In feudal times when corruption was rampant, standard tests used to be the only vestige of fair competition in which meritocracy held its sway.

Now this last bastion of integrity is under attack from all sides as cheating threatens to engulf this thousand-year-old institution of social fair play.

June is the month for all kinds of tests and exams in China. There is the all-important college entrance exam, the result of which can determine whether someone can be admitted into a school of higher learning. It also affects one's perceived value in the job market down the road.

There is also the English proficiency test, which is a hurdle that must be overcome by anyone who wants to graduate with a degree. It is also a prerequisite for a plethora of jobs.

On July 4, 30 middle schools in Hengyang, Hunan Province, braved a heat wave to take an exam. All of the 12,000 students had taken the same exam just two weeks earlier. But it was found out that the test sheets were widely leaked before the test. Chemistry, math and English had to be retaken by everyone.

Hengyang was not the only place where test-takers were tipped off beforehand. It was so widespread that some newspapers ran stories about it every day. People are no longer shocked by reports of test cheating, but are constantly astonished by the scope and ingenuity displayed.

High-tech savvy

Cheating is nothing new. It has always existed in one form or another. As long as Bart Simpson, the star of a popular US cartoon, does not become a hero in China, underachievement will be something one has to live with rather than something to be proud of.

The only reported incident of "deliberate under-achievement" was when a test-taker by the name of Zhang Tiesheng submitted an unanswered test sheet during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). It was done in the spirit of challenge.

If you are a cheater, you may glance sideways to take advantage of a neighbor's answer sheets. If that person is an ally, he or she may even copy down the answers for you and slip it to you. Or you yourself may prepare all the possible answers and hide the sheet in your sleeve or pencil box.

As a high-schooler would say, this was all so yesterday, so passe that it would almost guarantee that the cheater would not get a bright future in high tech.

Nowadays, however, cheating has assumed a James Bond-like veneer of savoir-faire.

A typical story goes like this: A test taker takes digital photos of all the questions and transmits them via cell phone. Someone waiting outside answers them all, then uses the same technology to reply. The core gadget is a mobile phone with photo-taking capabilities.

A variations of this method is having someone get the test sheet on his own and simply sending the answers to the test-taker's mobile phone or beeper, which is of course set on the silent "vibration" mode. This reduces the risk of outward transmission and therefore the chance of being detected.

Hired gun

"Seeking high-grade math student. High pay."

"If your English is good enough and your need for money is urgent enough, please call this number."

"No risk. High pay. Take tests for others."

Flyers and messages like these are ubiquitous on campus and Internet message boards. Hired test-takers are usually graduate students who are high on intelligence and low on money. They need to go through great trouble, such as making a set of new identification documents and taking the risk of inspectors periodically checking on their identities.

One hired gun was spotted by accident when the inspector happened to know a teacher from the test-taker's school. Since the double was not from that school, she was naturally stunned when she was asked about her supposed teacher and could not even appear coherent.

She was one of 40 doubles who were uncovered in one Xi'an test site on June 19. "My fake ID was perfect," she said. "Only my luck was not."

"You need to take heart medication with you if you have a weak heart," suggested another hired gun, who has developed a cottage industry out of posing as someone else during tests.

Rewards range from a few hundred yuan for a regular English proficiency test to 50,000 yuan (US$6,050) for the US-administered TOEFL or GRE, which are an indispensable stepping stone to overseas enrollment.

Benefit of a body double is obvious: You don't have to chew your pencil and wait for answers via your cell phone. Besides, cell phones have been banned from many test sites, and even carrying one may get one disqualified for the test.

Penalties for impersonation are also harsh: Both the double and the client face expulsion from school and lose any hopes of graduation.

Collusion

For the sake of self-interest, cheaters tend to keep their behavior as secret as possible, making it an individual-based act that crops up sporadically.

The biggest revelation this year is that the status quo has changed. Instead, it is turning into a mass behavior that embroils all sorts of people.

