This is a good point. I had thought that my high school grades were extremely high stakes, even though they weren't. Of course, now I know how silly I was. If the stakes weren't so high, I wonder if I would have been more tempted to cheat to get more free time. I think not, but no way to know for sure because can't run that experiment anymore.
On the other hand, in countries with huge populations like China and India, it seems that cheating is rampant because the stakes are so high? Can't recall what happens in India, but in China, the university you're allowed to choose is limited based on your final gaokao (high school examination) score. That in turn also determines what you're allowed to study, and that in turn determines what kind of jobs you can get when you graduate.
Pressure exists because it all comes down to a single score. But on the other hand, because of the scale of the population, I imagine it becomes an issue of efficiency. If it didn't come down to a single score, can't imagine the monstrosity that would be the admissions process for all the top universities. For example, I hear about Canadian universities that now say they don't prioritize GPA; they'll consider extra-curricular activities and so on too. Good luck with that if your admission applications explode a hundredfold.
So like someone else commented in this thread, the many become suspected instead. One department at my alma mater decided that GRE scores were not reflective of quality of students coming from China for masters degrees. So they threw GRE out the window and decided to only look at students that came from top ten universities in China when it came to Chinese student applications.
As with most things, the issue is multi-faceted and complicated.
I've heard about plenty of people who won large payouts in the lottery, it doesn't mean I'd go to them for financial advice. Places that rely on a single test or data point create perverse incentives to inflate the data point. I was a fairly intelligent student throughout most of my school career, but I flunked more than one class in college because of bad teachers who were incapable of teaching the subject matter(There was a single student who passed with a C in that class every other student failed, I passed easily with a different teacher) or real life issues taking priority (working a full time job distracts from grades). I agree with your statement that the issue is complicated, but perhaps some things shouldn't be simplified.
On the other hand, in countries with huge populations like China and India, it seems that cheating is rampant because the stakes are so high? Can't recall what happens in India, but in China, the university you're allowed to choose is limited based on your final gaokao (high school examination) score. That in turn also determines what you're allowed to study, and that in turn determines what kind of jobs you can get when you graduate.
Pressure exists because it all comes down to a single score. But on the other hand, because of the scale of the population, I imagine it becomes an issue of efficiency. If it didn't come down to a single score, can't imagine the monstrosity that would be the admissions process for all the top universities. For example, I hear about Canadian universities that now say they don't prioritize GPA; they'll consider extra-curricular activities and so on too. Good luck with that if your admission applications explode a hundredfold.
So like someone else commented in this thread, the many become suspected instead. One department at my alma mater decided that GRE scores were not reflective of quality of students coming from China for masters degrees. So they threw GRE out the window and decided to only look at students that came from top ten universities in China when it came to Chinese student applications.
As with most things, the issue is multi-faceted and complicated.