals responsible for stealing GMAT items and posting those items on the ScoreTop website. If there is compelling evidence of a test taker knowingly violating GMAC policy regarding improper or inadvertent access to test content, GMAC will execute its responsibility to schools to cancel GMAT scores of the breaching test taker and notify recipients of the cancelation.”
Getting admitted to a competitive B-school is a life-changing event. The GMAT is a high-impact part of the admission process. Therefore it is tempting to try to obtain live test questions (and probable correct answers). Darden and its peer schools will brook absolutely no cheating–those who provided actual test questions for resale to others were violating the integrity of the test, sometimes for their own gain. The integrity of the GMAT is vital to the discovery and admission of the best talent. The GMAT is easily accessible and objective; therefore it helps to democratize the discovery of talent. The advancement of society depends on the promotion of strong talent from wherever it may originate. Thus, it is appropriate for GMAC and all B-schools vigorously to defend the integrity of the test. GMAC is a not-for-profit organization governed by over 200 B-schools. This effort to defend the integrity of the GMAT (and other efforts like it) promotes the integrity of business academia and less directly, the integrity of the business profession.
An official at GMAC told me, “There are many test preparation organizations available to test takers, some reputable and some not. Any test preparation organization advertising “real GMAT items” is guilty of lying, stealing or both. ScoreTop advertised access to live GMAT items. In preparing to take the GMAT test, one should steer clear of these organizations as they can harm your future. Buyer, beware!”
We at Darden don’t know all the facts of the situation at this point, so we are not going to do anything precipitous. If, as we learn more, we believe someone has cheated, we will take appropriate action.
It is not unreasonable to assume that if you obtain live test questions from any source, GMAC will discover it and come after you. Applicants are well-advised to deal with only the most reputable test-preparation providers and to write an honest test.