Every year, the co-ordinators of the Graduate Management Admission Test reject several dozen applicants for cheating in their exams.
The underhand techniques range from stand-ins impersonating candidates nominally taking the test, to the concealment of cameras in coat buttons and eyeglasses. These scan and show questions to remote accomplices, who then supply the correct answer via a concealed earpiece.
“These are very high stakes exams,” says Sangeet Chowfla, chief executive of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which administers the multiple-choice tests taken by 250,000 people each year. “There is unfortunately an incentive for people to try to get an unfair advantage.”