31 people caught cheating in the Korean Language Proficiency Test, the police were called

In the recently held Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), 31 foreign test takers, including two Koreans, were caught as cheaters.

The National Institute for International Education announced that a total of 31 students were treated as cheaters in the TOPIK test held at a school in Gangdong-gu, Seoul on October 17th.

Before the start of the test, they were asked to submit electronic devices, such as cell phones, wireless earphones, and smart watches, once through the broadcast and twice by the supervisor. They were reportedly caught refusing to comply with the request and possessing electronic devices that are not subject to regulations.

However, it was confirmed that there was no actual cheating using electronic devices.

Of the 31 people treated as cheaters, 29 were foreigners, 13 were Chinese and 9 were Vietnamese, and the rest were from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, Egypt and the UK. It was not clear whether the two Koreans were naturalized foreigners.

When the test takers were caught cheating, they raised protests and commotion, and when the organizers were concerned about disruptions in the test operation, they reported it to the police and police officers from nearby districts were dispatched to the test site.

The reason for the protests and commotion that day was when a large number of test takers were caught cheating in a specific exam room and in a specific classroom.

Although cheating is detected due to possession of electronic devices in every exam, this is the first time that so many people have been caught in a single exam room or classroom like this one.

After the test was over, the National Institute for International Education detained them in a separate room to investigate whether they were cheating, but it is said that 30 out of 31 people refused to be investigated by the test headquarters and returned home.

The punishment for these people is simply disregarding the results of this test because they simply possess electronic devices. If you actually use an electronic device to cheat, view other test takers' answers or show your answers to other test takers, cheating, communicating with other people using communication devices, using illegal data, etc. If this is detected, the qualification to take the topic will be suspended for two years.

If you request or take the test on your behalf, your qualification to take the test will be suspended for up to 4 years.

Reading the exam questions before the start of the exam or writing answers outside of exam time will also result in suspension of the exam or invalidation of the exam.

In response, an official from the National Institute of International Education said, “We hope that foreign candidates will take the exam with a clear understanding that the act of possessing electronic devices is strictly punished in Korea. I will convey the facts more clearly.”

In fact, in Korea, even in the university scholastic ability test and civil service test, possession of electronic devices is treated as cheating and the test is invalidated.

Reporter Song Haseong