Is It Cheating?

[bioman1275]

Is it considered cheating to get old Organic Chemistry tests from a friend who had my professor to use as a study guide? I know most professor mix and match questions from old exams or write new ones each semester, so odds are I wouldn't get the same exam from last semester.

What are your opinions?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deleted407021]

What do you think? Are you honestly trying to learn the material or are you just trying to get a grade?

I'll say that - generally speaking - when professors allow students to keep old exams, they are planning on writing something different because they know how students try to get around things.

 

[bioman1275]

What do you think? Are you honestly trying to learn the material or are you just trying to get a grade?

I'll say that - generally speaking - when professors allow students to keep old exams, they are planning on writing something different because they know how students try to get around things.

I mean I need to know this stuff, so its not for just the grade. Id like to know how he asks things before the first exam as well.

 

[efle]

Personally, I think it's unethical to use anything which is not also available to the other students you will be curved against. If a prof provides the entire class access to old exams for practice, awesome. If only you and a few others happen to have these exams for practice via greek life or some other connection, and nobody else will have this ability to see question style ahead of time (even if all content is changed), it is very clearly dishonest.

 

[Kochanie]

Considering he uses the same questions from old exams (which is pretty lazy of him tbh).... Does he give out old exams as practice? If not, probably yes.

 

[JBDoctor35]

If I have a chance to get an old test, I ask my professor before and see if it's okay to use that as study material. Never get on a professor's bad side! Not a good idea.

 

[efle]

No professor is dumb enough to say "no you can't use that to study" and actually expect it to prevent people from using it to study. Really this is about making sure the prof is aware their old material is being circulated among a lucky few so they can make it available to everyone and keep a level playing field.

And any prof who is too lazy to write new questions after finding out some students have access ahead of time should get hit by a bus or stub their toe, something karma ish.

 

[bioman1275]

Considering he uses the same questions from old exams (which is pretty lazy of him tbh).... Does he give out old exams as practice? If not, probably yes.

I highly doubt he would use the same questions from last semester. like he would probably take questions from semesters ago and add new ones. A lot of professors do that though.

 

[Hospitalized]

I dunno that it's cheating, it just sucks that you have a lazy teacher. Honestly, it's irresponsible by them. Usually teachers who reuse tests don't hand back their exams to avoid this. In my opinion, if you have access to the answers of a test and you are still learning the material well, use it to your advantage. It's ultimately up to you and whether or not you think it is ethical. If you are going to study with it, I wouldn't go around shouting it on the rooftops, but if people you are acquainted with ask, you can tell them with no ramifications I would think.

Believe it or not, it's actually a valuable communication skill to ask students who have taken another professor about how the class was run, how point were allocated, curve, how to prepare for lectures/quizzes/tests, and so on. If part of that communication involves you receiving an old test that will help you succeed on his future tests, then so be it. At the very least, you will have mastered those problems. I would never swear by an old test though, teachers DO change their habits My biochem teacher that I'm taking in the near future supposedly formerly reused tests but now he has completely changed the format. I guess that he did it on the final for last semesters class and the average plummeted to a D.

I don't see how you could ever get in trouble in your situation. Say the teacher does find out you are using an old test to study with, what does that prove? He's lazy? Student's actually talk about their classes with one another? Do you really think they will go to the dean and say "Well I've been using this same test over and over for the last three years.." Probably not.

 

[efle]

I highly doubt he would use the same questions from last semester. like he would probably take questions from semesters ago and add new ones. A lot of professors do that though.

If a single thing you see on the exam is directly similar to what you, and only you, got to see ahead of time, I would hope you'd have trouble sleeping. In a curved, competitive course like Ochem it is a total betrayal of your responsibilities as a student to accept that kind of advantage.

Honestly even if some questions are similar but not identical (a bromine instead of a chlorine etc) it shouldn't sit right with you

 

[efle]

I don't see how you could ever get in trouble in your situation. Say the teacher does find out you are using an old test to study with, what does that prove?

If copying/sneaking out the original exams was without prof permission and was a violation of academic integrity, then using them with knowledge that they were not being provided to the class could also count as cheating in the eyes of a review board.

Sucks when profs are bad and lazy. Doesn't excuse AI violations or knowingly benefiting from others past AI violations.

