Mr. Kim, 37, is a tutor at a private language academy in Gangnam. At 3:00 p.m. on Jan. 24 of last year, he was hovering outside an SAT Reasoning Test (SAT) test center in Thailand. He waited for the test to end, and when a Thai test taker came out of the room, Kim gave him 50 baht (around 15,000 Won) in exchange for the test paper.

He went immediately to a nearby Internet cafe and completed the test in about two hours. Then he scanned the test, complete with answers, and sent it by email. At that very moment, two Korean students were waiting in the U.S. state of Connecticut, on the other side of the world. They were waiting to take the same test 12 hours later. Despite studying in the U.S., they felt they needed a tutor, so they came back to South Korea and paid tutor fees of 300,000 to 400,000 Won per class, taking over ten classes each.

They were finally caught, however. On Jan 18, the police arrested Kim for obtaining the test paper and sending it to his students to boost their scores. The police, who had suspected these tutors who charge several million Won per student, finally revealed their dishonest nature.

Kim was known in the Gangnam private academy world as a teacher doing well for himself, with an annual salary of 120 million Won, but in fact, his secret was the illegal acquisition of the test papers in Thailand. The students who were a part of this incident reportedly scored over 2200 out of 2400 and are now studying at prestigious universities in the U.S.

The crime plays on the fact that while the SAT questions are the same in all countries, the test-taking times are different due to time zone differences. In fact, students in Thailand take the test 12 hours before students in the U.S. The test supervisors, the ECT College Board, ban test takers from taking the exam outside the testing venue. Kim, however, took advantage of the fact that in Southeast Asian nations like Thailand, control over the test questions is loose.

Noting that Kim taught about 20 students and that such high-priced tutors are also prevalent at other schools, police at Suseo Police Station plan to expand their investigation.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]