Exam cheaters... - Page 2

Agreed.

I think reporting cheating is definitely good. Once you get into the working world, you don't want to have to pick up the slack for incompetent co-workers who only were able to get through school by cheating, right? Or God forbid you end up with a manager like this. Then there's all the time I waste interviewing people who somehow managed to get decent academic qualifications, but it's obvious they don't know crap once you start talking to them.

Not to say I've cheated but I don't see the point of having to memorize pages after pages of retarded poems written by some way dead dude. That's how it was back in my highschool in Vietnam, you pretty much have to memorize some extremely stupid crap (I for once spent a week memorizng a whole book on biology, ended up in an elite school and later found out the school sucked) It does pisses me off when people in my country cheat on the TOEFL though, don't know about the SAT. The proctors were bribed to give a student additional time to do her essay (after we all left the exam, somebody came back to ask for some info and caught them in the act) I reported them to ETS and my score was delayed, later I had to withdraw it because they were going to cancel my score. To me, if the education system's fair, which I think the US system is, I would never cheat.

A girl in my friend's pathology class was got cheating on her final. End of test, end of career. That "us vs. them" mentality exists here in Central America and while it is an aspect of culture, I find it childish. It's not uncommon for my classmates to protest like 4 year-olds against the professor giving us a quiz, test, or lecture material. Awful. Back in high school I remember this kid next to me telling me to move my arm just as we were sitting for a test. The fuck wanted to cheat off me and I told him to go blow a donkey. He ended up cheating off a friend in front of him but there was really nothing I could do to prove it to the teacher. He got back his test and got 5 points higher than me. Prick then bragged to his friends of how he did better than me. Moral of the story is he just got a job a week or two ago. How do I know? My ex is his boss. I love happy endings.

Oh yes, cheating. Let me tell you about my limited experience with cheating. When I was in high school, my pre-calculus professor told us to memorize equations. When he said "memorize" he picked up a calculator in a way as to suggest that we program the formulas into the calculators. Well I did, and it wasn't cheating, since he told us to. It was cheating when I did it in my calculus class adn chemistry class in college. Luckily after one semester I grew up a lot, and I have never, will never, and have never been tempted to do it again.

However, many of my classmates are not as mature. I know one student who cheats in his english class. He has a friend who's sister took the class a year ago, and he just hands in her essays. He cheats in every class, and he does well in college as a cheater.

One time I studied physics with the said cheater's friend. We were studying Gauss' Law and magnetic fields and all kinds of stuff. After a few hours of good studying, we said goodbye and good luck next week on the exam.

Exam day: Exam begins. It is hard as hell (Electricity and Magnetism for those who are interested) and has everything. At 4:30 we have to move to another classroom since there is a class scheduled to meet in the room of our exam. While we are walking over to the other classroom, the friend-of-Cheater walks over to me and asks me what the formula for blah-blah-blah is. I just look at him, laugh, and sit down.

I was just pissed that after studying with the guy he thought I would help him cheat. I was also angry that he would ask me to cheat knowing that my major is physics and to be caught cheating would be acedemic suicide.

There is this mentality I have encountered among people saying that friends should let their friends cheat. This is nonsense; if anything friends should do everything they can to protect the honor and integrity of their own friends.

I can honestly say that every class I have been in has had some form of cheating or another going on. In my chem class there are these two lovers that sit across from me right in front of the fume hood. Since the hood is so loud it is possible for them to whisper to one another without too much difficulty. The funny thing is that neither of them are doing well in the course.

Everyone cheats; I can't stand it. In my math class we take a very difficult exam (Differential Equations). It is the hardest exam of the semester, I received a D on it and I do well in math. It had some problem about deriving a numerical method for solving DE's which caught everyone off gaurd. Cheater uses his homework somehow to cheat. Another girl manages to postpone the exam. Not for a day, but for a week, and it was some BS reason too. Of course she finds a student to give her a copy of the exam and she studies every problem. The funny thing was that she got an 89% on it. I will tell you that if I had a copy of the exam in my hands that I would be scoring a 100%, which is probably why I should never cheat. Guess what happened for the third exam? Same damn thing.

I just live with my own honor and just to retain integrity while other people ultimately cheat themselves out of the education they are paying for. The bottom line is that I understand differential equations, physics, etc. while those other students do not and probably will not without a lot of review and actual work. I don't understand why people pay for school and then cheat; they would better serve their interests by leaving school and entering the work force or something.

Interesting. As for the general aspect of cheating, I don't really care. An honor code is always amusing since I can imagine how many people ignore it.

Only in the US do we have this concept/fiction/ideal that authority figures are there to somehow help us out and do the right thing. In most of the rest of the world they seem to (rightly, I think) assume that people in positions of power are there to screw you out of your hard-earned money. So you may as well screw them back.

Therefore, I would rather be kicked out of the class myself than narc on another student. Maybe its an honor-among-thieves type of thing, a deeply contrarian streak in my personality, or just good old anti-authoritarianism, but I hate the idea of ratting out someone to the police, teachers, IRS, or anybody else.

I don't generally cheat on tests, but not because I think its wrong - the risk/reward payoff doesn't seem high enough. Ironically, I did cheat in high school for even lower stakes, but that was mostly just for the fun of it, to see how much I could get away with.

Wow, I have to say i'm surprised at the responses in this thread. IMO you were in the wrong to have pointed out to the TA that this chick was cheating. I'm a doctoral student and have been in your situation many many times throughout my education. I do understand the points regarding one person affecting the curve and whatnot, but if it is a decent size class and the test wasnt a blowout, this chick cheating probably could not effect your grade to a substantial degree.

Yes you are entitled to every fairness afforded to you, etc, etc, but to be honest, its just a bitch move. Put you head down, concentrate on your own exam and mind your business. If your conscience is eating you up inside, take her aside after class and tell her not to do it again.

Mrr

PS- I've never cheated in my life

Really? I've found the opposite. I was involved in Student Alumni Programming for my school in Toronto and we had a lot of contact with schools all over the Eastern Seaboard. Barring the Ivy League schools I found the standards for excellence and expectations to be higher in Canada.

A.

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Edited by Stazy - 7/15/11 at 7:38am

As a terrible underachiever in high school I cheated a lot. Also had my fair share in college, though I got caught once and was almost asked to leave school.

Looking back, I certainly wish I just studied those damn lessons. It is certainly true what they say: in the end the only person you're cheating is yourself.

Even if the grades are not curved, its usually still graded on some kind of a curve. When I grade exams I look them over first to get an idea of the spread of answers given (for short answer or essays, I look can be considered an A, what a B should be, etc). If people are giving great answers because their cheating and your answer is mediocre in comparison, your probably going to get a lower grade then them. Just something to think about. The TA should have done more, I certainly would have.
Grad.

When I was in school I also noticed that mostly *Asian girls* were the most prolific cheaters.

In my opinion, the original poster is a self righteous prick.

Dude, it's completely fine if you personally dont cheat and dont respect cheaters, good for you and more power to you. But it really is none of your business that this girl was cheating. If you knew she was cheating off of you then you have a right to call her out (cause she could then get you in shit too) but she had her own strategy and it was not your call to try to screw her.

Would you rat someone out who was drinking at a bar underage?

A friend of mine asked me this morning if I'd call her cell in the middle of the test and read out notes of hers while she wore an earpiece in her final. Unbelievable.