• May 23, 2013

Web Site That Gave Students Improper Help on GMAT Is Hit With $2.3-Million Penalty

The Graduate Management Admission Council has been awarded $2.3-million in damages in a copyright-infringement lawsuit against the operator of a Web site that posted real questions and unauthorized study materials to help students pass the council’s business-school entrance examination, the GMAT, the council announced on Friday.

Students who used the site, ScoreTop.com, to try to improve their scores on the Graduate Management Admission Test may regret it. The council has seized a hard drive from a server used to run the Web site, and says it will notify business schools of anyone who violated its testing policies by using the site. The council, which administers the admission test, will also cancel those students’ scores.

Students looking for the Web site today instead read the following: “Warning! If You Are Looking for ‘Real’ GMAT® Exam Questions, Think Again!” A series of threats against cheaters followed. That set off a flurry of panicked e-mail messages and blog entries.

More than 4,000 graduate business and management programs worldwide use the GMAT to assess the qualifications of M.B.A. candidates.

The council was given control of the Web site by a U.S. District Court in Virginia, which also ruled that Lei Shi and other operators of the site must pay the council legal fees, court costs, and other relief. The council sued Mr. Shi, who was living in the United States at the time but has since returned to his native China, for distributing copyrighted GMAT-related materials through the site without the council’s permission. —Katherine Mangan

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