Have you ever seen anyone cheat?

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I teach a junior level anatomy and physiology course at my school. I have the all-time craziest (and dumbest) cheating story. So, if you were going to cheat in a course with 700 students in it (they can't sit every other chair, it's too crowded) wouldn't you cheat during the exam period, it's less conspicuous since it's almost impossible for us to adequately proctor that many people.

Anyway, this student had to take the exam late. Said he was sick. Going to die any minute. So, the course coordinator let him take it. Quite late I might add. This was after all the other students had gotten their exams back. So the student finally comes in to take the exam and does TERRIBLY!!! The coordinator was a little confused about it. But then it became clear. The cheat sheet he was using fell out of his exam booklet and had all of the answers (multiple choice) written down for a different test form. The student got like a 15% AND left the cheat sheet in the exam. I know he failed the class, but I don't know what else happens to him. I kind of think that's natural selection at its best.

 

[erin682]

I had a guy really blatantly try and cheat off me in highschool once. I didn't turn him in. Instead I wrote down about 3/4 of my answers wrong, waited unti he had copied them all and then under the pretext of reviewing my test changed all the wrong answers back to right ones, but this time with my answer sheet covered. The look on his face when we got the exams back was priceless. I think he seriously got somewhere in the 30-40 range. He only got that high because some of my fake answeres were I guess to obviously wrong even to him. He didn't try to cheat off me again.

 

[browniegirl86]

Last semester, in my Principles of Drug Action class (read: intro pharmacology = very easy A) a girl blatantly cheated off me, over my shoulder, for an entire midterm. 😡

I didn't notice, but my friend Michelle was sitting near the girl and told me she saw the whole thing go down. The girl waited for me to write each answer before she would write her own answer. After the test, my friend was visibly shaken and pretty furious, and she told me what had happened. Apparently I had moved during the test, and the girl had then tried to look at Michelle's test. Neither of us knew the cheater, and Michelle actually had to point her out to me the next day of class.

We decided to tell the prof so he could watch her for the next two tests. I had to go into his office and point her out on the photo roster that each teacher gets. I don't know if she ever got caught but I do know the prof watched her like a hawk for the rest of the semester. And my friend and I gave her really dirty looks for the rest of the semester. The best part is that she actually tried to sit behind me AGAIN during another test!

And the great irony is this: I was taking the class pass/fail, so that stupid girl chose the wrong test to look at . . . all I needed was a 70 and I'm pretty sure this girl wanted to get an A. Hope she failed the class or at least screwed up her GPA.

 

[riceman04]

I just had a midterm and I’m kind of ticked off about it.
During the exam I notice the girl sitting in front of me looking at a cheat sheet she had hidden under her exam. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve seen people cheat before but it always surprises me.

The thought of her doing as well as me or better had me fuming.
I’ve been ignoring my classes since the beginning of spring to focus on the MCAT. But of course I had a bunch of exams, papers ect. this week, including two today. So I’ve been forcing myself to study like crazy.

I seriously contemplated doing something about it, but in the end I thought I’d never want to get anyone kicked out of school.

Maybe I need to develop a mean streak because people like this hurt everyone else.

I bet many people have been in similar situations. What did you or would you do?



EDIT: I didn’t even see the Harvard Plagiarism thread. Some people…. 👎

One of my roomates at Rice made a cheat sheet with his girlfriend for an orgo exam. I walked in their room and they blatantly told me that they were just starting to study the night before the exam (at Rice that practically means 0) so they decided to make that cheat sheet. Rice has a very very very very strict honor code....and since administration trusts some professors let us take unproctored exams (also closed note take home exams).

I never told anyone what they told me, but they were both caught by the prof anyway!! They were promptly expelled by the honor council..... then they had the nerve to try and sue the university! They were serious about this too!!!!

So I was supposed to say something, as I was binded by the honor code (I was contemplating it at first...but decided not to in the end). But in the end they had what was coming to them!

 

[TarHeelBorn]

Here at school there was just a scandal with one of the intro physics classes: th e professor had posted the midterm exams on the Internet, and some kids found them and printed them out and used them to study for the exams. So the professor found out somehow, and threw out all of the exam grades up to the last exam and the final. Whoever cheated may have ruined the grades of a lot of people in that class, and of course they'll end up hurting themselves as well, because they didn't learn the material for the exams, and now the final will hurt. Badly. It could count for upwards of 60% of the grade. Cheaters generally get what they deserve, in my experience.

