Any U-grads out there use fraternity test files?

[stayingstrong]

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I'm not in a fraternity, but out of curiosity, I want to know how many frat guys out there use old tests to help with their classes.

If anyone would rather not discuss it publicly, please send me an email regarding the prevalence of use, and how helpful these are.

I don't plan on joining a fraternity, I'm just a little curious if people utilize the old tests or not.

 

[gmcguitar4]

I am not in a frat but I got all old tests from friends in frats who got it from the brothers in the frat.

 

[stayingstrong]

How common would you say it is for frat guys to use these files? I assume usage would vary by college.

 

[V5RED]

Most of my teachers circumvent this unfair situation by providing practice exams to all students.

 

[johnisles2011]

My buddy who was in a frat (blog writer) says the idea that frats actually save tests is garbage, because it would require a level of organization much greater than most frats have. I also agree with an above post that most teachers hand out practice exams so...

My sister is a sorority girl, and she says sororities are actually pretty active about that kind of stuff, though. That makes sense, as girls are usually a little more organized and less dumb about things like that.

 

[xXIDaShizIXx]

People who do that at my university get an F. I personally think that is fair, or like the above poster, if previous tests were passed out to all students.

 

[woo]

I'm in/was in a fraternity. We did keep all our old test/homework files and had a person responsible for gathering all them up and uploading them to our system. For OUR school, this was not illegal in the slightest. We are able to have previous exams from professors to review and study for any upcoming exams. Many teachers would post previous tests themselves to help students study. If teachers liked to use the same exact questions for tests (which would happen rarely) thats their problem. There were some teachers at my school who did not release the questions. They would let you look at them in class after the test and give you an answer sheet - but you could not physically take the questions away from class/ office hours.

 

[pkwraith]

In undergrad, I used test files for all my exams if they were available (70% of the time).

My buddy who was in a frat (blog writer) says the idea that frats actually save tests is garbage, because it would require a level of organization much greater than most frats have. I also agree with an above post that most teachers hand out practice exams so...

That's pretty silly. A frat that lacked the organizational skills of dumping old tests in a milk crate (and most frats do more than that) would not survive very long. A scholarship chair is like the least organizational-intensive position in a house.

 

[DrBowtie]

People who do that at my university get an F. I personally think that is fair, or like the above poster, if previous tests were passed out to all students.

How do people get caught?

To the OP, this is far more prevalent than you think. It isn't necessarily just a fraternity thing. Anyone that knows people in years above (lab mate, family member etc) can do this.

 

[pchemichem]

How do people get caught?

To the OP, this is far more prevalent than you think. It isn't necessarily just a fraternity thing. Anyone that knows people in years above (lab mate, family member etc) can do this.

I agree with that. Its rampant at my school. Its not just the greek life groups that may possibly have tests... its the people sitting to the right and left of you. I would guess that 90% of the students in each of my chemistry/bio classes have had previous years worth of exams and everything.

Also like someone else mentioned, most professors will post old tests for practice so it basically renders them un-useful. In the end, for me at least, whatever old exams I had never were a close resemblance to my actual exam.

 

[RollTide22]

My fraternity along with every other frat on campus had access to old exams that brothers had collected over the years. I never used it; I don't recommend studying from old exams because 1) they usually change from year-to-year, especially if the teacher doesn't collect the exam copies and 2) studying answers to questions instead of studying information typically won't help you on anything other than that specific test.

 

[grizdad]

I don't think it's specific to frats. My son had instructors, TAs and workshop leaders that provided them with past tests to study from. I think that the fraternities & sororities simply formalize the process by having a file cabinet where they collect them & have them available to their members.

 

[xXIDaShizIXx]

How do people get caught?

To the OP, this is far more prevalent than you think. It isn't necessarily just a fraternity thing. Anyone that knows people in years above (lab mate, family member etc) can do this.

There are some....people of "under average" intelligence in our fraternities.

 

[BHaus9]

My freshman year dormitory had a test materials archive. If a professor allows graded exams to be kept, he or she is almost certainly aware that the material is now available for public viewing. Either the prof is fine with using these as study aids, or he/she is not going to re-use questions.

 

[CuttingCorneas]

I'm in a sorority, and we have a large volume of test files. However, these files were often useless to me, because submissions weren't constant throughout semesters, and teachers would change as well as their questions.

Honestly, the most useful form of old exams I ever received were the ones that my professors handed out themselves. Knowing for sure what was going to be on the exam was a heck of a lot easier than digging through a filing cabinet for something that may or may not exist.