How many times have you cheated on an undergrad science exam?

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How many science exams have you cheated on?

  • Zero, I do not cheat.

    Votes: 215 84.6%

  • 1

    Votes: 5 2.0%

  • 2

    Votes: 3 1.2%

  • 3-5

    Votes: 7 2.8%

  • 6-10

    Votes: 5 2.0%

  • so many I've lost count

    Votes: 12 4.7%

  • I would cheat, but instructors/proctors have made it impossible to cheat on many/all of my exams.

    Votes: 7 2.8%
  • Total voters
    254
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Ovid said:
The professor went back and talked to him. I couldn't hear what he said, but he allowed the student to finish the exam. I'm not sure what, if anything, happened afterword.
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StudyLater said:
Yeah it's the same kind of thing where I'm at. Frankly it's too much of a pain to take down someone's ID and remember oh yeah I have to specifically go in and give this one person a zero, so they mostly let it slide.
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People at my UG would get expelled and IA'd.
 
StudyLater said:
Isn't expulsion already an IA? Man, insult to injury....
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Well yeah, expelled as in cannot return to the school to get a degree. And then the IA part that stays w/ you. I thought everywhere was like that.
 
amazing tekkers said:
Do you realize you ruined those people's lives?
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I turned them in for actively subverting the standards the rest of us are adherent to, which decreases the level of egalitarianism in the educational system. It was up to them and the professor to "ruin their lives".

@amazing tekkers The options were to let them continue, talk to them after the fact and let their cheated-on exams go through or -- as I decided -- turn them in to the teacher, nullify their bogus exams and leave the consequences up the discretion of the professor.
 
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md-2020 said:
Well yeah, expelled as in cannot return to the school to get a degree. And then the IA part that stays w/ you. I thought everywhere was like that.
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Oh. I wouldn't know. I don't cheat, or hang out with people that do.

Purity.

tumblr_m80khpkku01rrjmodo1_1280.png


J Senpai said:
I turned them in for actively subverting the standards the rest of us are adherent to, which decreases the level of egalitarianism in the educational system. It was up to them and the professor to "ruin their lives".
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Divergence from the standards shall not be tolerated.
 
J Senpai said:
I turned them in for actively subverting the standards the rest of us are adherent to, which decreases the level of egalitarianism in the educational system. It was up to them and the professor to "ruin their lives".

@amazing tekkers The options were to let them continue, talk to them after the fact and let their cheated-on exams go through or -- as I decided -- turn them in to the teacher, nullify their bogus exams and leave the consequences up the discretion of the professor.
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There was a third option.
 
J Senpai said:
To let them be. Would you have chosen to?
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That would be unjust.

"Sorry, Your Honor. Let's get back to justice. What is justice? What is the intention of justice? The intention of justice is to see that the guilty people are proven guilty and that the innocent are freed. Simple, isn't it? Only it's not that simple. However, it is the defense counsel's duty to protect the rights of the individual, as it is the prosecution's duty to uphold and defend the laws of the State. Justice for all. Only we have a problem here. And you know what it is? Both sides wanna win. We wanna win. We wanna win regardless of the truth. And we wanna win regardless of justice, regardless of who's guilty or innocent. Winning is everything!"
 
when the exam room is filled with professors and TAs monitoring the room and everyone is spread out, taking various exam forms, and we only have 50 minutes to write out the answer to each question, then cheating is too much of a risk and hassle for me to take. i can't think of more than 1-2 classes that didn't operate like this so i just don't try it
 
@md-2020 does your school have a ban on cellphones or search students before entering tests or require all professors to forbid restroom trips? Do people with ties to frats/sports teams/other groups not get access to prior years' exams that are unavailable to the typical student? Are there no assignments to be completed at home which could be readily plagiarized or ghostwritten? Are there no problems sets intended for individuals which people trade their answers and scores on (eg I answered b,b,c,d,a and got 4/5)? Are there no assigned problems/homework from textbooks, such that torrenting the teacher's edition with full solutions provides an advantage? Etc, etc.

I have certainly had classes that were very cheat-resistant, but being unethical/dishonest can give you a solid advantage in many classes, especially if you have friends/students from prior years to help you.
 
efle said:
@md-2020 does your school have a ban on cellphones or search students before entering tests or require all professors to forbid restroom trips? Do people with ties to frats/sports teams/other groups not get access to prior years' exams that are unavailable to the typical student? Are there no assignments to be completed at home which could be readily plagiarized or ghostwritten? Are there no problems sets intended for individuals which people trade their answers and scores on (eg I answered b,b,c,d,a and got 4/5)? Are there no assigned problems/homework from textbooks, such that torrenting the teacher's edition with full solutions provides an advantage? Etc, etc.

