An AI-Supervised Remote Exam Went So Badly That 58,000 Students Must Retake It
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Earlier this summer, nearly 160,000 applicants took the entrance exam for UNAM, Mexico's largest university. For the first time, they did it completely remotely, using a "lockdown" browser and AI-powered webcam proctoring software, over several weeks from late May through early June. It was a disaster. When exam results came in, they bore…
An unprecedented remote exam for Mexico's largest university, UNAM, went awry, forcing 58,000 students to retake it, according to a recent report. The exam, overseen by AI-powered proctoring software, was conducted remotely from late May to early June. However, the results were far from satisfactory, with a significant increase in top scores.
Historically, only 3.5% of test takers scored 100 or more out of 120 questions; this year, that number rose to 16.3%. Similarly, the percentage of students scoring 110 or more surged from 0.9% to 5.5%. Such a drastic shift led to suspicions of widespread cheating, prompting UNAM to form a technical commission to investigate the matter.
The commission's recommendations call for a "control exam" to be administered, with the aim of ensuring fairness and certainty in the admission process. This control exam will involve a new test, with around 58,000 individuals potentially affected. The rector of UNAM has apologized to the honest applicants, who will now have to prepare and retake the exam.
Classes were initially scheduled to begin on August 10, but the university will have to act swiftly to accommodate the new test requirements.
Written by urgent.news from Slashdot's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
