The College Board, the organization responsible for administering the SAT, is taking measures to address the emerging threat posed by a cheating tool leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) known as Auto SAT. This tool, which enables students to bypass exam security measures and display answers on their computer screens during testing, has raised significant concerns about the integrity of the SAT.
Auto SAT, marketed as an AI tool that guarantees high scores for SAT test-takers, was launched in March at a price of $499, exclusively accepting cryptocurrency as payment. The College Board quickly became aware of this tool after it was released, discovering it on social media and subsequently purchasing a license to evaluate its functionality.
In response to the introduction of Auto SAT, the College Board made urgent changes to the design and code of the SAT test to minimize the effectiveness of this cheating device. Additionally, the organization initiated legal action against the software developers, aiming to shut down their website.
According to the complaint filed by the College Board, the malicious software is particularly potent, capable of circumventing security features of the exam website. It can capture questions in real-time and transmit them to an AI chatbot, which then provides immediate hints for multiple-choice answers and solutions to open-ended questions.
The software includes features that alert users when proctors are nearby, allowing them to freeze the cursor, causing the answer prompts to disappear. The College Board reported that four individuals were identified as having used the software as of March, but the lawsuit was ultimately dropped due to the inability to serve the developers with legal documents.
Furthermore, reports have indicated that the SAT transitioned to an online format in 2024, partly as a measure to prevent leaks of examination materials. However, cheaters have continually devised new methods to profit from the exams. One notable tactic is “time zone cheating,” where test-takers in New Zealand can access the exam hours earlier than those in other regions, copy the questions, and sell them to students in later time zones.
In response to these challenges, Massie Ritsch, a spokesperson for the College Board, announced plans for a revised SAT schedule to be implemented in 2027. This change is aimed at eliminating the significant gaps in question availability across different time zones. Similar strategies were outlined for the Advanced Placement (AP) exams earlier in July.
In addition to these measures, the College Board has prohibited students from wearing smart glasses during exams and has begun tracking keystrokes and cursor movements in some testing locations. Concerns regarding SAT question leaks have prompted complaints from students and preparatory tutors worldwide.
In March, a group of test preparation instructors and candidates from Uzbekistan reported encountering SAT questions on the messaging platform Telegram just five hours prior to the exam. On October 12, another instructor revealed that a leaked exam paper circulated on social media by 1:30 AM on the day of the test in Europe.
Moreover, a website named bluebooky.com faced allegations of prematurely releasing October exam questions, accumulating over half a million visits in August alone before changing its domain to bluecorn.org. The College Board has declined to comment on the authenticity of the questions this site provided.
Camille Thompson, the Vice President of Exam Security at the College Board, expressed confidence in the overall security of the digital SAT exams, despite occasional issues. She noted that the proportion of high-scoring test-takers has not significantly changed.
Trevor Packer, the head of the AP program, confirmed that an incident of cheating during the AP Biology test in New Zealand led to the immediate cancellation and rescheduling of that exam.
Starting next year, the College Board announced that the number of AP test versions would increase from three to seven, further diversifying the testing experience.
It is crucial to note that the College Board has become one of the most controversial entities in American education. Despite being labeled a “non-profit organization,” its revenue and asset scale have reached billions of dollars, operating in a highly commercialized manner. The organization derives a substantial portion of its profits from its exclusive administration of the SAT and AP exams.