 

[HowTragic]

I've had this happen before when I was taking Organic Chemistry. Apparently everyone in the class except me had the networking to get entire years of past exams (3 midterms/ semester) for the previous 3 years that someone's big brother/sister saved. I studied my ass off and failed miserably, while the class average was uncannily high because the exam closely resembled one he gave two years ago that everyone except me had access to. Needless to say, the subsequent painz, miseryz and tearz that I suffered through in order to raise my grade was of no laughable magnitude.
When I accidentally brought this up while talking to a doctor who used to be an interviewer for the application process, he expressed an unfavorable reaction towards having this sneaky advantage. Though to be clear, this is not "cheating" so to speak, but is still considered "unethical".

From a pragmatic point of view, no one will know that you had this resources, and it will surely be an advantage GPA-wise, which is pretty much what everyone sees (and cares about) at a first glance. So I say screw it, just use it and keep quiet about it. Networking pays off, whether we see it or not.

 

[cidem2065]

Personally, I think it's unethical to use anything which is not also available to the other students you will be curved against. If a prof provides the entire class access to old exams for practice, awesome. If only you and a few others happen to have these exams for practice via greek life or some other connection, and nobody else will have this ability to see question style ahead of time (even if all content is changed), it is very clearly dishonest.

The professor has probably been doing this long enough to know that letting students keep a taken exam makes it fair game for study material. If you get it through a connection can you assume the rest of the class is obtaining it by their own, separate connections?

Also, the class might not be on a curve which does change things a little.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

Everyone at Wash U gets old exams from their older friends. It gives you more practice problems, which helps with pretty much every science prereq. Because Wash U science profs write different exams every year (orgo and gen chem better than bio), it's fine because you won't get an A from just memorizing the answer keys to all the old exams.

 

[efle]

Everyone at Wash U gets old exams from their older friends. It gives you more practice problems, which helps with pretty much every science prereq. Because Wash U science profs write different exams every year (orgo and gen chem better than bio), it's fine because you won't get an A from just memorizing the answer keys to all the old exams.

I don't think its completely typical to get 3-5 years of past exams for practice and all original, critical thinking oriented questions on exams like we do though. Lots of places being the only person with access to prior tests gives you a huge and totally unfair advantage for test content and question style while the rest of the class is flying blind and guessing at what/how to study. I've certainly seen this in some 300+ level courses where a friend having recently taken the class and giving tips on what to study boosts someone from a C on the first test to an A on the second one, with no change in time spent studying. Heck even being told whether to focus on the readings or lecture ppts can cut your study time in half for the same grade.

If you get it through a connection can you assume the rest of the class is obtaining it by their own, separate connections?

Also, the class might not be on a curve which does change things a little.

You certainly can't assume this, often times greek life do a very good job of containing within their members. And if it's to the point where many many people have access, you really need the prof to make it directly available to everyone or you'll see a completely unfair and bimodal exam distribution.

Pretty safe to assume OChem is on a curve isn't it?

 

[mehc012]

No professor is dumb enough to say "no you can't use that to study" and actually expect it to prevent people from using it to study.

The profs at my undergrad would...and nobody would use it to study. Kind of like when they'd tell people that the exams were take-home, but asked us to take them closed note and abide by the time limitations.

And any prof who is too lazy to write new questions after finding out some students have access ahead of time should get hit by a bus or stub their toe, something karma ish.

Totally agree with this, though. It's even lazier than writing a purely MC exam.

On a humorous note, one year (not at my alma mater, but during my postbacc) the prof found out that some students had gotten a copy of the exam from one of the earlier sections of the course. He simply rewrote the exams without telling anyone, and then asked our section to keep it quiet so that the students in question would come in cocky and underprepared (having simply memorized the answers instead of learning the material).

 

[efle]

The profs at my undergrad would...and nobody would use it to study. Kind of like when they'd tell people that the exams were take-home, but asked us to take them closed note and abide by the time limitations.

Totally agree with this, though. It's even lazier than writing a purely MC exam.

On a humorous note, one year (not at my alma mater, but during my postbacc) the prof found out that some students had gotten a copy of the exam from one of the earlier sections of the course. He simply rewrote the exams without telling anyone, and then asked our section to keep it quiet so that the students in question would come in cocky and underprepared (having simply memorized the answers instead of learning the material).

Jeez you must be somewhere with a legit honor system like Wash&Lee or something. People actually doing a take-home exam within a time limit is a pipe dream most places

Sweet justice, that's my kind of prof. I had a high school calc teacher who realized one group had found a pdf of the answer manual for a project of solving challenge problems (they were dumb enough to copy identically). Asked them to do a much simpler version of one of their problems in front of the class and they couldn't even start...awkward but so brutally satisfying

 

[altblue]

How about old tests on public web-sites (like those weird college note databases that people upload things to)?

