Business, Legal & Accounting Glossary
The Scoretop GMAT Scandal was a scandal involving thousands of business school applicants and the GMAT preparation site, Scoretop. The scandal erupted on June 23, 2008 when GMAC disclosed it won a legal judgment for copyright infringement against the Scoretop site in federal district court in Virginia. GMAC argued that the site had published “live” GMAT questions (questions that were still currently used by GMAC vs. questions that had been retired and used by other test prep agencies) and offered VIP access at a fee of $30 for 30 days. GMAC was awarded $2.3 million in damages plus legal costs as well as full access to Scoretop’s computer hard drive including data of thousands of users of the service.
GMAC has declared that it will cancel the scores of all subscribers of the site who gained access to live questions, ruining the business application of thousands of students. GMAC has also declared that it will prohibit users from retaking the test and will notify all schools who have received test scores associated with Scoretop users.
It’s unclear exactly how Scoretop obtained official live questions, though some speculate that at least some of the questions were posted by users after completing the GMAT exam, possibly by the use of small camera devices.
BusinessWeek has reported that the person responsible for the site, Lei Shi, has left the United States and has returned to China where he is believed to have taken refuge in the city of Zibo in Shandong province. Shi was not represented in court during the copyright proceedings.
Since the scandal, many students have claimed that they used the site’s proprietary information unwittingly. However, others have denied this claim citing Scoretop’s public marketing campaign of featuring “live GMAT questions.” GMAC has responded that it is conducting ongoing investigations for possible violations of all web sites claiming to post GMAT questions.
Business schools are responding cautiously to the scandal. Many have hinted that those tied to the website will have their admissions revoked. Others have taken a wait-and-see approach, weighing the impact of cancelling up to 6,000 admissions for the next school year.
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This glossary post was last updated: 25th April, 2020 | 0 Views.