I have certainly had classes that were very cheat-resistant, but being unethical/dishonest can give you a solid advantage in many classes, especially if you have friends/students from prior years to help you.
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Nice guys finish last. 🙁
 
efle said:
@md-2020 does your school have a ban on cellphones or search students before entering tests or require all professors to forbid restroom trips? Do people with ties to frats/sports teams/other groups not get access to prior years' exams that are unavailable to the typical student? Are there no assignments to be completed at home which could be readily plagiarized or ghostwritten? Are there no problems sets intended for individuals which people trade their answers and scores on (eg I answered b,b,c,d,a and got 4/5)? Are there no assigned problems/homework from textbooks, such that torrenting the teacher's edition with full solutions provides an advantage? Etc, etc.
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Very few for all of them. A few professors that DGAF but many did in fact ban those things. When your entire freshman class is looking to get a job at Goldman or Blackstone, cheating is very real concern.
 
I was tempted once or twice because everyone was doing it, but several things held me back: 1) I am very wary of the slippery slope... I expect to be in many positions of vulnerability in the future (as we all are inevitably) but never want to justify a future wrong by using a past one to trivialize it 2) the consequences are just too damn unacceptable. I may be able to get away with a minor slap on the wrist, but is it worth the risk to give up my entire future? No. 3) The guilt would eat me up more than the fear of getting caught. I took a jelly worm from a grocery store when I was 5... And I still haven't forgiven myself for that.
 
pathhermit said:
Is using test files cheating? Seriously a life saver in most of my upper level classes since most professors' question bank isn't actually that expansive.
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Are you asking if seeing questions ahead of time, coming from a source other than the professor, is a code violation? If it isn't provided to all the students, it's wrong for you to have access.
 
amazing tekkers said:
@J Senpai still snitched though. I'm sure there were other options.
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You know, this is a common MMI question. Don't lie and say you wouldn't straight up tell the teacher (because that's the answer that'll score you the most points with the rater—and that's what you should do anyway.)
 
md-2020 said:
Very few for all of them. A few professors that DGAF but many did in fact ban those things. When your entire freshman class is looking to get a job at Goldman or Blackstone, cheating is very real concern.
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I mean I've spoken to students at yours and other Ivies that had experiences much closer to mine than different. Much of the prereqs is pretty cheat resistant but there is all sorts of hw/problem set/takehome exam/essay/test backlog etc assignments and tests where someone who wants to cheat, can. Plus you were in a unique set of classes slightly different from typical college stuff

I'm surprised to hear that no restroom breaks during exam is a typical policy there though. Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen xD
Here you just have to turn your exam in to the TA while you go and then get it back when you return. Leads to exactly what you'd expect, everyone suddenly has to use the bathroom halfway into the test
 
efle said:
I mean I've spoken to students at yours and other Ivies that had experiences much closer to mine than different. Much of the prereqs is pretty cheat resistant but there is all sorts of hw/problem set/takehome exam/essay/test backlog etc assignments and tests where someone who wants to cheat, can. Plus you were in a unique set of classes slightly different from typical college stuff

I'm surprised to hear that no restroom breaks during exam is a typical policy there though. Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen xD
Here you just have to turn your exam in to the TA while you go and then get it back when you return. Leads to exactly what you'd expect, everyone suddenly has to use the bathroom halfway into the test
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You could go to the restrooms but they asked you for your phone in most cases. TAs by every exit you had to report to. I'm sure some cheating happened on out of class assignments etc, but the admin did their utmost to prevent it haha.
 
I turned in a classmate in high school for stealing exams from the teacher's office in an AP class (which at my school meant a class that if you got a B in it you would automatically be knocked out of the top 10, so I can understand the pressure). He got in a lot of trouble and received an F. He is doing fine now, we are friends and he knows what I did.

I regret nothing.

