Reporting a Cheater?

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I finished a Microbiology test last week around 15 minutes early. As I stood up I saw two girls with their notes just sitting under their test:scared: I was completely dumbfounded, In 3 years of college this is my first run in with cheaters.

I'm not really sure how to handle it though. My plan is to send an anonymous email to the teacher telling her there are cheaters in her class and to actually walk around the class a bit instead of standing up at the front the whole time.

I would report it but I honestly wouldn't be able to identify the people who were cheating. What would you all do? Is an anonymous email sufficient??
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i think an email is enough andd its really all u can do.
 
Gamechanger said:
i think an email is enough andd its really all u can do.
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Yes, especially since you can't identify the individuals who cheated. Hopefully the prof will keep a better eye on her class next time.
 
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I would have told her right then because she needs to catch them in the act. You should have written something on your paper, gone up like you were gonna ask a question, and let her read it. cheating is no bueno- especially when it is as egregious as having your notes out during an exam. All you can do now is go to the prof and tell her about it. Why do you want to be anonymous to her anyway? It's not like she is going to go tell those girls that you were the one that turned them in. Believe me, she will appreciate your integrity. My gf is a professor and when people have informed her about cheaters, she was very appreciative.
 
I've reported cheating in person with the professor. I just told him I was concerned with the cheating during the test. I never told him who they were , but he took the necessary actions to prevent it for the rest of the semester.
 
rxlea said:
I would have told her right then because she needs to catch them in the act. You should have written something on your paper, gone up like you were gonna ask a question, and let her read it. cheating is no bueno- especially when it is as egregious as having your notes out during an exam. All you can do now is go to the prof and tell her about it. Why do you want to be anonymous to her anyway? It's not like she is going to go tell those girls that you were the one that turned them in. Believe me, she will appreciate your integrity. My gf is a professor and when people have informed her about cheaters, she was very appreciative.
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this is exactly what i would have done. end of story.
 
Am I the only one who could of cared less? If they got away with it id be jealous. I would have smirked to myself and went on my way.
 
Snitching is an awkward subject. I would not do what these girls are guilty of doing. I have programmed my TI-83 with equations though. This makes me wonder about degrees of cheating. I do believe these women will eventually pay for their faux pas whether or not they are punished right now.
 
Having their notes under the desks isn't cheating. You never said you actually caught them in the act of cheating by looking at their notes.
 
irishspring said:
Having their notes under the desks isn't cheating. You never said you actually caught them in the act of cheating by looking at their notes.
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Their notes were directly under their tests, not desks. Maybe they both just coincidentally left them there and weren't actually looking at them :rolleyes:
 
R2pharmD2 said:
Their notes were directly under their tests, not desks. Maybe they both just coincidentally left them there and weren't actually looking at them :rolleyes:
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oops:laugh:
 
Wouldn't the thought of seeing them cheat leave your head as soon as you walked out of the classroom? Sometimes I can barely keep up with my own **** let alone a couple other students who I don't even know. Move on with your life. There are 71 confirmed deaths in the earthquake in New Zealand and if your biggest gripe right now is dwelling on a few maybe cheaters than I think you have it pretty good.
 
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Farmacist2011 said:
Wouldn't the thought of seeing them cheat leave your head as soon as you walked out of the classroom? Sometimes I can barely keep up with my own **** let alone a couple other students who I don't even know. Move on with your life. There are 71 confirmed deaths in the earthquake in New Zealand and if your biggest gripe right now is dwelling on a few maybe cheaters than I think you have it pretty good.
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Bolded is examplary of absolutely awful logic.

Sure, the NZ quake's a tragedy but really... that whole "Well, someone has it worse off than you so quit complaining!" has egregious faults. For thought: There are far worse earthquakes that have happened elsewhere than a mere 71 deaths, so why can't you, by extension, tell those 71 families with confirmed dead that they should be happy that the only lost that much, compared to say, Haiti which had an entire country collapse basically.

Yuck, that is so nasty I need to go wash my hands now.
 
Passion4Sci said:
Bolded is examplary of absolutely awful logic.

Sure, the NZ quake's a tragedy but really... that whole "Well, someone has it worse off than you so quit complaining!" has egregious faults. For thought: There are far worse earthquakes that have happened elsewhere than a mere 71 deaths, so why can't you, by extension, tell those 71 families with confirmed dead that they should be happy that the only lost that much, compared to say, Haiti which had an entire country collapse basically.

Yuck, that is so nasty I need to go wash my hands now.
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By extension you should never concern yourself with any immoral behaviour - how does cheating compare to all the starving children in Africa? I am sure if I just explain to the officer that speeding is fine because of the genocide in Rwanda he will drop the charge, right? This is kinda fun. Stealing is a minor concern when stacked against the holocaust, right? So that should be fine also. Heck even murder is a drop in the bucket compared to say an extinction event, so that's in. What behaviour cannot be justified in relation to a much worse offence?
 
owlegrad said:
By extension you should never concern yourself with any immoral behaviour - how does cheating compare to all the starving children in Africa? I am sure if I just explain to the officer that speeding is fine because of the genocide in Rwanda he will drop the charge, right? This is kinda fun. Stealing is a minor concern when stacked against the holocaust, right? So that should be fine also. Heck even murder is a drop in the bucket compared to say an extinction event, so that's in. What behaviour cannot be justified in relation to a much worse offence?
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Precisely.
 
owlegrad said:
I am sure if I just explain to the officer that speeding is fine because of the genocide in Rwanda he will drop the charge, right?
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haha yeah that's a good one to try and if I can sneeze at 120mph should I really be ticketed for driving 45mph in a 30mph zone? :cool:
 
Farmacist2011 said:
Wouldn't the thought of seeing them cheat leave your head as soon as you walked out of the classroom? Sometimes I can barely keep up with my own **** let alone a couple other students who I don't even know. Move on with your life. There are 71 confirmed deaths in the earthquake in New Zealand and if your biggest gripe right now is dwelling on a few maybe cheaters than I think you have it pretty good.
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Passion4Sci said:
Bolded is examplary of absolutely awful logic.

