This article was published as a part of The Catch.
The Catch is the April Fool's publication of Walter Johnson High School's student newspaper The Pitch.
Articles published in The Catch are not factual.
College Board announced on Monday, April 1, that SAT scores from the March 20 test were canceled due to nationwide cheating. After an investigation of WJ alone, around 95% of the junior class was found cheating. All students are to take a makeup exam on Tuesday, April 2, at 5:00 am ET before school.
Since the SAT School Day on March 20, College Board has received thousands of reports of cheating on the exam.
“I hacked the Bluebook website so that it wouldn’t lock my screen when I opened the test. From there, I plugged the test questions into ChatGPT to answer for me,” an anonymous student said.
Students agree that the digital nature exam allows for easy access to external resources, online or handwritten. As a result, students were inclined to take advantage of these circumstances to boost their scores.
“The digital SAT is such a joke. I literally brought my phone in to use Grammarly during the Reading and Writing modules and Photomath during the Math modules. I just hid [my phone] whenever the proctor walked by – it’s not like they could see it behind all the computer screens. I know other people who sat next to each other and looked at each others’ screens the whole time. Someone else was sent the entire test by a friend from Wheaton High School prior to the test,” another student said.
Rumors of cheating surfaced immediately after the exam on March 20. Subsequently, administration was compelled to conduct an investigation, in which security was tasked with combing through security cameras and tech support reviewed each students’ search history.
“After a thorough investigation, we found that a vast majority of the testers cheated by accessing unauthorized devices, trading answers with neighbors, bringing paper cheat sheets and switching between tabs mid-test. Honestly, if they dedicated the amount of time they used to devise these cheating methods to actually studying for the SAT, they likely would have done well,” security guard Kelly McDonnell said.
In light of these discoveries, administration condemned the junior class for their poor behavior. Consequently, they have decided that a required make-up exam will take place on Tuesday, April 2, from 5:00 am to 7:30 am.
According to Principal Nicole Morgan, there will be a thorough screening of each student before the test, all electronics will be collected for the duration of the test and each testing room will have 10:1 ratio of proctors to students in an effort to reduce cheating.
“We are absolutely appalled by the performance of the junior class. At WJ, we hold our students to high standards, and to know that over 95% of the junior class cheated on the SAT is reprehensible. Know that there will be severe consequences if these miscreants are found. And, to the 5% of [the junior class] that did not cheat, I sincerely apologize on behalf of your peers and commend your outstanding efforts on this exam,” Morgan said.
Additionally, College Board is considering reverting back to the paper SAT due to the unprecedented levels of cheating this year.
“This situation has made it clear that the digital SAT will not work if students aren’t mature enough to hold themselves accountable and not cheat. We at College Board are currently in heavy discussion to determine the future of the digital SAT. So far, it’s looking like we will have to go back to paper,” College Board President Jeremy Singer said.
