Is the Cheating Insane in your classes ?

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During the past fall semester, I saw a girl text during a bio exam. I was so shocked because we were in a 200 person lecture hall and there were 4 ta's walking around.

 

[integralx2]

are people like a little slow on this topic ? Its NOT CHEATING if you can get your hands on old exams. It only proves that you really lack the people skills , and cant make friends to get previous exams. Its CHEATING when you are actually taking the exam and looking over to your neighbors to write down his answers.

Seriously, I been enough science classes to know most of the cheaters are indian,chinese, or middle eastern. Not being racist, just a TYPICAL TREND at EVERY SCHOOL. I remember had gen chem class inside a huge classroom that seats 100+. We had about 40 students. All the middle eastern people sat together and cheated (6 of them), cause I sat right behind them. Literally they huddle right next to each other, while everyone else was spread out. Honor code ? Doesn't exist for some people.

 

[deleted357625]

During the past fall semester, I saw a girl text during a bio exam. I was so shocked because we were in a 200 person lecture hall and there were 4 ta's walking around.

nicee

 

[Lil Mick]

We had a cheating scandal at my med school, and the administration reacted quickly and harshly. I doubt anyone will try the group cheat during an exam again. I think it was more of a "taking advantage of a situation ripe for cheating" sort of a thing than a conscious effort sort of a thing.

As a TA, I caught a few people cheating (peek and copy, Wikipedia copying, and group cheat). We had a good interrogation method to figure it out and prove it, but it is very hard to catch on certain types of exams (multiple choice, especially). Undergrad was particularly bad at my school. Every section usually had someone who was caught cheating (physics and math with calculator-programming).

 

[eli20]

are people like a little slow on this topic ? Its NOT CHEATING if you can get your hands on old exams. It only proves that you really lack the people skills , and cant make friends to get previous exams. Its CHEATING when you are actually taking the exam and looking over to your neighbors to write down his answers.

Unless, like at my school, the honor code explicitly says that this it is in fact cheating to study from old exams not passed to the entire class by the professor.

 

[SimplyMars9]

In my physics class, we had online homework assignments where it was eventually figured out that the questions & answers were all online, especially on this one specific website. In the year before us, there was actually a huge issue because the prof caught on...only thing is he never did anything about it.

Also, for exams we were allowed to use a "cheat sheet" that had any info we wanted on it...as long as it was just formulas/definitions, but since everyone knew where he would be getting his questions from, a lot of students just had the questions and answers on their sheet, and would just erase it before handing in their cheat sheet. I can't say I wasn't tempted, but I didn't do it because a) I'm a punk and b) I actually needed to learn the stuff for MCAT

 

[bananaz]

are people like a little slow on this topic ? Its NOT CHEATING if you can get your hands on old exams. It only proves that you really lack the people skills , and cant make friends to get previous exams. Its CHEATING when you are actually taking the exam and looking over to your neighbors to write down his answers.

The school's policies determine what is or isn't cheating. I know that at least some medical schools explicitly state that students can't use previous exams for studying, and I'd imagine there are some colleges/departments/professors at the undergraduate level who have that policy as well.

Anyway, I'm aware that cheating occurs at my school because my profs/TAs have talked about it but I've never seen anyone cheat and I don't think it's particularly common. Maybe I'm just naive though.

 

[2sk0ol4c0ol]

are people like a little slow on this topic ? Its NOT CHEATING if you can get your hands on old exams. It only proves that you really lack the people skills , and cant make friends to get previous exams. Its CHEATING when you are actually taking the exam and looking over to your neighbors to write down his answers.

Seriously, I been enough science classes to know most of the cheaters are indian,chinese, or middle eastern. Not being racist, just a TYPICAL TREND at EVERY SCHOOL. I remember had gen chem class inside a huge classroom that seats 100+. We had about 40 students. All the middle eastern people sat together and cheated (6 of them), cause I sat right behind them. Literally they huddle right next to each other, while everyone else was spread out. Honor code ? Doesn't exist for some people.

Apparently the same holds for my undergrad institution, large amounts of Asians who cheat off one another. When it comes to classes that aren't on a bell curve a couldn't care less honestly.

 

[anishannayya]

🙄

I'm laughing at the ignorance in your post. There is nothing wrong about a person talking about trends they constantly observe. That's not racism.

There is no ignorance in my post; I said nothing about racism. I currently attend UCI, and while I see it going on, it is usually over one or two problems, and I really don't give a crap. I've seen people in chem classes, pouring over the calculator cover, looking up crap. Can't you simply memorize the small amount of information that you can pencil in on your calculator cover? People only screw themselves over for later on (usually). I have had one instance where I even saw someone blindly copying the Scanton of someone sitting next to him. It bothered me enough to e-mail the Professor. I laughed so hard when the professor e-mailed me back and said she had discreetly given alternating test versions, and would check to see who had answers for the wrong version.

If you really are that brilliant, then I just really don't care, lol. I simply stated that you cannot make a blanket statement stating that a group of people do this or that. I know Hindi, does that mean I can get together with an Indian friend and talk in Hindi the entire test? Sure. Does it mean I will?