I'm seriously considering using those. I don't think it's unethical, since new tests are made, and the sites relatively well known and very easy to find, but I don't want to break copyright law.

 

[efle]

How about old tests on public web-sites (like those weird college note databases that people upload things to)?

I'm seriously considering using those. I don't think it's unethical, since new tests are made, and the sites relatively well known and very easy to find, but I don't want to break copyright law.

That seems fine to me since anybody can use it. My issue is when, for example, people on a certain sports team or in greek life internally share old exams nobody else has access to.

 

[efle]

The problem with this stuff is never that it's wrong to study off old test material, it's that it's wrong to beat out other students for a limited number of high marks based on insider advantage instead of better mind & ethic

 

[mehc012]

Jeez you must be somewhere with a legit honor system like Wash&Lee or something. People actually doing a take-home exam within a time limit is a pipe dream most places

Sweet justice, that's my kind of prof. I had a high school calc teacher who realized one group had found a pdf of the answer manual for a project of solving challenge problems (they were dumb enough to copy identically). Asked them to do a much simpler version of one of their problems in front of the class and they couldn't even start...awkward but so brutally satisfying

Nah, nobody ever really mentioned an honor code. I guess there was a paragraph on the cover sheets of some of the exams or something. But nobody ever really mentioned cheating, either. It just wasn't done. Over 50% of my exams were timed closed-note take-homes. For finals, there had to be some official structure, so you'd sign them out of the registrars office and had either 2 or 24hrs to return them, plus like 15min extra for the 2hrs to find a place to take them. If you started disallowing closed-note takehomes, the entire structure of finals period would change drastically!
I think it's mostly cuz it was a small libarts place with tiny classes. A) the profs already kind of knew how well you knew the material/could think, B) no curve, and C) it is really hard to disrespect a prof who you know very well - and cheating is absolutely disrespectful.

I mean, imagine going to the pub with the chem department while feeling guilty over cheating, or eating Thanksgiving dinner with their families and kids thinking "I'm thankful that your mom was crazy enough to trust me to be a decent human being," or traveling with them. One of my profs regularly brewed the beer for department events...you can't drink a man's beer and then lie to his face!

 

[Ace Khalifa]

I don't think its completely typical to get 3-5 years of past exams for practice and all original, critical thinking oriented questions on exams like we do though. Lots of places being the only person with access to prior tests gives you a huge and totally unfair advantage for test content and question style while the rest of the class is flying blind and guessing at what/how to study. I've certainly seen this in some 300+ level courses where a friend having recently taken the class and giving tips on what to study boosts someone from a C on the first test to an A on the second one, with no change in time spent studying. Heck even being told whether to focus on the readings or lecture ppts can cut your study time in half for the same grade.

Asking your friends for help and study tips is perfectly fine and to be expected. Do you really think people should just walk into a class blind and not know what to study? That's the equivalent of applying to med schools without using the MSAR, which I know YOU think is blasphemy. That's also the equivalent of going into M1 year without asking all the M2's how to study for each block/subject or how to thrive at that specific med school. I always ask the people who have done the things before me so I can get a good sense of what to prepare for. That's called being an effective communicator. And I always give advice to my younger college friends who take the same classes I took. That's called being a good teacher. Life isn't just about academics; connections and networking matter a lot too.

 

[altblue]

Nah, nobody ever really mentioned an honor code. I guess there was a paragraph on the cover sheets of some of the exams or something. But nobody ever really mentioned cheating, either. It just wasn't done. Over 50% of my exams were timed closed-note take-homes. For finals, there had to be some official structure, so you'd sign them out of the registrars office and had either 2 or 24hrs to return them, plus like 15min extra for the 2hrs to find a place to take them. If you started disallowing closed-note takehomes, the entire structure of finals period would change drastically!
I think it's mostly cuz it was a small libarts place with tiny classes. A) the profs already kind of knew how well you knew the material/could think, B) no curve, and C) it is really hard to disrespect a prof who you know very well - and cheating is absolutely disrespectful.

I mean, imagine going to the pub with the chem department while feeling guilty over cheating, or eating Thanksgiving dinner with their families and kids thinking "I'm thankful that your mom was crazy enough to trust me to be a decent human being," or traveling with them. One of my profs regularly brewed the beer for department events...you can't drink a man's beer and then lie to his face!

