China

Students' woes come as windfall to overseas agents

By Chen Jia and Gao Qihui (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-03 07:54

BEIJING - Zhang Meng, the boss of the Beijing-based overseas study agency CACDIY International, never imagined that his plan to purchase a new car would be realized so soon.

"I have to employ five part-time staff members to deal with the unexpected increase in business that began last week," he told China Daily on Tuesday.

Zhang is among a large number of overseas study agents in China who have benefited from a mistake made by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) based in the United States.

The ETS, located in Princeton, New Jersey, announced on Oct 28 (Beijing time) that it had decided to cancel the latest Graduate Record Examination score results in China, because it repeated verbal and quantitative sections of a previous version of the test. The accredited examination given in China on Oct 23 was the only one with the error.

The decision affects about 24,000 examinees, most of whom were likely to apply to graduate schools in the US, according to the ETS.

"We apologize for this unfortunate incident and are doing everything possible to resolve this quickly to minimize the impact," Tom Ewing, a spokesperson for the ETS, told China Daily on Monday.

This is the first time the ETS has had to cancel score results and the organization said it took the "difficult" decision to protect the validity of the GRE.

The affected examinees have been offered three options: they can choose to take a free make-up test on either Nov 20 or June 11, 2011, or receive a full refund of their GRE test fee of $205.

Those who want to take the make-up test on Nov 20 have been automatically registered for the test and do not need to contact the ETS. They will also only be required to retake the verbal and quantitative portions of the exam.

A toll-free number, 400-120-0175, has been made available in China for information on the exam.

However, many Chinese students who sat the Oct 23 test had intended to fill out their applications for graduate schools in November and December and the examination glitch has thrown their plans into disarray.

Zhang said students have to prepare about 10,000 words of material for their applications to graduate schools. Since many of them now need to prepare to retake the test, they do not have time to prepare the materials themselves so they have turned to the agents for assistance.

"The students are in tears, but they still need to deal with the reality of the situation. They now have a good excuse to give the boring paper work to us," he said.

Despite the ETS offering remedial measures, many students remain unsatisfied, because deadlines are looming for applications to attend the 2011 fall semester at some US graduate schools.

The ETS has promised that score results from the Nov 20 test will be sent to institutions and examinees by Dec 10, one week later than the results were due to be issued for the Oct 23 test.

"I spent half a year preparing for the Oct 23 test and had planned to prepare other things after the test," Jiang Shanshan, a Beijing examinee, said on Tuesday. "I now have to remake my entire schedule."

"We're facing dual tasks in November: preparing for the make-up test and application materials in short time, and we haven't received any compensation from the ETS," said Wang Ling, another Beijing examinee.

Qiu Baochang, a legal adviser for the China Consumers' Association, was quoted on China National Radio as saying that Chinese examinees have the right to ask for economic and mental compensation from the ETS.

China Daily