The statement is akin to saying that the percentage of African Americans that are associated or convicted of blue collar crimes is greater than any other group in America. Therefore, blacks are thieves. Obviously, there is fault in that statement.

My parents went to Iowa State University, and most nearly all of their college friends are white. They both understood and spoke fluent English. Both my parents were TAs in college, and my dad became a professor of microbiology and fermentation (or something equally uninteresting ). You can think what you want, but I understand the character of my family; you know nothing about them.

On a separate note, I think that it is the responsibility of the instructor/TA to ensure that this doesn't happen. I have seen courses where there are 6 different versions of the test (in a ~300 student lecture hall), or classes that same size, with a multiple choice test (where the TAs let people leave the class to "use the restroom"). It felt like 15% of the damn class had a mysterious and sudden bladder syndrome.

Life isn't fair. Get off your ideological high-horse and get over it.

 

[buttahz]

Wow I just did an opinion piece for this in my school newspaper lol

At my school, studying from the previous exams isn't considered cheating or against the honor code. In fact, science professors anticipate this and actually give us the previous year's exam. The science dept. actually recommends tutors and tutoring sessions where upperclassmen just go over previous exams.

The only tests which you're NOT allowed to use a previous copy or a test bank are finals. These exams are never returned to the student for that reason.

I think if professors re-use questions, well... they're kind of at fault there. I also don't really see the big difference between doing every practice problem in your textbook or review book and doing a previous exam. It's just practice problems to me.

That being said, cheating isn't really a huge problem, but maybe it's because i'm a freshman and gen chem and intro to bio are too easy for students to resort to cheating...

 

[Danlee07]

Teachers can make tests so that you can't cheat. My biochem II class has tests that he asks "why ___" Seriously, no matter how many cheat sheets you bring in, you're gonna fail if you didn't study your stuff.

however, classes like my physics or bio, they're intro classes. not really expecting much, so teachers give out multiple choice. so easy to cheat with it. kind of a given that you'll find a lot of cheating in your intro prereqs.

 

[45408]

Seemed pretty rare in college (on exams anyway), and I never saw any cheating in med school (except during the BLS CPR test as M3s - yes, I'm serious, and yes, the administration found out).

 

[Thirteeen]

Seemed pretty rare in college (on exams anyway), and I never saw any cheating in med school (except during the BLS CPR test as M3s - yes, I'm serious, and yes, the administration found out).

I hear that BLS CPR is really tough to pass. 😉

 

[ReptarBar]

not much cheating at my school.

i 100% support cheating in all shapes and forms, though. with great risk comes great reward. there is no way a cheater will end up a bad doctor after going through the med school/residency gauntlet.

 

[eli20]

not much cheating at my school.

i 100% support cheating in all shapes and forms, though. with great risk comes great reward. there is no way a cheater will end up a bad doctor after going through the med school/residency gauntlet.

Unless you take cheating as an indication of a greater ethical or moral position, in which case cheaters would come up lacking.

 

[ReptarBar]

under that same logic, i can say that people with sub-35 MCAT scores lack strong critical thinking skills. doesnt work. idk i havent met any rampant cheaters in life that totally eschew studying...its usually coming up short then trying to compensate. i dont think its possible to be a rampant cheater in medicine.

 

[Cinclus]

I recall the cheating being insane in a few of my undergrad classes, namely college algebra, physics 2, organic chemistry 2, genetics, and molecular/cell biology. I think it mostly occurred in large classes that were given the exam all together, instead of being broken up into smaller rooms, as was the case with some of my large undergrad courses. I've caught several cheating examinees as a grad student proctor. Very satisfying, I must say.

 

[Godric]

At my school its very common. But it does depend on the class. Some classes the Profs. are notorious for finding cheaters. A few days back someone got caught cheating in an upper level bio course and the the Prof took the exam and ripped it in half, the room erupted in "boo's". I've also heard of people getting expelled for getting caught in some courses.

 

[apumic]

Seemed pretty rare in college (on exams anyway), and I never saw any cheating in med school (except during the BLS CPR test as M3s - yes, I'm serious, and yes, the administration found out).

Hahaha.... was this the American Heart (AHA) BLS exam?

The funny thing about that particular test is there's a pre-test for it published by the AHA online! It contains many of the same questions as the cert test...although the version I linked to is pre-2005 update, so there would be some important changes. Those tests are often quite sh*tty anyway, though. There are some blatantly incorrect test answers on the Red Cross CPR-PR exam, for instance.

 

[anishannayya]

At my school its very common. But it does depend on the class. Some classes the Profs. are notorious for finding cheaters. A few days back someone got caught cheating in an upper level bio course and the the Prof took the exam and ripped it in half, the room erupted in "boo's". I've also heard of people getting expelled for getting caught in some courses.

