For some Asian SAT scores, the wait goes on

For the fourth month in a row, SAT scores in Asia are being withheld due to an investigation into alleged cheating, according to a report.

Some or all of the scores from the January administration of the exam in Asia are being withheld, as some scores from the October exam there last year still have not been released, said a report in The Washington Post on Monday.

"Students are aware of the cheating scandals and nervous that their scores will be cancelled after spending so many hours preparing for the examination," Edward Dunnigan of New Pathway Education told Reuters.

No details on the scale of affected areas, the number of examinees or the search for the culprit could be provided for security reasons, according to spokesmen for the College Board and the Education Testing Service (ETS).

The College Board owns and publishes the standardized test used for US college admissions and the ETS administers the exam.

"Due to a potential security violation, some scores from the January international SAT administration are being delayed. This review process may take up to five weeks," said a College Board report.

Robert Schaeffer, public education director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, said in January that "a source sent FairTest a website link to what purports to be the test scheduled for use in Asia on Saturday, January 24. It appears to be an exam form administered in the US".

"Recycling test forms that were previously administered in the US are the root cause of this ongoing scandal," he said in a news release.

The College Board has withheld scores from every administration of the test since last October. It also canceled the entire May 2013 administration of the SAT and SAT Subject tests in South Korea because of a leak of questions.

Since college admission decisions are approaching, complaints are sprouting among some schools and students.

"I am shocked that the College Board sent us an email on the same day that they sent an email to test-takers, because they have not done this in the past," said a February post from Shanghai American School in China.

On the US college side, few schools have responded publicly to the new run of postponements. Amherst College posted a message about the issue online, saying that "it is possible that delayed score reports will not arrive before we render admission decisions, especially for January testing".

"To ensure that Amherst College receives your test scores in a timely fashion, you must take prompt action once your scores are released," it said.

Three ways of cheating occur in the US standardized exams, including TOEFL and SAT, according to Hu Zhonghua, a former overseas education consultant from Beijing New Oriental School, the largest English training school in China.

"Some cheating happens during the bathroom break, when exam takers receive answers from test prep companies through cell phones," he said. "Another is to get questions in advance from the firms."

Hu said some firms have people tested at Asian sites in time zones several hours ahead of China and then send the questions back to them. The firms then consult their database to identify the test administered that day.

"The third is to hire impostors to take the exam because of the loose administration in some areas, and the difficulty for Western examinants to identify Asian faces," he said. Four Chinese imposters were caught in a 2013 November SAT exam in South Korea.

Chinese students mainly choose to take the SAT exam in Hong Kong, Macao or any other country outside of the mainland China, as it is currently only administered within international schools in China which enroll international students outside of China.

The next SAT in Asia is scheduled for March 14, but students are advised to switch to the ACT standardized test as an alternative, in case of more of the unprecedented delays that have occurred in recent months, Hu said.

Some test prep tutors, however, warned that the ACT tests are just as vulnerable to cheating scandals because they also recycle tests previously administered in the US, Reuters reports.

"It is irresponsible for the College Board and ETS to act as if test contents can be kept 'secret' after their administration," Schaeffer said. "Unless the test-makers stop recycling old exams in Asia, SAT 'test security' will continue to be an international joke."

Sheng Yang in Washington contributed to this story.