 

[Gabby]

I took my A&P practical yesterday and one of the other students came right out and asked me for one of the answers when I was examining a sheep brain. It caught me off-guard for a second and I wouldn't be surprised if she looked down at my paper in the few seconds it took before I covered it up, shrugged, and told her I wasn't sure. I didn't say anything to the professor though I probably should have.

 

[cobalt31]

in HS the hottest girl in my english class asked to see this silly 2 page paper that was due the next day cuz she was having trouble getting ideas of what to write about. i let her look at it and didnt think anything of it. when the teacher called us both over when she was handing them back, i had no idea what i was in for. the girl had copied a few of my sentences verbatim into her report! we both ended up getting zeros! i guess its my fault for showing her my paper... but whatever. im much more careful now about showing people my work.

 

[mchou]

The cheaters that I see cheat really anger me because they are normally B students. So when they study, and cheat, they bust 99% on the tests. They throw off the curve. And the worst thing with these people I know that cheat is that when you get a lower score than them, they laugh at you. But you know what, honesty always gets the last laugh. It will catch up eventually.

I absolutely despise cheating, but here's one situation where I think this girl got away with it... I met this girl during one of my ECs and she was bragging on and on about how she was applying to both dental school and med school.

She mentioned that her GPA on AMCAS was a 3.99 (Bio portion) and slightly lower overall. I didn't say anything, but she gave herself away. Neuroscience, hard core upper div neuroscience courses that she had gotten Bs and Cs in, she listed as behavioral science on AMCAS so it didn't count into her overall bio gpa.

Then she had listed her general psychology courses and most other sorta science/health related courses as BIO courses to boost that GPA. Sigh

 

[freshh.]

My mother has a friend whose son is the same age as me (19). Anyway he was supposed to graduate when I did but graduated a year behind me and my sister. Well while I was off at college in 2004, he was still doing work for his sophomore/junior year of high school. HIS MOTHER would sit up and do his papers, and other projects that he had. I'm sure she would have taken the tests for him if she could have.

Right before graduation in 2005, he steals the paper of another student in the class and turns it in early. So when the teacher finds out their papers are the same, she assumes that he didn't cheat since his paper was done early. The other kid gets in trouble and fails the class while he gets to walk at graduation. His mother told a friend who in turn told my mother, and my mother told me. I promptly called up his high school and let them know what was going down, but it apparently was too late.

He graduated last year and is now at a technical college up north. And she's still doing the work for him... Just last week she was up at 3 in the morning doing his biology paper.

The only reason why she does this is because my sister and I are EXTREME overachievers. I mean when we graduated from high school, I got a chord or pin from every club at school. So I guess it was a case of keeping her son from looking like a total jackass.

 

[DrBowtie]

I absolutely despise cheating, but here's one situation where I think this girl got away with it... I met this girl during one of my ECs and she was bragging on and on about how she was applying to both dental school and med school.

She mentioned that her GPA on AMCAS was a 3.99 (Bio portion) and slightly lower overall. I didn't say anything, but she gave herself away. Neuroscience, hard core upper div neuroscience courses that she had gotten Bs and Cs in, she listed as behavioral science on AMCAS so it didn't count into her overall bio gpa.

Then she had listed her general psychology courses and most other sorta science/health related courses as BIO courses to boost that GPA. Sigh

If AMCAS verified it like that then it wasn't cheating. They make the determination.

 

[NapeSpikes]

Then she had listed her general psychology courses and most other sorta science/health related courses as BIO courses to boost that GPA. Sigh

Nahh, she was probably just trying to save face. I don't know about neuroscience, but Amcas wouldn't let her do that with Psych or Allied health classes.

 

[[super.cool]]

in HS the hottest girl in my english class asked to see this silly 2 page paper that was due the next day cuz she was having trouble getting ideas of what to write about. i let her look at it and didnt think anything of it. when the teacher called us both over when she was handing them back, i had no idea what i was in for. the girl had copied a few of my sentences verbatim into her report! we both ended up getting zeros! i guess its my fault for showing her my paper... but whatever. im much more careful now about showing people my work.