I had a GChem professor who would give you an F in the class if he saw you writing after he called time (and he did give 2 students a 0 in his class). A TA caught a student with a cheat sheet, and the Prof. made it his mission to get her expelled. She didn't, but she was a chem. major, and was forced to switch. None of the other schools wanted her then, and she left the school. While I don't condone cheating, I do think that is a bit extreme.

The root cause of the problem is that Universities emphasize the memorization of useless minutia. Even medical/dental schools are plagued by this problem. While it is important to be able to diagnose a problem, in the real world, whenever a doctor is unsure, he will go back to the readings and/or refer the patient to a specialist.

 

[steel88]

IMO, if a professor lets the students have the old tests instead of taking them back, then it's okay to me to study from them.

 

[Dwindlin]

I would think cheating at my school would be incredibly difficult. Exams are computerized, the questions presented in random order, the rooms are monitored by video and a proctor, and the PC's have tracking software so if you access something other than the exam software/calculator they know.

 

[anishannayya]

I would think cheating at my school would be incredibly difficult. Exams are computerized, the questions presented in random order, the rooms are monitored by video and a proctor, and the PC's have tracking software so if you access something other than the exam software/calculator they know.

Until you get someone who knows enough about computers to simply bypass the tracking software.

 

[Godric]

I had a GChem professor who would give you an F in the class if he saw you writing after he called time (and he did give 2 students a 0 in his class). A TA caught a student with a cheat sheet, and the Prof. made it his mission to get her expelled. She didn't, but she was a chem. major, and was forced to switch. None of the other schools wanted her then, and she left the school. While I don't condone cheating, I do think that is a bit extreme.

The root cause of the problem is that Universities emphasize the memorization of useless minutia. Even medical/dental schools are plagued by this problem. While it is important to be able to diagnose a problem, in the real world, whenever a doctor is unsure, he will go back to the readings and/or refer the patient to a specialist.

A year ago same thing happened in a biology course. A prof made it his mission to expel a girl, and she did get expelled. And I took a chem course in the spring of my freshmen semester, I made a cheat sheet and I was so scared to use it that I told a TA that I had to use the bathroom, they were allowing a few students to go to the bathroom at the start of the exam. So I asked, and the prof said Ok, and then he decides to walk with me...and he even took a piss with me. Needless to say I couldnt get of the cheat sheet and it was still taped to the middle of my shirt, and I kept thinking any second it was going to fall out. After that I have never cheated with a physical sheet.

 

[ReptarBar]

^ quite unfortunate

 

[Tsukiyo]

Cheating is insane in my Physics I class. Everybody and their neighbor cheats by using cramster for the online homework. I think I'm the only one not on that site, lol

 

[two thirty]

Yeah, I go to a large public university and it's pretty insane. I have friends who are sophomores now and almost done with their core classes who have probably never done a legit lab report and just copy them or find old ones.

Some classes proctor exams tougher than others, but it's usually pretty easy to cheat. Orgo there is a room of about 150 students and 3 TA's who usually just sit up front. One class I had a guy looking at my paper and the TA saw him and only made him move to a different seat rather than taking his exam up or confronting either one of us about it after the exam. People make cheat sheets too and get away with it, but they're usually the ones who fail the tests anyway.

I've been tempted and I've copied a lab report or two in my days, but I've decided its not worth the risks involved to cheat. I knew a guy who was caught a couple of weeks ago and his med school chances are practically 0 now. It's much easier to recover from a low grade on an exam than from a cheating violation.

There's plenty of cheaters making it into med school though, and that's just part of it.

 

[muhali3]

I was caught cheating once (got the test from someone in the earlier class period). The teacher saw me before class looking at it, but I hid it really quickly in my textbook, thinking he didn't see it. After I was done with the test, he asked me to come to his desk and to open my textbook. I admitted I was looking at the test before I opened it and then he just told me not to do it again. No penalty. I was quite relieved.

 

[gatorade848]

I was caught cheating once (got the test from someone in the earlier class period). The teacher saw me before class looking at it, but I hid it really quickly in my textbook, thinking he didn't see it. After I was done with the test, he asked me to come to his desk and to open my textbook. I admitted I was looking at the test before I opened it and then he just told me not to do it again. No penalty. I was quite relieved.

how is that cheating when you were just looking at notes before test started?

 

[muhali3]

how is that cheating when you were just looking at notes before test started?

I was looking at the actual test, not notes. He gave back the tests to people in the earlier class period when they were done. One of the students from that period gave it to me to look over. All the questions were exactly the same.

 

[darlin]

I know of two types of cheating that are ~10%(total guess) prevalent at my school. There are two types that are both difficult to catch: people pre-typing information into their graphing calculators, and people abusing rx anti-add/adhd drugs. I doubt very much traditional cheating (ie writing on hand, hat, notes, etc) happens in medical school based on my professional school experience where they have committees to enforce academic integrity, and cameras in the classrooms. And if you are caught, at least at my school, it's 1 strike your out.

I realized there was a nasty stigma associated with using un-prescribed ADHD, but I did not realize there were schools where it officially counted as cheating.

 

[Monocles]

Not really, or maybe I'm just oblivious.