Salam,
Setahu saya, banyak teman-teman dari RRC yang nilai TOEFL, GMAT, dlsb lebih
tinggi dibandingkan dengan kemampuannya berbahasa Ingrris sehari-hari.
Enggak tahunya ...:)
Salam,
Ahmad Syamil
Wednesday, August 7, 2002
http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/08/2002080704n.htm
ETS Says GRE Scores From China, South Korea, and Taiwan Are Suspect
By DAVID L. WHEELER
The Educational Testing Service has told graduate schools in the
United States that scores on the Graduate Record Examinations from students
taking the test in China, South Korea, and Taiwan may be inflated by
cheating. ETS is also taking measures to try to restore the integrity of the
scores, including suspending the use of a computer-based test in those
regions -- a change that will affect more than 55,000 students annually.
ETS, which develops and administers the GRE, began an investigation
last year that checked test results in 40 countries. The investigation found
that scores on the verbal portion of the exam in China, South Korea, and
Taiwan were being artificially increased by the use of Web sites, where test
takers were posting questions they had memorized and, sometimes, the answers
to the questions. Toward the end of the cycle in which the same pool of
questions was used for the tests, national average scores were increasing by
as much as 100 points in China, and 50 points in South Korea and Taiwan, on
the standard range of scores from 200 to 800. ETS informed graduate deans of
the problem in a letter that was mailed on July 31.
The score increases occurred only on the verbal portion of the test.
The GRE also has quantitative and analytical sections. ETS hypothesizes that
with the scores already high on the latter two sections, because of the high
performance of test takers in the region, it was impossible even for
cheaters to increase the average scores on those portions of the test.
The ETS investigation indicated that cheating was not affecting scores
on the Test of English as a Foreign Language and the Graduate Management
Admission Test.
Carol A. Beere, associate provost for graduate studies and outreach at
Northern Kentucky University and the chairwoman of the GRE board, said that
the board was torn between needing to tell graduate schools what was going
on and fearing that it would harm the reputation of students who hadn't
cheated. The board was also concerned about publicizing a cheating strategy
that others might try to use. "Our challenge is to protect the test scores
and reputation of the students who are putting their honest energy into
preparing for graduate school," she said.
Ultimately, she said, the board felt it had no choice but to tell
graduate schools about the problems with the test, but it is also trying to
publicly acknowledge that many Asian students are achieving high scores
because of hard work, not cheating.
Although some questionable scores were submitted to graduate schools
in last year's round of admissions, and some questionable scores may be sent
to graduate schools this year, ETS is urging universities to look at the
scores in the context of the students' other achievements, their essays, and
their letters of recommendation.
To help prevent future cheating, ETS will stop using the
computer-based tests on September 30 and switch to using paper examinations
in which questions are only used once. In the computer-based tests, a pool
of questions is used over a period of time until the questions are
discarded. The advantage of the computer-based tests is that they can be
offered anytime a testing center is open, while the paper-and-pencil tests
require more heavily monitored administration of large groups of students.
ETS has planned two testing dates for China, South Korea, and Taiwan:
November 23, 2002, and March 15, 2003. After that, the testing service hopes
to have devised a more secure form of computer-based testing.
ETS regards the Web sites where students have posted GRE questions and
answers as illegal, but says that international litigation would probably
not produce the quick remedy needed. Before taking the GRE, test takers sign
an agreement saying that they will not reveal any questions from the test to
others.
Ms. Beere said that the Web sites in China on which students have
posted questions and answers appear to be nonprofit ventures, run by
students themselves. The students appear to be motivated by the desire to
help others, but might have been able to help themselves if they took the
test twice with minimal time between tests. For test-security reasons, ETS
will not say how long the test questions are used for the computer-based
tests.
