Recent students who took the GMAT are fearful about their academic future due to illegal prep help from Topscore.com.

For those of us who haven't yet given much thought to grad school, the GMAT is another standardized test for students planning to get their MBA. Think of it as the business SAT, the gatekeeper to many graduate business programs.

Topscore.com, a popular test prep site, was recently sued and shut down by GMAC (the guys who own GMAT) due to the site's "live GMAT questions." As the story goes, Topscore hired recent GMAT takers to rack their brains and recall questions from the test. The site then offered this information to members who paid a subscription fee.

With the questions being "live," Topscore subscribers were more likely to come across a familiar sight when they took the actual test. Talk about getting some real help.

But did these students know they were walking a fine line of legality? Most of those interviewed claimed they didn't, that they just wanted to prepare best they could.

Putting myself in their shoes, I wouldn't care if questions came from GMATs taken 5 minutes ago or from a Power Rangers cereal box coupon code as long as it would help me get into the business school I sought most.

So, what gives?

GMAC has already laid the hammer down on Topscore – no surprise there. But the real question is what will happen to the students who accessed, and benefitted from, the hot-off-the-presses questions?

As it stands, GMAC scourged Topscore's databases to find information on all the "guilty" subscribers and is currently weighing its options. But hold the phone… how can GMAC discern which students knowingly accessed illegal information and which just wanted more help?

The punishment for those found guilty can range from canceled scores (and thus, the need to retake the test) to being blacklisted. The latter would, in effect, prevent these students from attending business school.

Tough lessons, but ultimately, for the rest of us, lesson learned.

There are tons of prep schools, books, and Web sites out there to guide you toward a better score on standardized tests. But before you jump in, be sure to check sources, disclaimers and terms of use. At Cramster.com, even though we don't deal with standardized test prep, we do help you prepare for other exams, and we let you know that we take learning seriously. Any skepticism about our intentions can be wiped away by reading our anti-cheating policy.

We frown upon what Topscore did, but the jury's out on whether the students were guilty. Here's to the true story coming out.

So what do you think? How should the GMAT "cheaters" be punished, if at all? How would you resolve this situation?