Some Chinese Students Plan Class Action Against ETS

Some Chinese students are organizing a class action against the Educational Testing Service following its decision to cancel scores on the Graduate Record Examination given in China last month, People's Daily reported. Last week, ETS officials said that they were offering test-takers the option of retaking the test or getting a refund, but the People's Daily article says that many test-takers don't think that enough. ETS said it was forced to take this action because major portions of the test had already been given in previous administrations of the GRE. "Most candidates believe it is not fair for them to have to accept the consequences caused by the mistakes of ETS," the article says. "Some believe that since there were not many candidates who systematically reviewed the original questions, the number of re-examination questions should be reduced or the score of candidates should be counted by combining the scores of the re-examination and the previous examination." A spokesman for ETS told Inside Higher Ed that "students are understandably upset but we are really doing everything in our power to minimize the impact by offering students options, contacting them with information via e-mail and text messaging, establishing a toll-free number notifying universities, providing reimbursements for travel expenses from the 10/23 administration and so forth. We'll see what happens in the future."