The organizer of the U.S. Scholastic Aptitude Test canceled the college admission exam for Koreans scheduled for Saturday amid an investigation into a leak of exam questions.

The College Board, which oversees the SAT, notified Korean applicants on Wednesday of the cancellation via email. The SAT is currently offered several times a year in more than 170 countries.

The prosecution has been investigating more than eight private institutes since February over allegations that they leaked exam questions to students.

It is still not clear how they had obtained the exam material, but there is a possibility that some of the leaked questions would have been used on the canceled test, according to an official from the Educational Testing Service, the U.S.-based firm that develops and administers the SAT tests.

“We’re still waiting for the result of the investigation. But at the moment, we have no plan to cancel the test again,” the official told The Korea Herald, adding that the next test in June will remain unchanged despite the on-going investigation.

It is not the first time the leaking of test materials has been reported. In 2007, some 900 test-takers in Korea had their scores cancelled after allegations that there was a “security breach” of the SAT early in the year.


By Oh Kyu-wook
(596story@heraldcorp.com)