Anyone who had planned on cheating their way to a high Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) score will soon find him or herself faced with a new obstacle. The company that administers the exam will now be incorporating palm scans to confirm test takers identities.

What's This All About?
Palm scans take an infrared picture of the blood flowing through the veins on an individual's hand. With the high amount of cheating which had been occurring, the process was deemed necessary. In an article, written by a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, it was reported that federal authorities had broken up a ring five years ago of six fraudsters who had taken over 590 exams for customers who had paid them at least $3,000.

BusinessWeek reported last month that more than 6,000 students were in danger of having their GMAT scores canceled. The controversy began when a site by the name of Scoretop was discovered to have been releasing questions from recent exams. Users of this site could have their applications rejected or be expelled from school.

What Will It Cost?
The new palm scanner devices will cost $1,000 or less to install. So what kind of effect will the installation of this new security device cost test takers? The business school council stated that this new device would have no affect on the cost of the exam. The price will remain at $250. GMAT is the first standardized exam to use this method for identification purposes.

Raising Privacy Concerns
Privacy rights advocates are concerned that the scans will be used for other reasons besides just identifying the test taker and matching them to the scan at the test site. Some also feel that the scans should be discarded of within a certain period of time. But the business admission council stated that these would not be discarded and would be made part of the students' permanent record.



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About the author:
Priscilla Rodriguez is an editorial intern at The CollegeBound Network.

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