In many cases, the complete test sheets are divulged before the tests, rendering it unnecessary for either impersonators or high-tech gadgets. Obviously, the only perpetrators are those with access, which is a very small and select group. Some test preparers were found to have secretly passed out their questions beforehand.

The motive is money. In Puyang, Henan Province, as many as 10 teachers were found to have "sold their services" for a total of 200,000 yuan (US$24,100). They did not have the questions in advance, but the plot was so melodramatic that it may deserve a Hollywood treatment.

On June 8, during the college entrance exam, a test-taker named Li was convulsed with a sudden stomach ache. He was escorted to the school clinic. On the way he passed a digital camera to his escort, a teacher named Guo. Li had taken photos of all his test sheets and had only to fake something to get close to Guo so that their clothes would touch and the passing of the camera would not be noticed.

Guo hurried to a nearby place, where several teachers were waiting and quickly finished all the sheets. The results were then carried back to the sites and distributed to every "client" who had purchased the answers -- 1,000 yuan (US$120) for each separate test. Media reports say the price actually varied quite a bit as there were middlemen who charged commissions for "sales." Some paid 2,000 yuan (US$240) for each test.

Inspectors at each site where "clients" were located had been bought out with "red envelopes", which contained a gift of 200-1,000 yuan. Their "service" was to look away and feign ignorance.

Puzzles

Eight teachers and officials from the local education department were disciplined, but many questions remain unanswered. For instance, how was it possible to match the "client" students with the "seller" teachers/inspectors?

A teacher is strictly forbidden from supervising test-takers from his or her own school. Whichever test site he or she is otherwise assigned to, excluding his or her own, is determined by drawing lot at the last minute. This line of reasoning points to a much larger conspiracy than the one currently revealed.

On a larger note, this is supposed to be the year to end all cheating in exams.

In May, the Education Ministry issued "An Urgent Announcement to Spare No Effort to Put a Brake to Wrongdoings in College Exams" and a regulation that details the penalties for test cheaters. It seems like they have fallen on deaf ears.

Even stranger than this paradox are the reactions from some of the participants. In the Hengyang scandal, the perpetrators were not the ones suffering from the fallout. The teacher who stumbled upon it and reported it is gripped with pangs of remorse that he brought so much trouble to so many people. "I hate it that I have a big mouth. I should have kept it shut."

Some blame the students for spreading the word and catching the attention of prosecutors. "But I feel the students are the real victims here. They are at the crucial stage when their way of thinking is being shaped. They see their parents, teachers, officials all involved in an elaborate plot to falsify their test scores. What kind of effect will that have on them?" asks Zhang Tianwei, a media commentator.

Root cause

"If standard testing loses public trust, then people will also doubt the fairness of our education system. In a sense, this is the last defense. Our testing system must maintain its credibility," argues Lao Kaisheng, professor of education at Beijing Normal University.

To be fair, the authorities did quite a lot to strengthen this stronghold of last defense. In the aftermath of the two new regulations, new measures were taken. Test-takers were asked to sign "no cheat" statements. Test preparers had to sign confidentiality agreements.

Besides resorting to the moral considerations of test-takers, there were also concrete methods. For example, local security agencies were consulted, making sure that every step of the paper route would be devoid of leaks. Test sheets were simply treated like top state secrets.

Zhang Tianwei attributes the failure to the testing system. "No matter how harsh the penalty, it wouldn't really have put a dent to the severity of cheating. Test scores are such a pivotal factor in the fierce competition for distributing social resources that unless the system slackens there won't be any substantial change."

Many have realized that China's overemphasis on test scores is having multiple negative ramifications, cheating being only one of them. Students are so test-oriented that they spend countless hours memorizing possible answers at the expense of fully understanding them, let alone developing the skill to use them in real life.

"If we as a society can have more than one way to evaluate a person, then testing would not have been elevated to the status that it now occupies. I believe that cheating will fade away at that time. Until then we'll have to live with it," says Professor Lao Kaisheng.

(China Daily July 16, 2004)