Cheating on At Home GMAT and EA

Question

What's preventing test takers from placing a hidden camera in the room and attaching a communication device to them, thus allowing someone else to take the exam for them?

With a high GMAT score generally needed for entry into top programs and major merit based scholarships based solely on one's GMAT score, incentive's are there to cheat.

It's too easy to cheat with at home versions, thus destroying the credibility of these exams. GMAC should not allow at home testing for this reason.

Businessconquerer · Answer

Why don't you try and cheat
GMAT tests logic, there is no way you can answer that fast even if they allowed open book

bb · Answer

There’s a number of factors. Mostly, your argument is based on an assumption that you can find an expert who will be willing to help you cheat on the test.

Second you need a pretty good camera and a pretty good system to take the test. It needs to be focused well enough and have the right amount of brightness and zoom and quality for the person on the other end to actually see and read the questions. The person also has to be very good test taker to solve the questions fast enough and get the correct answers and a smart person as that may not be willing to put the reputation on the line. They probably can make more money tutoring. To make it worthwhile you have to pay them quite a bit...

There’s a camera constantly watching you and analyzing your behavior. If someone else is taking the test what are you going to do?

Usually people hurry resort to cheating I’m pretty stupid and as the result most will be caught because they will just be staring into nothingness clicking next correct answer.

The logistics of pulling it off is not as easy as even doing a webcast or a successful zoom call and plenty of people are screwing those up

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dahvd3 · Answer

Someone else can take the exam for you. Place a hidden camera in the room for them to view your computer screen. Attach a communication device to your body. IE: vibrate once for a, twice for b, three times for c, etc. Pay them a couple grand. Boom, no studying needed. Apply your 5K for test prep to pay someone else to take the exam for you. Without metal detectors, this is very possible. Once again, the credibility of these exams has been ruined by allowing at home testing as security measures are too limited.

bb · Answer

Has been ruined? it already has? By whom or by what? What is the indicator of the ruin?

Businessconquerer · Answer

Okay, this has just become an interesting thread. I think we should have a team up. Some guys,
 carcass   Bunuel   workout   SageJiraiya   variantguy  
What do you guys think?
I think someone with the technical capabilities of Mission Impossible can crack the GMAT Online.

SageJiraiya · Answer

Roflmao XD XD Bunuel and GmatNinja can easily make 800 the new 750 with these new advancements in cheating lmao

variantguy · Answer

The only way I can see Mission Impossible figuring into my GMAT story is: I study hard for four months. Maybe six. I adapt to take the online GMAT (or readapt if by then it's back to pen and paper). I take the test. Maybe have to retake it once. I get the score I wanted, on my own. I order a pizza. I crack open a beer. I kick back and put on Mission Impossible 2. (MI2 is the best movie in the series. Period.)

dahvd3 · Answer

RE: "Mostly, your argument is based on an assumption that you can find an expert who will be willing to help you cheat on the test."

Lu Xu was taking the GMAT for others, in-person, for six years (200+ times) until he was caught. What makes you think ethically lacking experts who want or need money, won't do the same, when now cheating is easier to get away with?

Will it be easy to find an ethically lacking expert to take the GMAT or Executive Assessment for you, probably not. But possible, yes.

See the article "He Conquered The GMAT & Went To Jail For It" on Poets & Quants detailing Xu's extensive GMAT cheating.

globaldesi · Answer

Quite a difficult setup to arrange. How do you keep your expressions in sync with question, If you are not solving it. It technically means two people sitting in same room and using extension screens and laptop. I would rather spend so much time and resources preparing.

dahvd3 · Answer

RE: " Second you need a pretty good camera and a pretty good system to take the test. It needs to be focused well enough and have the right amount of brightness and zoom and quality for the person on the other end to actually see and read the questions."

Focusing a camera to view a laptop screen can be done by almost anyone. It's more about the quality of the camera than the operator. Especially when an unlimited amount of time exists to stage the room and focus the camera, before the "proctor" appears to "check" the room.

RE: "The person also has to be very good test taker to solve the questions fast enough and get the correct answers and a smart person as that may not be willing to put the reputation on the line. They probably can make more money tutoring. To make it worthwhile you have to pay them quite a bit..."

This comes back to incentives and potential return on investment. Regarding incentives, pay an expert 10K to get you a 760 or above with no payment until that goal is hit, meaning the exam may need to be retaken. The test taker preps, runs through some moc situations with you, and gets it on his first try. Not a bad pay for a half days work doing something they are already good at.

Regarding return on investment, say you pay someone 10K and they get you a 760 on the GMAT. Now your dad can tell his buddies his son/daughter got into XYZ top 10 b-school. Besides, he doesn't care how much money it costs for your private "tutoring." Now, onto merit based scholarships which are often times handed out with one's GMAT score as the primary factor. Say you paid for this out of pocket (not dads) and get half your tuition covered from a top program costing ~80k/year, thus benefiting you ~80K over two years. That's a 7x profit on your investment. Quite a good return on investment over two years. Or say you go to a lesser ranked school but this time with a full ride, that may be even better. This isn't even factoring in if someone has done little to no studying. Even higher ROI in adding this factor in.

All that said, strong incentives exist to get as high of GMAT / EA score as possible, thus GMAC must expect individuals to try and cheat. A major job of GMAC is to guard the integrity of their exams. And they are failing at that by allowing at home versions of these exams due to the limited security measures inherent to at home testing. IE: no metal detector, no control the room preventing easily hiding a camera. It's naïve and thus negligent. Test takers who took their exams at a testing center should not be okay with at home exams as your score is now worth less than before at home testing was introduced.

RE: " There’s a camera constantly watching you and analyzing your behavior. If someone else is taking the test what are you going to do?"

Act like you are thinking and working. This is not hard. Besides, when you know the likelihood in being caught is low, what's there to be worried about? The digital proctor? Haha. Digital proctor.

Bb - it's naïve to think people are not cheating on the at home gmat and ea. Follow the incentives and potential returns on obtaining a high GMAT score. Then move to the likelihood, IE: weak/no controls in place to prevent this (example given) and other types of cheating possible in at home testing.

ashwink · Answer

This is an interesting thread! 
Having done a lot of penetration testing & the occassional remote analysis(ahem, whitehat hacking), I'm sure that cheating in an online exam taken at home is definitely doable. But, would you be willing to jeopardize your whole career if you get caught?

DanTe02 · Answer

I wanted to appear for the Can't decide whether to go online or offline. The credibility of GMAT online looks dubious while The offline centers is 1hr and 15m drive and is at 9:15 so given that I'd have to reach 30min before that as required by Gmac I'll have to wake up at 630ish. Which one would you guys recommend I'm planning to hit a above 730+ score

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Posted from my mobile device

hdwnkr · Answer

Here you go. There's the possibilties. https://medium.com/@alfonso.delgado.bon ... 9636d26ce5 Posted from my mobile device

nik519 · Answer

Does the final score report mention if the test was taken online or offline?

bb · Answer

Lol. That’s a benign question. It does. It is pretty clear As the score is accessible through a different system and is missing the AWA for the GMAT online.

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ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

So , ya virtual machine is how the Gmat experts are taking the online test, and I am thoroughly disappointed with this discovery. If anyone has YOY comparison of gmat percentiles, I think this year the percentile score has plummeted to the lowest.

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Posted from my mobile device

Sushilb77 · Answer

-

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

Welcome to gmc,

Your first post is on this thread. Seems funny , but all the very best to you !!!

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Sushilb77 · Answer

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