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By Jung Hwan-bong, staff reporter

A second leak of SAT questions this year is being alleged.

The appearance of several questions from a March exam in the US on a recent test administered in South Korea has critics accusing the College Board, which runs the test, of mismanagement.

According to accounts from sources at Seoul-area language academies on Oct. 9, some of the academies used test-takers to collect questions from the March exam, given in the US, for use in classes with their own students. Many of the same questions subsequently reportedly turned up on the SAT administered on Oct. 5 in South Korea.

“[The SAT questions] were almost certainly leaked by some of the academies. People are even mentioning which ones it was by name,” said a source at a Gangnam-area academy identified by the initial “P.” The source spoke on condition of anonymity.

The director of another Gangnam academy said, “My understanding is that a few of the academies used questions from the March test to give their students experience with past problems.”

SAT problems come from a question bank. The College Board does not make public the questions used on past tests.

The similarity of so many questions on the South Korean test to ones that appeared six months ago in the US has some raising questions about the College Board’s administration of the exam.

“After the South Korean test on Oct. 5, students who had taken the test in Guam back in March said, ‘We’ve seen these questions before,’” reported the director of a Gangnam academy. “It appears that the questions were identical.”

A source at another Gangnam academy said, “Since 2010, there had been talk about the US test and Asian tests being split up, with some of the US test questions reused.”

“But if the questions were recycled from just a few months ago, rather than several years ago, then that’s just bad management,” the source continued.

The question now is what kind of problems the leak could cause for South Korean students who are planning to apply to US universities. In May, a leak of SAT questions prompted the College Board to reduce the number of exams given in South Korea from six to four a year, and to void scores for the May test and some of the June test.

Noting that the US deadlines are in November for rolling admissions and January or February for regular admissions, an academy source said, “If these results are voided, then a lot of students may not be able to submit scores for rolling admission applications in November.”

An 18-year-old student surnamed Kim who is preparing to apply for university in the US said he had planned to use the October scores to apply after the May scores were voided.

“Now this other leak has me worried,” he said.

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