Things like the honor code and closeness of everyone make me wish I had gone to a LAC or small uni, though I know it's probably not the same for all of them.

I feel like a nameless face at my school, lol...

 

[Pusheen]

Nah, nobody ever really mentioned an honor code. I guess there was a paragraph on the cover sheets of some of the exams or something. But nobody ever really mentioned cheating, either. It just wasn't done. Over 50% of my exams were timed closed-note take-homes. For finals, there had to be some official structure, so you'd sign them out of the registrars office and had either 2 or 24hrs to return them, plus like 15min extra for the 2hrs to find a place to take them. If you started disallowing closed-note takehomes, the entire structure of finals period would change drastically!
I think it's mostly cuz it was a small libarts place with tiny classes. A) the profs already kind of knew how well you knew the material/could think, B) no curve, and C) it is really hard to disrespect a prof who you know very well - and cheating is absolutely disrespectful.

I mean, imagine going to the pub with the chem department while feeling guilty over cheating, or eating Thanksgiving dinner with their families and kids thinking "I'm thankful that your mom was crazy enough to trust me to be a decent human being," or traveling with them. One of my profs regularly brewed the beer for department events...you can't drink a man's beer and then lie to his face!

Whoa, that's crazy! I go to a religious university and even we don't have stuff like that. I wouldnt have a problem with it myself, but it would drive me nuts that other people might be cheating, and let's be real, there will always be someone. It just seems like too high of stakes to just leave up to the honor of a bunch of random classmates, esp in a curved class.

 

[efle]

Asking your friends for help and study tips is perfectly fine and to be expected. Do you really think people should just walk into a class blind and not know what to study? That's the equivalent of applying to med schools without using the MSAR, which I know YOU think is blasphemy. That's also the equivalent of going into M1 year without asking all the M2's how to study for each block/subject or how to thrive at that specific med school. I always ask the people who have done the things before me so I can get a good sense of what to prepare for. That's called being an effective communicator. And I always give advice to my younger college friends who take the same classes I took. That's called being a good teacher. Life isn't just about academics; connections and networking matter a lot too.

Oh I have no problem with talking to other people about how best to study, because anybody can go to TA/prof hours or ask other students and get advice on this. I was trying to say that the advantage this sort of insight gives is huge and so being the only person with extra access to it is unfair/unethical. Life isn't about getting an A because you saw some of Larson's old bio vocab questions that were not in the provided practice tests most people were limited to, either.Take care when you refer to The Great Dataset, for It must not be angered.

Over 50% of my exams were timed closed-note take-homes.

Things like the honor code and closeness of everyone make me wish I had gone to a LAC or small uni, though I know it's probably not the same for all of them.

I feel like a nameless face at my school, lol...

Yeah there's plenty of LACs where students feel bored and stranded all the time too. Grass is always greener

 

[mehc012]

Whoa, that's crazy! I go to a religious university and even we don't have stuff like that. I wouldnt have a problem with it myself, but it would drive me nuts that other people might be cheating, and let's be real, there will always be someone. It just seems like too high of stakes to just leave up to the honor of a bunch of random classmates, esp in a curved class.

See, that's the thing. Nobody even worried about it, talked about it, gossiped about someone getting away with something, etc. It just...wasn't an issue. Period. I spent 4yrs there and never once heard a whisper of a rumor of someone cheating. You are right that the lack of a curve helps, but yeah, I actually strongly feel that there wasn't someone, at least in the courses I took.

 

[efle]

See, that's the thing. Nobody even worried about it, talked about it, gossiped about someone getting away with something, etc. It just...wasn't an issue. Period. I spent 4yrs there and never once heard a whisper of a rumor of someone cheating. You are right that the lack of a curve helps, but yeah, I actually strongly feel that there wasn't someone, at least in the courses I took.

I think, at a college without curved coursework and over half of exams as take-home, you had an academic experience completely alien to the rest of us

 

[Spirit of the Student Doc]

Personally, I think it's unethical to use anything which is not also available to the other students you will be curved against. If a prof provides the entire class access to old exams for practice, awesome. If only you and a few others happen to have these exams for practice via greek life or some other connection, and nobody else will have this ability to see question style ahead of time (even if all content is changed), it is very clearly dishonest.

I think no problem.......... I mean the it's just study material, the actual questions will be different. I've asked teachers for practice questions before and came out better for it.

 

[sliceofbread136]

I used solution manuals for homeworks all the time without a second thought. It would be the same for an old test I would think

 

[Dr Van Helsing]

I would study the test so long as I did not use it as a crutch.

