A Gray Area
Cheating by getting answers from other people is clearly wrong. The most
common form of cheating, however, does not involve getting answers from
others. The most common method of cheating is working on a section of the test
after the time allotted for that section is over. At the bottom of every section, the
SAT warns you in big, bold letters:
STOP
IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, YOU MAY CHECK YOUR
WORK TO THIS SECTION ONLY. DO NOT TURN TO ANY OTHER
SECTION IN THE TEST.At many test centers, no one checks what section you are on. We would estimate
that about half the kids at our test centers cheated by using this method. The five
of us were good kids and didn’t. But after the test, when we realized how many
of our friends had done this, we felt we were at an unfair disadvantage for not
having done it.
Clearly, this kind of cheating is not as bad as getting answers from other
people. You could argue that when your future is in the balance, why not borrow
a minute from the Math Test to work on a reading passage that you didn’t quite
finish, especially if half your classmates are doing it?
Cheating by glancing at a neighbor’s answer sheet is
likely to be a losing proposition; not all tests have the
sections in the same order.On the other hand, it’s still cheating.
Note: The parents of one of our past guest editors dabbled in the dark art of
proctoring and would like to point out that the Evil Testing Serpent instructs all
proctors to expel from the testing center anyone who cheats using this method.
Also, doing so is immoral and will invite bad karma.
IS THE SAT BIASED?
In past years, the SAT has been called unfair. Why? Because of its alleged bias
against women, minorities, and the poor, who as a group consistently do worse
on the tests than rich white males.