I figured I would make a reply since I have a background in both the commercial and Navy programs.
The fact that there are large cheating rings does not surprise me in the least. This occurred almost blatantly on the submarine that I served on. Qualification exams would be given to people to take in their racks and the monthly exams would have an answer sheet passed around. I refused to cheat several times and failed the test and got counseled. The problem is that it is both systemic and administrative. The existence of cheating has gone on for a long time, but the SAT process (with cheating) makes each exam harder and harder, which positively reinforces cheating. Additionally, the fact that the Navy uses essay-form answers instead of multiple choice answers ensures that test writers start getting nit-picky. In order to still meet the SAT criteria (which I am no expert on), they write the answers in bits of keyword phrases that you need to answer. Forget a phrase, you lose 0.5 points. A more important phrase, 1.0 points, and so on. Often these are complete bulls@#t. If you had to answer a physics problem with a numerical solution, you might lose points if you didn't explain (even though the question didn't explicitly ask) why it was relevant and what it meant. It is completely insane. I am convinced that everybody in the chain of command is aware of this, including the EDMC (99%), Engineer (90%), and Captain (75%). They all review the tests and look at the bullshit questions and answer keys. They know what is going on. They are simply playing a game to meet their SAT requirements so that no major discrepancies are found on inspection.
As far as the operations side of the nuclear industry (where I've worked), the process was the complete opposite. The exams were given with proctors, the questions were multiple choice (open book), and you had to study your continuing training material to pass it (or in the case of initial training, closed book). I think the independence of the training department is the reason for the greater integrity. You can't cheat, you'll be caught. I should also note that my initial Navy training was administered similarly to how the commercial training programs worked. It surprises me that these articles talk about cheating in the initial training programs in the Navy since the real cheating occurs when you are on the ship.
The solution for the Navy has an easy and a hard part. The easy part is to use proctors. Every test must be proctored. The hard part is composed of two parts. First, the current exam banks are probably shit, so some independent review to make them reasonable is needed. The second part is that training and operations can't be separated as easily. Perhaps including one nuclear officer and chief to focus simply on training would help. Personally, I would include civilian SROs or SRO-certs who have worked in training in that team.
TL;DR: the civilian world (as far as I can tell) is fine, but the Navy is f@#$%d.
Edit: I should also note that the logical question you might ask of my post would be "how do you get enough failures for the SAT process to work when everybody is cheating?" The answer is that the tests are so long that there is a limited time to write your answer and read the passed around answer sheet (which doesn't occur on every test based on the 'pseudo-proctor'. The smarter sailors will still score better because they have less to correct.) I'm guessing that my post sounds insane, but I'm pretty sure if some other submariners spoke up, you would see that it isn't. But to be fair, it has been over a decade since I was in so things might be different today.
Modified for language
Nukeworker Rule #6
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