 

[poopsicle]

Using past exams is a smart way to study.

 

[Kochanie]

I highly doubt he would use the same questions from last semester. like he would probably take questions from semesters ago and add new ones. A lot of professors do that though.

Wow that makes it so much harder! No, no professor does that at my school, they give us all the previous exams and we still fail (lol). And they say all universities are of the same rigor. But regardless, if that's how you get by, don't expect to do so well on the MCAT.

 

[theriomorphos]

.

 

[Kochanie]

Using past exams is a smart way to study.

Study =/= Memorizing Answers

 

[Mad Jack]

It isn't cheating. A professor that lets students keep prior exams generally uses new questions each new exam. You would learn the style of your professor's tests and the likely mix of questions and nothing more.

 

[Low Flow]

I would say no. Practice problems are practice problems, regardless of their origin. Especially for Organic, I'm sure you'd see similar wording/format if you answered the end-of-the-chapter questions. Although, the definition of cheating is "to act unfairly or dishonestly in order to gain an advantage". This could be seen as an advantage to those students who don't have a friend with the previous exams.

 

[poopsicle]

Study =/= Memorizing Answers

Depends on how you use them. Memorizing the answers just brushes the surface of how useful past exams can be to a student.

 

[bioman1275]

Study =/= Memorizing Answers

Its not about memorizing the answers, its about learning how a professor asks questions. How he expects problems to be worked out. Its about knowing how he tests and how he grades, not the answer to #6 is C.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

It's not cheating, but it's an unfair advantage that others may not have.

What do you think? Are you honestly trying to learn the material or are you just trying to get a grade?

I'll say that - generally speaking - when professors allow students to keep old exams, they are planning on writing something different because they know how students try to get around things.

Being completely fair most of the nit picky material that most professors like to test in detail will be gone from your head by the end of summer break. It's just the way it is, so the argument to some extent is inherently flawed and a tad simplistic. The whole, cheaters don't win in life thing to me always seemed like a very backward way of addressing an already corrupted system of education based less on personal enrichment and education and more on grades and minimal standards/benchmarks.


That being said, I tend to believe that those who put their heart into the education and see it as the main goal and not as a set of obstacles that need to be surmounted tend to also be the more successful.

 

[efle]

Some weird responses in here, like saying its not cheating but is gaining unfair advantage, or that profs would be fine with it since they give out old exams. In the former, that's the definition of cheating, and in the latter, if the profs gave the class old exams I'd agree but OP said it's through a past student.

Anyway OP should just think about how they'd feel if they studied their ass off, got a 50, and then saw the score distribution was bimodal and a small group of people had gotten ~80s, then found out it was because they alone had access to extremely similar practice exams. If that would feel unfair to you, you have your answer.

 

[cidem2065]

Some weird responses in here, like saying its not cheating but is gaining unfair advantage, or that profs would be fine with it since they give out old exams. In the former, that's the definition of cheating, and in the latter, if the profs gave the class old exams I'd agree but OP said it's through a past student.

Anyway OP should just think about how they'd feel if they studied their ass off, got a 50, and then saw the score distribution was bimodal and a small group of people had gotten ~80s, then found out it was because they alone had access to extremely similar practice exams. If that would feel unfair to you, you have your answer.

If that happens then maybe you should have been more resourceful. If the professor doesn't take back the exams then they're fair game. This is the internet age and even though you get a back exam from a friend a quick google search could have just as well resulted in the same material. Why limit your learning potential?

 

[efle]

If that happens then maybe you should have been more resourceful. If the professor doesn't take back the exams then they're fair game. This is the internet age and even though you get a back exam from a friend a quick google search could have just as well resulted in the same material. Why limit your learning potential?

Completely disagree with this. Here's a good example. In my summer physics class, a few students found the instructor version of the answer manual, showing both even and odd HW solutions, on some torrent site. Nowhere legit/legal offers this. Our homeworks included both odd and even problems, and were scored for correctness as part of a curved final grade.

Do you really think it was fair for those students to be able to check their homework to ensure a 100% score, while everyone else could only comfirm the right answer on odds and often made mistakes on the evens? In my view, what they did was wrong and gave only them an advantage, and telling everyone else they should have been more resourceful is a load of crap.

 

[Dr Van Helsing]

Completely disagree with this. Here's a good example. In my summer physics class, a few students found the instructor version of the answer manual, showing both even and odd HW solutions, on some torrent site. Nowhere legit/legal offers this. Our homeworks included both odd and even problems, and were scored for correctness as part of a curved final grade.

