International Baccalaureate exams body to probe leaks after finding evidence of cheating; Hong Kong pupils among global chorus of outrage
The authority managing the ongoing International Baccalaureate (IB) exams will launch an investigation into test papers being leaked online after it found evidence of cheating, but a Hong Kong lawmaker has called for more action to ensure fairness for students.
The IB said on Sunday that it found a small number of students had engaged in “time zone cheating” and there was “no evidence” the practice was widespread, although the Post found the papers had been downloaded more than 45,000 times.
The leaks have prompted widespread outrage among students, including those currently sitting the exams in Hong Kong, with some calling for the tests to be cancelled or sat again.
“We have identified the source of this activity and are taking appropriate steps to hold those responsible accountable,” the organisation said.
“Where we have identified students, the IB will open a formal investigation for malpractice, and students may receive no marks for their examinations or no grade for the relevant subject.”
Time zone cheating occurs when students who have finished their exams share their recollection of questions to help others in regions who are yet to take the tests. It is prohibited under the IB’s academic integrity policy.
“To date, there is no evidence of widespread cheating and we are confident that this activity remains at the fringes of what is otherwise a standard exam session,” it said.
A Hong Kong-based student who sat two exams for which the answers were leaked online said he did not think the IB was taking the situation seriously enough.
“They said only a very small number of students saw the leaks, which is not true,” he said, noting that many of the documents containing answers had been downloaded or viewed tens of thousands of times.
He said he was worried that the scale of the leak for some of the harder exams, such as the mathematics and physics tests he sat, would push the grade boundary higher and thus lower his final score.
“It would be nice if they said something to reassure the students who actually tried hard,” he said. “It makes me question how professional the IB is.”
Australian Sandra Dellit, whose daughter is currently taking the exams in Hong Kong, also expressed dissatisfaction with the way the IB was handling the unfolding situation.
“I haven’t seen one comment where the IB has come out and apologised to the students who are now in this turmoil and stressed about their future,” she said. “What are they going to do? The kids that have done the right thing are likely to get screwed.”
Lawmaker Tang Fei, a vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, said he was “shocked” to hear of the scandal, given the IB’s “high credibility”.
He said the IB should take action to make it up to the students, such as cancelling the test results of the papers that were leaked, in order to keep the exams “as fair as possible”.
From links circulating on the online forum Reddit, the Post had earlier found the leaked questions and answers for mathematics papers.
Screenshots of a Telegram channel also had links to questions for business management, global politics, mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry.
A downloading site showed that two documents – “Paper 2 Math AA HL” and “Maths AA HL Questions” had been downloaded by more than 17,000 and 18,000 people, respectively, as of Sunday afternoon.
Documents labelled “Business Management Paper 1” and “Global Politics HL Paper 2” had also been downloaded over 8,000 and 2,000 times, respectively.
The exams for the four papers took place between April 26 and May 2.
More than 3,000 people have also signed an online petition urging the IB to cancel this year’s exam or to ensure justice for students who did not read the leaked materials.
The Switzerland-based IB diploma programme, which lasts two years, is an internationally recognised university entrance qualification. It was taken by almost 180,000 students globally last year. Last year, 2,275 pupils sat exams for the programme in Hong Kong, up slightly from 2,213 in 2022.
The IB and Diploma of Secondary Education are the city’s two major university entrance exams.
The 2024 edition of the IB exam is being held between April 24 and May 17.
