born of a broken man

robertpatrick wrote:Although none of the adcoms are saying anything to this effect (and who can blame them), I have a feeling that for the next round of bschool applications, the influence of a GMAT score on the entire application will be somewhat lessened - and justifiably so - there's been a direct hit at its integrity.

Are we to assume that the ScoreTop fiasco was the only instance out there? How do we know there aren't any more ScoreTops out there? These are questions I'd be asking myself if I was an Adcom.

How Adcoms will react I can't guess- I expect they have known about this issue for a while. As for your other questions (good questions!), there are other illegal forums in operation, and they are not difficult to find. I am sure most people who work in the GMAT field are aware of them, and I don't doubt GMAC is aware of them as well, and will pursue legal remedies against them. Those I know of are not English language sites (while I'm aware of them, I wouldn't be able to read them even if I wanted to).

I have a lot of respect for the participants in this forum, who are making a dedicated and honest effort to improve their mathematical and verbal skills for the GMAT. I have no respect at all for those who try to cheat their way to a good GMAT score by accessing 'live' questions in advance of their test; this diminishes the accomplishments of honest test-takers, who receive a lower score than they deserve because of the dishonesty of the few. The best GMAT advice I can give is to to avoid sites similar to ScoreTop, that advertise 'real' GMAT questions (or 'JJs')- you not only subject yourself to substantial personal penalty and jeopardize your opportunity to pursue an MBA, but you hurt the chances of other honest test-takers as well.

GMAC has the subscription info for 6000 ScoreTop subscribers, on court order as a result of their lawsuit against ScoreTop. Many of these subscribers have received letters from GMAC informing them of the possibility that their test score may be cancelled if GMAC can establish that they knowingly cheated on their GMAT. I am certain GMAC is aware of the other illegal forums in operation, and is investigating them. The ScoreTop suit was not the first legal action GMAC has pursued against those publishing live questions; they won a judgment against GMATPlus a few years ago as well. GMAC seems determined to protect the integrity of the GMAT. If you subscribe to an illegal forum, and GMAC can identify you, as was the case with thousands of ScoreTop subscribers, you run the risk of having your score invalidated and being prevented from ever again taking a GMAT.