Do you really think it was fair for those students to be able to check their homework to ensure a 100% score, while everyone else could only comfirm the right answer on odds and often made mistakes on the evens? In my view, what they did was wrong and gave only them an advantage, and telling everyone else they should have been more resourceful is a load of crap.

In some libraries you can rent the instructor version of the book. Not saying that was okay, but keep that in mind.

 

[efle]

In some libraries you can rent the instructor version of the book. Not saying that was okay, but keep that in mind.

Not in this case, I checked, the solutions manual the prof provided to the library was the student edition with only odd answers, which is also what can be found online on legit sites.

 

[Dr Van Helsing]

Not in this case, I checked, the solutions manual the prof provided to the library was the student edition with only odd answers, which is also what can be found online on legit sites.

Yeah then that was pretty unethical. You should have reported them for IA.

 

[cidem2065]

Completely disagree with this. Here's a good example. In my summer physics class, a few students found the instructor version of the answer manual, showing both even and odd HW solutions, on some torrent site. Nowhere legit/legal offers this. Our homeworks included both odd and even problems, and were scored for correctness as part of a curved final grade.

Do you really think it was fair for those students to be able to check their homework to ensure a 100% score, while everyone else could only comfirm the right answer on odds and often made mistakes on the evens? In my view, what they did was wrong and gave only them an advantage, and telling everyone else they should have been more resourceful is a load of crap.

So part of your grade involved homework that you could check your answers for, but only 50% of the questions? That's just odd.

Pun intended.

 

[efle]

Yeah then that was pretty unethical. You should have reported them for IA.

I don't know if they actually could get an IA over it since nowhere in any syllabus etc did it say the full answer manual was off-limits, the teacher just assumed it was inaccessible to us. I ended up downloading a torrent copy and sending it as an attachment in an anonymous email telling the prof it was available online to those who knew how to look. Pretty sure he ended up just using our exam scores for letter grades since my grade reflected my exam average a lot better than my overall exam+hw average.

So part of your grade involved homework that you could check your answers for, but only 50% of the questions? That's just odd.

Pun intended.

Good one! Yeah and the odd and even problems were often similar so people usually got high grades (85ish), but these guys definitely benefited from getting near perfect on every homework.

 

[cidem2065]

Good one! Yeah and the odd and even problems were often similar so people usually got high grades (85ish), but these guys definitely benefited from getting near perfect on every homework.

Sure but if the expectation is that you can clarify 50% of an assignment why shouldn't you be able to check the rest (in theory)? Torrenting material is going a bit far but it's out there and theoretically anyone could have done it. The fact that there's a class curve here is a pain. I think the fairness burden lies on the professor in better homework/grading design or simply a line in the syllabus that says "no internet sources for homework."

 

[sliceofbread136]

Completely disagree with this. Here's a good example. In my summer physics class, a few students found the instructor version of the answer manual, showing both even and odd HW solutions, on some torrent site. Nowhere legit/legal offers this. Our homeworks included both odd and even problems, and were scored for correctness as part of a curved final grade.

Do you really think it was fair for those students to be able to check their homework to ensure a 100% score, while everyone else could only comfirm the right answer on odds and often made mistakes on the evens? In my view, what they did was wrong and gave only them an advantage, and telling everyone else they should have been more resourceful is a load of crap.

I see this as more of a mistake of the professor than a fault if the students. Maybe it's because I view graded homework as a waste of time, but I would have no problem with other students using a torrented instruction manual, and would likely use it myself.

 

[efle]

Sure but if the expectation is that you can clarify 50% of an assignment why shouldn't you be able to check the rest (in theory)? Torrenting material is going a bit far but it's out there and theoretically anyone could have done it. The fact that there's a class curve here is a pain. I think the fairness burden lies on the professor in better homework/grading design or simply a line in the syllabus that says "no internet sources for homework."

I think the idea is that the 50% is a baseline so you can help make sure you understand it, and what's really being graded is performance on the evens. Due to the curve and everyone getting odds right, it would be the same if only evens were graded. It's totally unfair to base grades on homework in the first place, since someone who is best buds with the physics savant and gets to compare his homework every night can have advantage etc.

I view graded homework as a waste of time,

This 10000%. Even if people hadn't used the solutions manual it's a stupid system since people will copy each other's work etc. I was pretty shocked since every other prereq at my university graded only on individual exams/quizzes with homework/practice problems provided and group efforts encouraged but never graded.