Chinese students' applications to US universities may well be
affected by a special review of their GRE and TOEFL test scores,
insiders said.
The GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and TOEFL (Test of English as
a Foreign Language) boards sent a letter to American universities
on January 30 "urging them to treat all GRE and TOEFL test scores
from China with caution," as "certain individuals may have gained
unfair advantage through intensive coaching that included exposure
to undisclosed test questions."
Officials at China's Ministry of Education refused to comment on
the possible results of the review or divulge the reaction of
educational departments to the letter.
The letter has drawn attention to the New Oriental School, China's
largest test preparation school that provides students with the
"coaching" referred to by the boards. The school is currently being
sued for copyright infringement after using unauthorized and
unreleased GRE materials in its courses.
The letter, which casts suspicion on the test scores and integrity
of Chinese students, has given rise to anger among Chinese
students.
Most students interviewed by China Daily said they believed
the letter attacked the reputation of Chinese students as a whole
and would probably affect their prospects for admission into
American universities.
Yao, a graduate student at Peking University said, "It makes no
sense to assume that the `sharp increase' in Chinese students' GRE
test scores is the result of cheating."
Educationalists hold that it is unfair for all Chinese students to
bear the negative consequences of a few individuals' misdeeds.
The anger of Chinese students was addressed towards the Educational
Testing Service (ETS), the world's leading English language testing
institution. The ETS administrates GRE and TOEFL tests across the
world, tests that are essential to the success of any application
for admission to or a scholarship at a US university.
Tom Ewing, director of external communications with the ETS,
emphasized that the GRE and TOEFL boards fully believe that the
majority of Chinese students take their tests under fair
conditions.
"It is organizations such as the New Oriental School that lead to
honest Chinese students being slandered," said Ewing.
The ETS has issued a lawsuit sueing New Oriental for infringement
of copyright after it published certain ETS materials without
authorization.
Xu
Xiaoping, vice-president of New Oriental, said that New Oriental
had acknowledged its "mistake" in connection with the ETS copyright
issue.
He
said his school had contacted the ETS several times to buy the
publishing rights for authorized GRE materials, but that they had
been repeatedly rejected.
Xu
noted that New Oriental would have become the largest buyer of ETS
materials in China if the ETS had made authorized GRE materials
available to them.
The ETS had issued publishing rights for its materials in many
other countries, such as Japan, Canada and the United States, but
not in China, according to Xu.
The ETS said that some materials published by New Oriental had been
confidential, and had not been published anywhere else in the
world.
New Oriental denies that the higher test scores of its students are
the result of cheating or have anything to do with the copyright
infringement, and claims that their success is because the new
computerized testing system used by the GRE makes it easier for
Chinese students to do well.
In
response, Tom Ewing said that the upward trend in test scores was
not related to the introduction of computerized GRE tests, saying:
"We have not seen a similar increase in other countries."
(China Daily 02/20/2001)