New | SAT scores delayed in China and South Korea amid fraud allegations

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More than 10,000 candidates sat for the SAT at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong last November, over 90 per cent of them from the mainland. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:00pm, 30 Oct 2014Updated: 3:30pm, 30 Oct 2014

SAT examination results are being withheld in China and South Korea amid concerns that some students had illegally obtained test materials, the College Board and Educational Testing Service said.

The exam is a prerequisite to enrol in most US universities and taken by thousands of students in China every year. The US-based College Board prepares the tests for domestic exams and ETS oversees them internationally.

“College Board and ETS received specific and credible information which resulted in us deciding to put a hold on scores until we could complete an administrative review,” Thomas Ewing, a spokesman for ETS wrote in an email. “There are any number of ways students can gain unfair advantage over other honest students.”

Test takers in China and South Korea who took the October 11 exam have been affected by the probe. Hong Kong did not host SAT exams on that day, Ewing said.

China ranks first and South Korea ranks third after India as the countries sending the largest contingents of foreign students to the United States, according to data by the Institute of International Education.

More than 236,000 Chinese students and more than 72,000 South Korean students were enrolled in US colleges in the academic year 2012-13, the consultancy said. One in every 25 students in the US is a foreign national.