CHEATING on the ABSITE... what would you do !?!!

[whistle-blower]

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I need help on a matter that is very concerning and disturbing.

I am rotating at a very high profile academic center. One of the residents did not sign off when he left the workstation. I am just out of orientation and am unfamiliar with the system here. I wanted to check my mails but this senior residents email opened.

There was an email that was forwarded to all residents and the program director which included all the absite questions that were asked in the last 7 years, senior and junior. These questions were complete with the answers and the options. And they were told to keep silent and do their best to increase the programs scores.

I was pretty mad and curious and searched the mailbox for absite. What I found was a shocker. There was a PDF file that was sent to residents by a faculty just a day before the absite (friday) last year. it had around 70 questions. When I crosschecked checked those items with last years exam questions that I discovered in the previous email, I saw those 70 questions to be on the exam unchanged.

I am VERY mad and frustrated. We are killing ourselves trying to study while taking care of our patients and these bastards are being given the questions.

This creates a great disadvantage for fellowships and also skews the curve affecting all.

I have the mail headers, and the files with time stamps. I want to report this the the ABS.

What would you do and how would you proceed. I want to stay totally anonymous and don't want to end up like the wikileaks guy.

THIS IS NOT RIGHT !!!! T

 

[Dr.Surgeon]

Holy ****!!! Where is this at??? I need to make sure and apply to that program so I get hooked up....jk. No but srsly that's ridiculous.

The only advice I have is don't do anything within the next few months so it doesn't get linked to you

 

[angleoflouise]

You most definitely need to report this to ABS. I bet this is very common, too. There is really no good way to control cheating on the ABSITE. I often wondered about this and have heard of some residents at our program asking residents who had taken the exam the day before (usually split into two days at most programs) what the answers were. What is stopping anyone from telling each other the answers?

I highly doubt it will be linked to you if you report it to ABS as I am guessing that resident has no clue you read his/her email and if you ask to stay anonymous.

 

[PhoenixLE]

I would ABSOLUTELY report this to the ABS, and I would do it today. The sooner it's done the sooner a proper investigation can be started by the ABS. I'm certain this can be done anonymously, programs are fairly large. You can't so much as sit for this exam without certifying multiple times that you will not do the things you're describing. Nobody cheated by accident, report this and even the playing field.

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

Not that it makes it right, but I was under the impression this was fairly common. We always lamented being a small, new program when I was coming along. We had no "help" when taking the test. And, at least my first year, it showed on my in service scores. It's fairly known (or speculated) that the larger ENT programs have something similar to what you describe. A big program can assign each resident to remember a few questions and they have the entire test memorized.

 

[dpmd]

It certainly is common at certain institutions. I think it would be better if they just handle it like the ortho in training exam where you get the questions back with your score. They don't give you the answers, so usually the programs divide up the exam for people to give explanations for why a certain answer is right. Clearly people are going to use their memory to their advantage even if it isn't institutionalized like at some places (I know I went and highlighted my study guides with stuff that got asked and added notes on things as needed) so the only way the playing field is going to get leveled is to just makes sure everyone has the same access to the questions.

 

[SLUser11]

I need help on a matter that is very concerning and disturbing.

I am rotating at a very high profile academic center. One of the residents did not sign off when he left the workstation. I am just out of orientation and am unfamiliar with the system here. I wanted to check my mails but this senior residents email opened.

There was an email that was forwarded to all residents and the program director which included all the absite questions that were asked in the last 7 years, senior and junior. These questions were complete with the answers and the options. And they were told to keep silent and do their best to increase the programs scores.

I was pretty mad and curious and searched the mailbox for absite. What I found was a shocker. There was a PDF file that was sent to residents by a faculty just a day before the absite (friday) last year. it had around 70 questions. When I crosschecked checked those items with last years exam questions that I discovered in the previous email, I saw those 70 questions to be on the exam unchanged.

I am VERY mad and frustrated. We are killing ourselves trying to study while taking care of our patients and these bastards are being given the questions.

This creates a great disadvantage for fellowships and also skews the curve affecting all.

I have the mail headers, and the files with time stamps. I want to report this the the ABS.

What would you do and how would you proceed. I want to stay totally anonymous and don't want to end up like the wikileaks guy.

THIS IS NOT RIGHT !!!! T.

I'm smelling some troll juice here, but I want to respond anyway.

Being a whistleblower can be quite detrimental to the individual, and it's often difficult to remain anonymous. While I certainly don't condone cheating, I just ask that you be careful who you talk to about this. Even if you complain to a student or co-resident about what you found, you can then be implicated if you decide to share the info with the ABS.