My junior year of high school, I took AP Biology. The class was pretty much a breeze, and I thought it was like that for a lot of the other students. This girl, she ended up being salutatorian, turned around after our teacher walked out, and asked me for the answers for half the test. I stared blankly at her for about two seconds, covered my answers, and put my head down. She was pissed!

Some of us went to our teacher, and even spread the word to her other teachers about her actions, and warned them to watch her.

She was so scandalous, she cheated on the AP Exam. 👎 She had to have been the most hated person at school.

 

[freshh.]

My Intro to Psych professor's first test were all the same form, but he quickly realized that some students weren't to be trusted. He changed the forms and made three different versions of the second test.

During the second test these girls that are all friends sat together and cheated. Now how dumb can you be? There are forms A,B,C. And they all copied off of a form A. Two failed (forms B,C) and the other two barely made D's.

But our teacher just tipped us off to the fact that he's made a blacklist that he plans on circulating. So they'll be getting theirs for sometime to come.

 

[mchou]

Nahh, she was probably just trying to save face. I don't know about neuroscience, but Amcas wouldn't let her do that with Psych or Allied health classes.

Well it's good to know AMCAS wouldn't let that fly. She was very smug about it, but I do remember that she had just submitted it when she was bragging. Maybe it hadn't been verified yet. Good to know! Thanks, I feel better.

 

[forevalwayzz]

I just had a midterm and I’m kind of ticked off about it.
During the exam I notice the girl sitting in front of me looking at a cheat sheet she had hidden under her exam. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve seen people cheat before but it always surprises me.

The thought of her doing as well as me or better had me fuming.
I’ve been ignoring my classes since the beginning of spring to focus on the MCAT. But of course I had a bunch of exams, papers ect. this week, including two today. So I’ve been forcing myself to study like crazy.

I seriously contemplated doing something about it, but in the end I thought I’d never want to get anyone kicked out of school.

Maybe I need to develop a mean streak because people like this hurt everyone else.

I bet many people have been in similar situations. What did you or would you do?



EDIT: I didn’t even see the Harvard Plagiarism thread. Some people…. 👎

BLACKMAIL HER!!!!!!!!!!!! anyone mentioned that yet?

 

[Dr. K]

A couple weeks ago during my undergrad Anatomy exam, this girl next to me was BLATANTLY cheating. It was a lab practical. Her cheat sheet was like 3 pages long with all the muscle insertion/origin/actions on it. She pulled it out like 5 times, and I was really pissed off. I told the prof the next day, but she couldn't do anything as she did not "catch her in the act." Needless to say, the TA talked to her and scared the **** out of her!

 

[Sarg's kid]

Narc them out.
The world does NOT need a future doc with a 4.0 who cheated their way through. You owe it to yourself, your classmates and future patients who may come under this person's knife. If you feel bad about doing it in a big, dramatic way, then go and talk to the prof in private, or drop an anonymous note.

That's why I hate taking classes with other premeds. The only thing anyone cares about is grades. They lie, cheat, steal and sabotage just for the A. (not all of them, but enough of them... I guess US, right... I digress)

You didn't cheat, you studied your butt off. She shouldn't get a grade that she doesn't deserve. You have a duty to stop her from cheating her way into medical school.

 

[GujuMD]

Two guys in my calc class got caught cheating and there were two different forms. The test had two forms and the forms were color coded. These two guys sat next two teach other with different forms. It was easy to tell that there is something different about the test based on different colors. but the the "dumb" guy decided to copy off his friend and ended up getting 14 out of 100- (there was some true and false).

 

[forevalwayzz]

funny. i laughed but you didn't see it.

 

[kate_g]

I was a TA for a neuroanatomy class. Well known to be the hardest class any bio/premed major could take - not required for the degree, but lots of premeds took it because it looks good on applications. We had some cheating problems but were having trouble getting enough evidence to prosecute people. So during the next test, when it had gotten really really quiet, I stood up and said "if I see that again, I'm just going to come up there and take your test away." Thing is, I hadn't actually seen anyone cheating and wasn't addressing anyone in particular... You can bet I didn't see any wandering eyes the whole rest of the test though.

 

[youngnflyy]

All the time....It's a national epidemic, catch it!

