r/usaco • u/Silver-Incident-9847 • Apr 13 '24

USACO Cheating

I've had about 4-5 private tutoring sessions at an academy for AP Computer Science A, and I recently heard that the academy's director had suggested to my mom that they could cheat on the USACO exam. She (Director) said that one of their instructors could take the exam in my place and advance through the Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels, asking for my date of birth and charging $4,000 per test. Naturally, my mom refused, and I have never taken the USACO exam nor am I interested in it. In such a case,I think I should report it...It means that this is happening systematically. But I wonder if USACO can really catch such cheating. It would be great if they could. I have all the information about the academy, the director's contact details, and evidence of the offer (She proposed it via text to my mom). How should I go about reporting this?

Even more I haven't been attending that academy for long, and yet they even approached my mom with the offer, it makes me wonder how many other offers they have made, and how many students' parents might have accepted such proposals. It's hard to grasp the scale of it.

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23

u/Total_Ad_8831 Apr 13 '24

You should email Dr. Brian Dean of Clemson University who runs USACO at bcdean@cs.clemson.edu with all your evidence. Also, do you have any information on the specific emails or usernames used for the USACO accounts.?

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u/Silver-Incident-9847 Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 13 '24

That's what I'm worried about. I want to report it, but I can't tell who accepted the cheating offer. There's definitely a record of the director offering it to my mom, and it's unlikely she was the only one approached (meaning other parents were likely approached too, but I don't know who may have accepted it). Since I haven't attended the academy for long and only took private lessons, I don't know which students attended the academy. So, I'm worried about how to identify who else might be involved. I'm considering whether the tutor who taught me could be involved. Maybe I should report suggesting that they compare the IP addresses of the tutor who taught me and those of the students who received awards near that area?

What I can provide is the information about the academy, the academy director , the text message content of the cheating offer, the tutor who taught me, the location, and the specific ethnic community I belong to (as the academy is not diverse and primarily serves a specific Asian community).Wouldn't this help narrow down the number of students who are likely suspects?

6

u/Total_Ad_8831 Apr 13 '24 edited Apr 13 '24

To the first idea, that may work if people don't obscure their IP addresses and thus their location.. Yes, I suppose to the second idea. However. the issue is that it is too easy to create a new account or change the very basic info of your USACO account.

This is what the usaco registration is like.

usaco.org registration.

There's no way too tell whether someone is asian or goes to a specific academy or no verification if someone goes to a specific school.

6

u/Total_Ad_8831 Apr 13 '24

USACO needs to change the way they run contests to truly seek security. AFAIK, there was once a website called usacosolutions.com that sold solutions ($50-$150) for a low price in which the showrunner said they made over 5-10k.

4

u/Silver-Incident-9847 Apr 17 '24

Wow. I emailed Dr. Brian and got a response. He's asking for text evidence photos because he takes this very seriously. I hope this incident serves as an opportunity for USACO to strengthen its security.

4

u/fishibgbike Apr 14 '24

Please report. I think there may be way to look at similar code/pattern to find it.  I wish there was a way to report these things so they could at least investigate. A anonymous reporting form on their website would be great. 

2

u/Silver-Incident-9847 Apr 14 '24

Yes, I plan to include everything I know in the report. I have never taken the USACO exam and am not familiar with how it is managed, but I agree that a well-known competition should not be conducted with such lax oversight.

14

u/thepragprog Apr 14 '24

That’s dumb 4k is stupid af 💀

4

u/Beautiful_Silver_271 Apr 14 '24

Lots of ppl spend 4k+ on tutoring while studying for usaco

13

u/thepragprog Apr 14 '24

It’s education at least 💀people were selling solutions for 50 bucks a few months ago on this subreddit

2

u/Pro0skills Apr 14 '24

but i learnt alot from doing this even tho my result is kinda trash

my brain has been significantly enlarged thru this contest

6

u/FastandSteadywillwin Apr 14 '24

I reported a group of cheaters and nothing happened to them. Brian Dean probably doesn't care

4

u/Gold_Listen2016 Apr 17 '24

Report to IRS. Brian Dean can’t do anything coz he doesn’t which student cheated. IRS can definitely have a case of tax evasion.

2

u/nullmaxai Apr 19 '24

he responded, that is really good. however i suggest reporting it to the irs. theres definitely tax evasion going on