Honestly, the first part of your story doesn't sound as concerning. "Old questions" have been circulating around for years, along with the researched (but still potentially wrong) answers. Hypothetically, if you bombed the old ABSITE, you would have been given a list of most of the questions, since they tell you what you got wrong. The Michigan State Manual was basically a recap of the previous year's questions as well, so this is a gray area to me.

The more disturbing part, although likely fabricated in your fake story, was the sharing of questions from an UPCOMING test. This would be something without any gray area.

The good news is that there are several monitors in place by the ABS to detect cheating. If all residents get a difficult question right....or even more incriminating, if they all give the same wrong answer....that's a flag that cheating has occurred. There are several questions within the test that don't actually have a right answer, and how the residency responds to such questions can also be helpful in identifying cheaters.

Anyway, it is my naïve opinion that it would be difficult to find an entire prestigious residency filled with residents willing to cheat on the ABSITE, and surgeons willing to help, without it coming out somewhere first before the news broke on SDN.

Good luck on the test tomorrow, everyone, and don't let trolls fill your mind with anger. Focus instead on the things that matter, and get some sleep!

 

[whistle-blower]

.
I'm smelling some troll juice here, but I want to respond anyway.

Being a whistleblower can be quite detrimental to the individual, and it's often difficult to remain anonymous. While I certainly don't condone cheating, I just ask that you be careful who you talk to about this. Even if you complain to a student or co-resident about what you found, you can then be implicated if you decide to share the info with the ABS.

Honestly, the first part of your story doesn't sound as concerning. "Old questions" have been circulating around for years, along with the researched (but still potentially wrong) answers. Hypothetically, if you bombed the old ABSITE, you would have been given a list of most of the questions, since they tell you what you got wrong. The Michigan State Manual was basically a recap of the previous year's questions as well, so this is a gray area to me.

The more disturbing part, although likely fabricated in your fake story, was the sharing of questions from an UPCOMING test. This would be something without any gray area.

The good news is that there are several monitors in place by the ABS to detect cheating. If all residents get a difficult question right....or even more incriminating, if they all give the same wrong answer....that's a flag that cheating has occurred. There are several questions within the test that don't actually have a right answer, and how the residency responds to such questions can also be helpful in identifying cheaters.

Anyway, it is my naïve opinion that it would be difficult to find an entire prestigious residency filled with residents willing to cheat on the ABSITE, and surgeons willing to help, without it coming out somewhere first before the news broke on SDN.

Good luck on the test tomorrow, everyone, and don't let trolls fill your mind with anger. Focus instead on the things that matter, and get some sleep!

I am not tryin to troll the forum. I have not talked to anyone about this just for the reasons you have stated.

Truth is stanger than fiction, These guys got a file on 25th of jan last year and they took the absite on the 26th. Let's say that the questions on that file were coincidential for last year.

This year they had all the exam questions with explanations from the last 7 years, verbatim, choice by choice.

is this not illegal or I am reading the ABS ethics page wrong. AFAIK we are warned not to reproduce or write down, or transmit any of the questions after the exam. failure to comply is subject to prosecution and the materials are under protection of federal law (or smething like that).

Does the practice of giving out those questions violate the law ?
Does the practive of giving out the questions provide unfair advantage to their residents ?

 

[SLUser11]

Agree with @SouthernSurgeon

The story is a little too perfect to be true, as is the timing of the story. Plus, real surgical residents are studying the night before the ABSITE, not making SDN profiles to blow whistles.

Good luck, everyone! Knock out those respiratory quotients...

 

[dpmd]

Plus, having the test questions only the night before wouldn't be enough for most residents I would think. Even though i took the test after months of doing practice questions (many of which showed up on the exam) i didn't get all of them right.

 

[SLUser11]

Plus, having the test questions only the night before wouldn't be enough for most residents I would think. Even though i took the test after months of doing practice questions (many of which showed up on the exam) i didn't get all of them right.

Agree. It would have been more effective cheating if the faculty member sent those questions out a little bit earlier, rather than the day/night before the test. But, if this surgeon is dumb enough to risk his/her career over 70 in-service test questions, then the stupidity was likely adequate to accommodate a Friday evening email as well.

 

[Fah-Q]

Stop snooping around in other people's email.

THIS IS NOT RIGHT !!!!

 

[funshi baba]

Yea, I was just going to say that. The underlying assumption here is that it's you think its ok to go through someone's email just because it was left open.
Regarding the cheating claim, I can't say if it's true or false but if you just focus on yourself and forget what everyone else is doing you will be fine. I know it's sounds cliche but you are responsible for your education and what others do is their problem. If they cheat, time will definitely tell. Nothing goes on forever.
Ask madoff!

 

[jasb66]

This exudes troll city all over.

 

[anonperson]

What exactly do you want from the forum? If this is true, the program is acting deceptively. If you want to notify the creators of the ABSITE, make a throwaway email account and let them know. If not, let it go and move on with your life.