Paranoia about Academic Dishonesty

[Sevn]

Hello,

Does any premed every get paranoid about unintentionally cheating? What do I do if I cheat? How can I prevent it in the future?

I have had a course this year, and the professor told us we can collaborate on assignments. And so, I asked him if we could compare answers, and he didn't give me a straight yes or no. He just told me I needed to know the material. And then, prof sent an email to not be academically dishonest... And I got so paranoid, I thought maybe I unintentionally cheated... and I was in trouble. But no, he was just saying that because our midterm was coming up - and he was discouraging cheating on the midterm.

I had an open-book test recently I freaked out. Obviously for open-book tests, collaboration is a no-no; our prof told us to submit our own work. It's unfair to all students. But internet searching was easily accessible to students so I didn't think it would be unfair (at least before the exam). It did not give me an advantage. Our exam was not locked or anything. But after the exam, I got a burst of paranoia, wondering if that I cheated. What if my definition of cheating "having an unfair advantage over someone else" not the same as my professors definition of cheating "breaking her rules" or something. Anyways, I already sent an email to my prof (she didn't respond as she's probably busy marking). I also told two classmates in that class about it (I honestly don't know them that well), and they told me it was fine because there is no way they could monitor if you use Google (Chegg? Reddit? Discord? - that's collaboration, it's blatantly wrong and maybe yes, they can find it. But I was just reading blurbs on Google). Anyways, at this rate, everyone and their dog is going to know about my paranoia because I keep revealing it to everyone.

I just get paranoid so bad about cheating or plagiarizing. Does any premeds feel the same? Any advice? Obviously, I should have asked my prof about it beforehand, but if they don't give me a straightforward answer (such as in the assignment situation), should I ask them again? I hate paranoia so bad (I wish I got paranoid before the fact, rather than after the fact.)

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[M&L]

oh my god, i totally get it. Its like any time i leave the store i have this irrational fear that there is something i havent paid for. Or when i am at the airport, i am like "do i accidentally have a gun?" hahaha (i have never had a gun in my life).

so, how to avoid cheating
1) do all the tests and assignments yourself (no Chegg)
2)if something is an open book/internet, dont google the questions, google the topics and come up with answers yourself.
3) download Zotero, and properly reference everything. If you directly quote put quotation marks (and reference, or course). If you are paraphrasing, no need for quotation marks, but still requires reference.
4) learn to write yourself, - as in, learn to THINK FOR YOURSELF, based on the information you found (that you reference), and EXPRESS those thoughts on paper. I write everything by myself (as in, i write my thoughts). I look up material to get good understanding, and find good resources to reference that i can base my opinion on, but i write MY OPINION, IN MY WORDS. why is why i can never cheat by definition.
5) if you quote another paper YOU WROTE, you have to properly reference it too.

thats it.

 

[LunaOri]

Do your own work. Don't look stuff up on the internet during a test. Don't compare answers until the test is over.

 

[Stride]

I definitely can relate to this feeling. More often than not, I get it when somebody who found an homework answer key online sends it to people in the class without asking. Even though it was unsolicited, it would be kind of hard to argue you didn't when it is just sitting in your inbox. My professors don't really seem to care too much about homework though, especially since it is only like 5% of the grade

 

[LunaOri]

I definitely can relate to this feeling. More often than not, I get it when somebody who found an homework answer key online sends it to people in the class without asking. Even though it was unsolicited, it would be kind of hard to argue you didn't when it is just sitting in your inbox. My professors don't really seem to care too much about homework though, especially since it is only like 5% of the grade

Just forward those emails to the professor haha.

 

[borrawin95]

Don't wear a hat to exams. When I TA'd for classes I was told to keep an extra eye on folks with caps since that's apparently a red flag for cheating because it's harder to see their eyes.