Comments on: Hagwon Teacher Charged In SAT Fraud

By: MrChips

MrChips — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:31:20 +0000

Really? 10K for an SAT or GRE? Seems like you would know which one it was and I find it incredulous that anyone who had the money at their disposal would find it worth it to pay someone to take the SAT for them…with the possible exception of a high school athlete, illegally using an agent to help him get eligibility to a college ball program. At any rate, you and I went to the same program here in Korea and I doubt a single one of the Korean students there can claim ownership of all the scholarship they turned in. While cheaters abound in the US, the rate doesn't hover just below 100% and the penalty, at least in my experience, was an unequivocal "F" and expulsion. Here it's expected and the offender chastised but nothing more severe outside the college entrance exams.

By: Archie B

Archie B — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:32:35 +0000

We'll never hear any more about the "further investigation" as hush money is paid to everyone in authority in Korea, and the Korean police go back to sleep.

By: ChickenHead

ChickenHead — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:54:43 +0000

"CH, do you want to open the typo WH can? I don’t, but I’m willing to take pot shots at you."

No… my bad. Please don't hurt me.

I never have poked at people over this with seriousness because, well, nobody is expected to put PhD thesis-quality proofreading into an off-hand post on a blog.

This was all in good fun as Teadrinker might be a hissing Canadian liberal but he is neither dumb or uneducated… and I can guess he saw I was having fun with his mistake rather than criticizing it or judging him by it.

Unless some whiner is seriously picking apart someone's writing with a poorly-written critique or bragging about what a good "teacher" they are while making elementary mistakes, sniping at someone's writing is awful petty.

…but that doesn't mean they don't set themselves up as a target if their mistake is extra (unintentionally) funny.

Sorry Teadrinker… I hope the guy got his probably into some remedial night classes so it could smarten up… otherwise it could knock up a possibly and have a bunch of hungry maybes to feed on a single welfare check.

By: Hamilton

Hamilton — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:30:31 +0000

CH, do you want to open the typo WH can? I don't, but I'm willing to take pot shots at you.

By: Teadrinker

Teadrinker — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:46:21 +0000

It was a typo…

The guys probably weren't all that smart…Yes, I'm using the plural of a masculine noun without knowing if one or two of the students were female. Screw political correctness.

By: Teadrinker

Teadrinker — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:41:53 +0000

One fine typo, by the way.

By: guitard

guitard — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:52:46 +0000

so if you cheat to get in doesn’t mean you will be successful.

Unless of course…you continue to cheat and you're really good at it.

By: kushibo

kushibo — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:54:21 +0000

As a PhD-seeking grad student, I've been a lecturer for two American universities and a teaching assistant at one, and the notions that American students don't contain a not insignificant number in their ranks and/or that said cheaters are not good at cheating are laughable.

People who have a lot at stake may be more tempted to cheat. In Korea, that might be someone who feels they must get into a top school (e.g., a top Korean undergrad program and later a top American grad program), or in America, an athlete who stands to lose a scholarship worth upwards to $100K or more.

When I was an SAT instructor in Orange County back in college in the 1990s, I was made serious offers (one for $10K) if I were to take the SAT or GRE for someone. The guy making the $10K offer was desperate, and frankly I have no idea if he got someone to do it.

By: Niki B

Niki B — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:10:51 +0000

i'm not surprised by this story at all. most students in korea would rather cheat use their awesome rote memorization skills after correcting the wrong answers. it's nothing new and nothing that is not accepted or expected from koreans. the thing that they don't realize is that american universities have the most rigorous academics in the world, so if you cheat to get in doesn't mean you will be successful.

By: ChickenHead

ChickenHead — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:15:10 +0000

"Nah, the guy’s probably weren’t all that smart."

That should be, "Nah, the guy's probably WASN'T all that smart."

…unless he had two probablies, in which case it would be O.K. to say, "Nah, the guy's probablies weren't all that smart."

…which begs the question, what the hell is a probably, how dumb are they and why would a guy even have one?