This is why we should all use only standard test prep material....
READ:
http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/co ... ries_ssi_5
GMAT Forum
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- Vikram
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
- JH
I did. and I'm not afraid to admit it; I'm confident that I didn't do anything illegal or unethical. ScoreTop had explicitly stated that the questions were written in-house by its staff and tutors. Bottom line: GMAC is just being a bully. Here's a comment that I left to Dean Bruner at Darden, after he posted a blog about the whole "scandal" a few days ago. Not sure it'll get posted on his site so i'm sharing them with you.
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Dean Bruner,
I read your blog often and find them insightful and very beneficial, particularly since I'm preparing to join the business school community. So it was disappointing when I read that you decided to make your judgment based on preliminary information, particularly on the customers of ScoreTop. You seem to infer that those customers who subscribed to ScoreTop services are cheaters and deserve to pay for "cutting corners" in their GMAT preparation. I don't know if you have ever visited the actual website before coming to this conclusion.
As one of the former customers of now shut down website, I believed, during my subscription, that it provided GMAT related services just like any other countless forums, blogs, websites out there on the web. I chose to subscribe to ScoreTop because a friend of mine recommended it, along with few other GMAT/Bschool related sites and web blogs (which by the way included your blog). From what I remember, most of the b-school blogs, which were written by those who were going through the b-school process or has already gotten into b-school, recommended ScoreTop site (which further raises the question, would so many have recommended this site so publicly, had they known that it was an illegal operation?). Once I subscribed to the site, I found its operation to be legitimate - it took payments via paypal and sent back official receipts, provided tutoring services, and had been operating for few years (as far as 2004 if I recall). By no means, am I arguing that any of this makes ScoreTop a legitimate company because we now know that it stole the contents of the service that it sold. I'm merely raising the question of how are we as consumers supposed to discern which websites/forums/blogs are operating legitimately and which are not (ScoreTop was one of the top 10 sites that was listed when I typed in google for "GMAT Prep" a year ago)? What are the criteria that consumer should use to make that kind of assessment? Does GMAC specify these criteria at all? How do we know the questions by Kaplan (for example) are legitimate but questions by ScoreTop are not? When you buy a book (new or used) from a book store, don't you trust that that store is selling you a book that was acquired within legal standards, and not stolen? If we didn't realize and bought goods and services from these illegitimately operating company, are the consumers at fault?
On a much more relevant note you, Dean Bruner, if GMAC accused one of your current and past students of cheating (which they may do so since I have no doubt that many of the Darden students/graduates are past ScoreTop users), are you going to be so quick to condemn your students as well?
In short, the issue is MUCH more complex than you have portrayed on your blog and I am quite surprised, especially because you are an influential leader of the business school community, that you failed to explore all those things before presenting what I would consider a rather prejudiced opinion. The customers of these so called GMAT prep sites on the internet are if anything victims of fraud, not cheaters who try to gain advantage, as you may have suggested. Therefore, you can be sure that the customers will take any accusation and action by GMAC and its board seriously and take appropriate counter actions to defend ourselves.
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Dean Bruner,
I read your blog often and find them insightful and very beneficial, particularly since I'm preparing to join the business school community. So it was disappointing when I read that you decided to make your judgment based on preliminary information, particularly on the customers of ScoreTop. You seem to infer that those customers who subscribed to ScoreTop services are cheaters and deserve to pay for "cutting corners" in their GMAT preparation. I don't know if you have ever visited the actual website before coming to this conclusion.
As one of the former customers of now shut down website, I believed, during my subscription, that it provided GMAT related services just like any other countless forums, blogs, websites out there on the web. I chose to subscribe to ScoreTop because a friend of mine recommended it, along with few other GMAT/Bschool related sites and web blogs (which by the way included your blog). From what I remember, most of the b-school blogs, which were written by those who were going through the b-school process or has already gotten into b-school, recommended ScoreTop site (which further raises the question, would so many have recommended this site so publicly, had they known that it was an illegal operation?). Once I subscribed to the site, I found its operation to be legitimate - it took payments via paypal and sent back official receipts, provided tutoring services, and had been operating for few years (as far as 2004 if I recall). By no means, am I arguing that any of this makes ScoreTop a legitimate company because we now know that it stole the contents of the service that it sold. I'm merely raising the question of how are we as consumers supposed to discern which websites/forums/blogs are operating legitimately and which are not (ScoreTop was one of the top 10 sites that was listed when I typed in google for "GMAT Prep" a year ago)? What are the criteria that consumer should use to make that kind of assessment? Does GMAC specify these criteria at all? How do we know the questions by Kaplan (for example) are legitimate but questions by ScoreTop are not? When you buy a book (new or used) from a book store, don't you trust that that store is selling you a book that was acquired within legal standards, and not stolen? If we didn't realize and bought goods and services from these illegitimately operating company, are the consumers at fault?
On a much more relevant note you, Dean Bruner, if GMAC accused one of your current and past students of cheating (which they may do so since I have no doubt that many of the Darden students/graduates are past ScoreTop users), are you going to be so quick to condemn your students as well?
In short, the issue is MUCH more complex than you have portrayed on your blog and I am quite surprised, especially because you are an influential leader of the business school community, that you failed to explore all those things before presenting what I would consider a rather prejudiced opinion. The customers of these so called GMAT prep sites on the internet are if anything victims of fraud, not cheaters who try to gain advantage, as you may have suggested. Therefore, you can be sure that the customers will take any accusation and action by GMAC and its board seriously and take appropriate counter actions to defend ourselves.
- StaceyKoprince
- ManhattanGMAT Staff
- Posts: 9360
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:05 am
- Location: Montreal
Thanks for your thoughts. As I mentioned in another post, I doubt that they would be able to take legal action (at least, not successful legal action) against any students unless they can prove the students knowingly viewed "live" questions. I think at least part of the "official bluster" is to scare people who have used or have been tempted to seek out "live" questions so that they won't do it.
Of course, if they can prove someone knowingly cheated, I'm sure they'll do whatever they can, legally speaking. But it's going to be tough to prove in this circumstance - they can't just go after all of the users of the site, because there was perfectly legitimate stuff there too.
Of course, if they can prove someone knowingly cheated, I'm sure they'll do whatever they can, legally speaking. But it's going to be tough to prove in this circumstance - they can't just go after all of the users of the site, because there was perfectly legitimate stuff there too.
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
Instructor
Director, Content & Curriculum
ManhattanPrep
7 posts Page 1 of 1