GRE Test Change, Why Always Targets at Chinese Students?

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, August 14, 2002

GRE Test Change, Why Always Targets at Chinese Students?

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In response to security breaches, Educational Testing Service (ETS) announced it will temporarily suspend the computer-based Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) General Test in China and reintroduce paper-based versions beginning Oct. 1, 2002.

ETS is undertaking the change at the request of the GRE Board, the policy setting body of the examination, following an investigation that uncovered a number of Asian-language Websites offering questions from live versions of the computer-based GRE General Test.

ETS invalidated Chinese students' GMAT stores on November 1997, and changed the written test of GRE into computerized version in 1999, then, sent a mysterious letter to US graduate deans, warning them to guard against Chinese students of high GRE scores. Now it returned to paper-based test, questioning the honesty of Chinese examinees.

The first instinct on hearing the news is unfair. In fact, cheats are found all over the world in computerized GRE test, from Europe to North America, from Australia to Latin America. Why only Chinese students' scores are questioned and invalidated again and again?

A Chinese student only needs 5000 words to master English to a college degree, but, to prepare GRE he has to expand its vocabulary to 30000 in a relatively short period of time, keeping firm in mind a lot of words even unknown to native English speakers. He has to bury himself in a mountain of mechanical exercises to ensure a better memory. All these demand an unbelievable large amount of energy, time and money. For Chinese students, their high scores are not easily coming by, but through nearly crazy hard work and strong courage and determination that can not be found in students from other countries.

But all these are to no avail by a change of ETS, who announced serious leakage of GRE questions, implying that Chinese students cheat in computerized tests during recent two years. Will these lead to a question mark in the heads of college deans from the US and other English-speaking countries, when they casting eyes on the r��sum�� and scores submitted by a Chinese student?

In China nearly 60,000 students take the GRE test every year, while ETS, for 5 percent of them who possibly do the cheating, should sacrifice the interests of the remaining 95 percent students! For those young people, their future plan, their precious youth, their painstaking work, all sacrificed in a shadow-chasing letter, in an announcement online, in a change of test forms. Has anybody ever considered over their interests? There are over 2 million students taking China's college entrance examination each year, can all their scores be invalidated because of cheats are found in one or two counties?

With a huge population fighting for still limited education resources, China is inevitably a big county in terms of examination. It is not students' fault if they are "good at" passing exams, for they have undergone too much training in this regard. The problems found in computerized GRE examination only expose shortcomings of the test itself, which has a far too small question tank. As a profit-seeking service organization, ETS should consider how to patch up their system holes, Reckless changing of rules can only serve to create more unfairness under the guise of ensuring fairness.

By PD Online Staff Li Heng

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