Via this week’s issue of “The Cheat Sheet” I learned about a cheating ring (well, three folks) in Florida that enabled at least 820 people to cheat on an at-home test for an insurance-selling license operated by Pearson.
The cheating involved the same method that people have (allegedly) used to cheat on at-home English tests, including (allegedly) those operated by Pearson. Says the article:
“The independent witnesses’ statements all concurred that Peralta would take their pictures and instruct them to remove their watches and phones before directing them to sit in a soundproof room adjacent to where Salas would be sitting… Salas would subsequently enter and place a MacBook laptop logged into the witness’s [Pearson Vue] account on the desk. Salas would tell them that if a proctor asks them to show the room, they should lift the laptop computer, turn to show the room, place it back on the desk, place their hands on the sides, and not move, and he would be controlling the computer from next door… authorities said the elder Salas would then leave the room as the clients observed the testing begin on the computer. The questions populate the screen, the mouse moves and answers are selected without their control… the reports state.”
And:
“subjects would pay approximately $400 to $2,000 for the license they were attempting to acquire”
That’s the same way that cheating on at-home English tests is (allegedly) done. The test-taker pays a fee and on test day reports to a certain location. Upon arrival they are given a laptop with remote-access software installed. The test-taker then sits in front of the laptop and pretends to take the test while someone from the cheating ring actually answers the questions.
Allegedly.
That’s the high-tech way, anyhow. I’ve written here before about the analog way, which is also effective. And really enjoyable if you love feet.
I’m super bullish on the likelihood of at-home testing being accepted by governments in the next 5 to 10 years. But it isn’t going to happen unless providers like Pearson step up their security protocols. Recall that it was about this time last year that Pearson withdrew the at-home version of the PTE test from the China market altogether due to concerns about cheating.
I don’t know how long this cheating ring operated, but they did rack up 820 successful attempts. That suggests they were at it for some time before being detected.