 

[NapeSpikes]

So during the next test, when it had gotten really really quiet, I stood up and said "if I see that again, I'm just going to come up there and take your test away." Thing is, I hadn't actually seen anyone cheating and wasn't addressing anyone in particular...

Did you proctor my mcat by chance?

 

[Merissa87]

yesterday I had a chemistry exam, there were two asians sitting next to me. They spoke PERFECT english but somehow managed to convince the professor they needed to use their "translator". I think it was some kind of pocket PC or PDA that was filled with notes. They were talking the entire exam and took full advantage of their PDA. It sucks b/c I studied so hard for that class just to make a B and they are getting A's and taking the exams in pairs and using notes they stored on a PDA.... oh well

 

[riceman04]

yesterday I had a chemistry exam, there were two asians sitting next to me. They spoke PERFECT english but somehow managed to convince the professor they needed to use their "translator". I think it was some kind of pocket PC or PDA that was filled with notes. They were talking the entire exam and took full advantage of their PDA. It sucks b/c I studied so hard for that class just to make a B and they are getting A's and taking the exams in pairs and using notes they stored on a PDA.... oh well

no no no no no no not oh well!!!!
They will soon be your competition when applying to med school. I would at least inform the prof or TA of the game you think they are trying to run. Or you can just at least let them know that you know wassup!!!

Here is another beef I have with that...why the hell are they at that university if they claim they cant understand english enough! You are in the US right? People who cannot learn in english should not be allowed to take classes at American Universities.

It is pretty funny how this country makes alot of exceptions for exchange students, but most other (non-english speaking) countries make no exception for american students taking classes there.

sorry for my rant...but crap like that makes me upset 😡

 

[GWmdwannabe]

Technically if you copy someone elses answers without attributing the source, you are doing both.

I'm currently teaching high school science. If one of my students cheated, but cited their source, I'd definately consider giving them an A for creativity and honesty.

Then 0.05 seconds later, I'd bust their ass for cheating, give them a zero and refer the matter to the Dean of Students.

 

[63768]

No, actually, the dumbest cheating I've seen was from a pre-med in an intro bio class. This guy had an A- on his midterm, but he wasnt satisfy so he went around and change his answer and submitted it for a regrade. All the test was photocopy and he got caught.

haha that's my story except my grade in orgo was a B-, my family could no longer to afford my education at rice (forcing me to work 20+ hours a week as a healthcare consultant with 18 class hours), and my parents were going through a divorce.

you all may hate me, but it's certainly caught up with me. i got caught and now it's made it exceedingly difficult to get into medical school.

 

[LabMonster]

Cheaters generally get what they deserve, in my experience.

Right but they won't get anything if they're not turned in. There's a lot of moral waffling in this thread 👎

If I see someone cheating, they get turned in and hopefully kicked out of school. Actions-->Consequences

 

[LifetimeDoc]

I saw this one guy in my QBM (Quantitiative Biological Methods class, PCR, Electrophoresis, etc. methods) cheat on a quiz in lab and get caught because the TAs made two versions of the quiz. He at first lied about cheating, and then when confronted with the irrefutable evidence (most of the quiz was calculations, and he couldn't have gotten those answers with his values, but he got the answers right for the person next to him) he finally confessed after several times being asked by the TA, within earshot of everyone in the lab.

Then, on our Biochemistry final last week (sucked being right after the MCAT), he was caught by our replacement professor (our original professor left right before finals, another long story) cheating on the final with a big cheat sheet between his legs. The professor DID NOTHING about it. He's a pre-med, and the next time he tries to talk to me I will ask him about his cheating. If he lies to me, I have words for him. Since the professor wouldn't do anything about it, there is nothing I can do without causing a big stink and getting myself into trouble with letters of recommendation, etc. This guy will probably get into Med school, and I won't. Sucker or no?

In fact, cheating appears to be pretty rampant at my school, and professors say they've caught people doing it but that they've let them go on this one occasion. It really saddens me that so many people are cheating and getting away with it.

 

[Law2Doc]

I'm currently teaching high school science. If one of my students cheated, but cited their source, I'd definately consider giving them an A for creativity and honesty.

Then 0.05 seconds later, I'd bust their ass for cheating, give them a zero and refer the matter to the Dean of Students.

Hence the dilemma.