A possible security breach in South Korea on a leading US college entrance exam is highlighting a common but little-known practice by the College Board: reusing entire SAT exams that have already been given.
At least one student who took the exam on Jan. 27 had access to the questions ahead of time, according to the Educational Testing Service, which writes and administers the exam for the College Board and is investigating.
Actually, hundreds of thousands of people had already seen the test. The SAT exam administered worldwide on Jan. 27 was identical to the one given in the United States in December 2005.
PHOTO: EPA
However, the exam was not supposed to have been publicly available after that sitting. The Korean student appears to have seen a portion of the 2005 test without realizing it would be repeated, an ETS spokesman said.
The College Board has a long-standing practice of recycling not just individual questions but entire exams. Three tests administered in late 2004 and 2005, as the SAT was making the transition to its new format, were repeats from recent years, according to Steve Quattrociocchi, head of the test-prep division at The Princeton Review.
"In this environment, when everybody's talking on the Internet and taking test-prep ... you would think if they wanted to make the test as fresh and new and incorruptible as possible, they would release a new test every time,'' Quattrociocchi said.
Of the seven tests given each year, four are made publicly available afterward, ETS spokesman Tom Ewing said.
Those exams are never repeated. But the other three are candidates for reuse. ETS says test books are carefully collected after those exams. But since the recycling practice is well known in test-preparation circles, the questions on these exams are like gold to test-takers and tutors.
(AP)
一項主要的美國大學入學測驗在南韓疑似試題外流，揭露了美國大學委員會雖普遍卻鮮為人知的一項作法︰重複使用整份出過的考題。
為美國大學委員會出題並且舉辦測驗的美國教育測驗服務社表示，至少有一位參加一月二十七日測驗的學生在試前看過考題，美國教育測驗服務社正在調查。
事實上，成千上萬人早已看過這份考題，一月二十七日全球舉行的測試與二○○五年十二月在美國進行的考試一模一樣。
不過，這份試題不應該在測驗後讓民眾取得。ETS發言人表示，這名韓國學生顯然看過二○○五年的考題，卻不知道它會重複出現。
長久以來，美國大學委員會重複使用的不只是單一試題，也包括整份考題。普林斯頓留學考試輔導機構考試準備中心主任史蒂夫．夸卓希歐奇表示，ETS在二○○四年底到二○○五年這段換新題型的過度時期時，舉辦的三次考試試題都是重複近年來的考題。
夸卓希歐奇表示︰「在這種大家會在網路聊天，談論準備考試的環境，你會覺得，如果他們盡可能要出新穎且不外流的考題，可能每次測驗都得重新出題。」
ETS發言人湯姆．艾溫表示，每年的七份考題中，有四份考題會在考後對外公開。
這四份試題絕對不會重複出現，其他三份卻可能重複使用，ETS表示，試題本都是從這些測驗精挑細選的內容。只是經年累月下來，試題重複使用的情況對準備考試的人早已眾所皆知，這些問題對應試者和教師來說就像黃金一樣。
（美聯社╱翻譯︰鄭湘儀）
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