Princeton Review flags cheating in online GRE test; alerts GRE administrator, Ministry of Education

The Indian franchise of the US-based The Princeton Review has flagged cheating by students taking the Graduate Record Examination online, according to The Indian Express report.

The Princeton Review has flagged the issue to the US-based Educational Testing Service, which owns and administers the GRE, and has written to the Ministry of Education and the Niti Aayog on the 'moral aspect' of using unfair means in exams, according to the report.

The GRE is a standardised test required for admissions in graduate schools in the US and Canada.

The report says the online GRE features an 'advanced adaptive design', allowing a test taker to move backwards and forward freely through a section that is being attempted, which is a loophole being exploited by cheaters.

Citing first-hand witnesses to the cheating, the report says a third person would enter the test room from an angle not visible to the online proctor, take pictures of all questions in the particular section as the examinee scrolls through it.

The person would then leave the room to solve these questions with the help of collaborators outside, and hand it to the examinee with all the answers.

Two students, who spoke to the Indian Express on condition of anonymity, said that the third persons who take tests on behalf of others are in the third and fourth year and are often approached by teachers from other institutes to help candidates in exchange for money. They also said that this helps them learn more about the exam pattern and prepare better for when they take the exam themselves.

An ETS spokesperson said that the "The ETS Office of Testing Integrity is constantly addressing attempts by some to gain an unfair advantage on our assessments. ETS characterises a variety of improper testing behaviours (e.g., cheating, misuse of test content) as fraudulent, which we take very seriously and work tirelessly to prevent and investigate as and when they occur. Furthermore, ETS has been successful in invalidating the scores of those who attempt these behaviours and is therefore confident in score validity worldwide”.

However, the spokesperson said the ETS does not plan to update the test format, citing the need to create continuity between the physical GRE and the online GRE to maintain students' testing experience.