In the collegiate case I would do the same. Cheating on an exam is indicative of a personality flaw that does not need to be entertained with patience or leniency at an adult age.
 
amazing tekkers said:
Do you realize you ruined those people's lives?
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They ruined their own lives. Everyone knows that their life can be burned to the ground if they are caught cheating in college. The absolute minimum punishment at my school is an F in the class with a note on the transcript stating that the failure was a result of an academic integrity violation. If you choose to blatantly cheat, you accept this risk.
 
md-2020 said:
You could go to the restrooms but they asked you for your phone in most cases. TAs by every exit you had to report to. I'm sure some cheating happened on out of class assignments etc, but the admin did their utmost to prevent it haha.
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2nd/old phone, that one's easy! We also had TAs monitoring but it's not like they can see what you do when you go in...lol now I'm imagining a TA popping over the stall like "gotcha"
 
In one of my classes all the exams and answers were word for word posted all over the internet. So I studied them. Hence not cheating.

In another of my classes a girl was deliberately and obviously cheating off of me repeatedly. I caught her on video cheating and also caught her on video bragging about how she has an A in the class and hadn't done anything for it. I took it to the teacher and he said "oh that's alright she's had a hard semester." So we went to the dean. I haven't seen her since. She's probably cheating in nursing school somewhere.
 
Dr. Death said:
In one of my classes all the exams and answers were word for word posted all over the internet. So I studied them. Hence not cheating.
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I'd say a student is obligated to let the professor know of this (send an anonymous email with their test as the attachment) but since it is accessible by all students, it isn't comparable to your frat buddy giving you last year's test while nobody else in the class can get it




Dr. Death said:
I caught her on video
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whoa what? how?
 
J Senpai said:
I turned them in for actively subverting the standards the rest of us are adherent to, which decreases the level of egalitarianism in the educational system. It was up to them and the professor to "ruin their lives".

@amazing tekkers The options were to let them continue, talk to them after the fact and let their cheated-on exams go through or -- as I decided -- turn them in to the teacher, nullify their bogus exams and leave the consequences up the discretion of the professor.
Click to expand...
No chance for redemption though. Imagine if they ended up committing suicide or something all because of this incident.
 
Why am I not surprised with the poll results? If you were polling the general college population or pre-meds that are NOT on SDN, you would get dramatically different results.

Interestingly, some people mentioned teachers manuals. When I was in school, there was something called Cramster. It was a subscription service which gave you STEP BY STEP answers to every problem in a text book. I don't know if it exists anymore under a different name now, maybe Chegg? But do you guys think this is cheating?

Plus like I said before. Cheating on exams can be very difficult in controlled proctored environments. But homework and essays are a whole other story.
 
Some of the future healthcare practitioners of tomorrow at the bottom of that poll :S
 
Planes2Doc said:
Why am I not surprised with the poll results? If you were polling the general college population or pre-meds that are NOT on SDN, you would get dramatically different results.

Interestingly, some people mentioned teachers manuals. When I was in school, there was something called Cramster. It was a subscription service which gave you STEP BY STEP answers to every problem in a text book. I don't know if it exists anymore under a different name now, maybe Chegg? But do you guys think this is cheating?

Plus like I said before. Cheating on exams can be very difficult in controlled proctored environments. But homework and essays are a whole other story.
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I don't think using Chegg is cheating.
 
efle said:
What is chegg, paid access to teachers edition of textbooks?
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If it is the same as Cramster was, it's a subscription service where you find the textbook you're using, and then you have the full step-by-step solutions to every problem. People can get all homework answers with this. Now it doesn't really help with exams unless you're allowed cheat sheets, which you can use Chegg to set up templates.
 
Planes2Doc said:
If it is the same as Cramster was, it's a subscription service where you find the textbook you're using, and then you have the full step-by-step solutions to every problem. People can get all homework answers with this. Now it doesn't really help with exams unless you're allowed cheat sheets, which you can use Chegg to set up templates.
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They also provide answers and full solutions for online HW systems like Mastering Chemistry/Physics, etc.
 
The poll results restored my faith in humanity a little 😀
 
My professor for organic and biochemistry would encourage students to talk with students that have previously taken the classes. This included obtaining previous exams and quizzes. His opinion was why limit any form of learning even if it was from previous tests.

Then again most professors are too lazy to rewrite the exams with new questions. The professor above would handwrite the exams the night before and photocopy them. Although one or two problems might be similar, the exams would have completely different mechanisms and other questions. The previous exams were just good practice. Point being that obtaining past tests was for practice, and if the professors were too lazy to alter the exams from the past year then it's their loss not mine. I learned the material regardless.
 
theriomorphos said:
And you really thought that even if somebody cheated, they would admit it on this board? 😀
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I noticed that a lot of people are constantly acting as if they were being evaluated. There is a medical student that was on my last rotation who always talked as if she was being evaluated, and you could see right through it. On the Internet, it's a little harder to see through.
 
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