bsat blog

Today the Washington Post blog "The Answer Sheet" poses an interesting question: what happens to students who cheat on their SATs? I'm sure we've all pondered the possible outcomes. They're drawn and quartered, all of their college applications are sent out with a giant red letter C, they lead John Calipari's team to the Final Four.

Whatever your assumption, it turns out that the answer is more like, well, nothing. Sure some students are made to re-take the SAT or ACT and if they don't score close enough the second time their scores are thrown out, but even then the students always have the option of "cancelling" their scores which means no information gets sent to their school of choice.

In a sense this seems okay because everyone makes mistakes, and why drag a kid through the meat grinder for messing up if it means ruining his future prospects and creating a situation where he can't learn anything from the experience.

But, in a much, much more reasonable sense doesn't this kind of encourage cheating? After all, it's only cheating if you don't get caught. So why not create some kind of SAT cheating caper and put it into action. If you fail, you cancel your scores and maybe try again next time. If you succeed: Hello Harvard! Oh, right, they're also going to look at your GPA. Well, still...Hello Hofstra!!!

It's almost like there is no deterrent to trying to scheme the SAT. Oh, right. Unless you're in Korea. Then there are beatings. Bummer.