Sure, the NZ quake's a tragedy but really... that whole "Well, someone has it worse off than you so quit complaining!" has egregious faults. For thought: There are far worse earthquakes that have happened elsewhere than a mere 71 deaths, so why can't you, by extension, tell those 71 families with confirmed dead that they should be happy that the only lost that much, compared to say, Haiti which had an entire country collapse basically.

Yuck, that is so nasty I need to go wash my hands now.
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Farmacist2011 said:
haha yeah that's a good one to try and if I can sneeze at 120mph should I really be ticketed for driving 45mph in a 30mph zone? :cool:
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I know I'm being bitter because the internet has hurt my feelings with your comments towards me, but do you realize you are making fun of yourself?
 
Passion4Sci said:
I actually don't get that one, but OK. Farmacist is okay with refuting his own point. I love it when that happens.
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I think the joke is that if sneezes travel 120 mph, why should going 45 mph be considered speeding. It is a slightly different logical fallacy than what we were talking about before, but it still cracked me up. I am an easy audience though.
 
2411t said:
I know I'm being bitter because the internet has hurt my feelings with your comments towards me, but do you realize you are making fun of yourself?
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Everyone's laughing at me instead of with me? I guess we should get back to more important topics like oversaturation, importance of school rank, diploma mills, PharmD salaries and going crazy in the new millenium. :sleep:

I was reading the news earlier and if you google news search Neil Lansing you will see he broke the record for smuggling the most amount of items into jail up his butt.
 
Farmacist2011 said:
Everyone's laughing at me instead of with me? I guess we should get back to more important topics like oversaturation, importance of school rank, diploma mills, PharmD salaries and going crazy in the new millenium. :sleep:

I was reading the news earlier and if you google news search Neil Lansing you will see he broke the record for smuggling the most amount of items into jail up his butt.
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I don't like you, but you'd be fun to hang out with.
 
If it was me, I wouldn't hesitate to report to the prof right away. I wouldn't even care if those girls knew I was the one who reported them cheating. I did that twice when I was in high school and the cheaters stared at me, and I just looked at them like: "Yea right, so what you gonna do to me now, huh?"
 
I guess I'm the only one whos moral compass doesn't point due north.
 
ValerieVu88 said:
If it was me, I wouldn't hesitate to report to the prof right away. I wouldn't even care if those girls knew I was the one who reported them cheating. I did that twice when I was in high school and the cheaters stared at me, and I just looked at them like: "Yea right, so what you gonna do to me now, huh?"
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I just got the chills! I'm scared! I ain't messing with you. LOL
 
Farmacist2011 said:
I guess I'm the only one whos moral compass doesn't point due north.
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There was a time where I certainly would have turned in a cheater. Now...I don't know. I just don't care like I used to. I would go so far out of my way to not notice a cheater that if I did see it, it would have to be because of the blinking neon sign pointing it out. It's just none of my business.

I doubt I would turn in a classmate. I MIGHT talk to him about it, but probably not. It just doesn't seem to matter to me like it once would have.
 
I'd mostly be concerned with being implicated for cheating myself.

I remember in HS, there was a policy of "both cheatee and cheater will be punished", similar to how both kids (or more than both if more than 2 fighters) in a fight got suspended, even if it was clear as daylight that Kid A socked Kid B right in the face and Kid B just stood there... Kid B would still get penalized.
 
owlegrad said:
There was a time where I certainly would have turned in a cheater. Now...I don't know. I just don't care like I used to. I would go so far out of my way to not notice a cheater that if I did see it, it would have to be because of the blinking neon sign pointing it out. It's just none of my business.

I doubt I would turn in a classmate. I MIGHT talk to him about it, but probably not. It just doesn't seem to matter to me like it once would have.
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I would turn anyone in if they cheated b/c 1) I work hard for my A(s) and anyone else with A(s) worked hard for them....so we deserve to be the ONLY people with A(s) in the class...anyone that thinks they can cheat their way to getting the same grades as me are just kidding themselves and will be turned in. 2) Grade inflation, like I say...only a certain number of people should get A(s) and those are the people that work for them...if you want to party all week and cheat on your exam to get an A, then again YOU will be turn in. 3) WTF!!!! The cheater didn't study and think he or she DESERVES to make the same grade as me??? I DO NOT think so. I am turning them again for sure. 4) it's sickening to think you deserve the same grade as someone who studied for the exam. If you didn't study b/c you were out drunk last night, then you need to take the consequences for it.

That's how I feel about cheaters. If you are too lazy to put in the effort than you deserve to fail. The End.
 
Someone in a 500 level class of a friend of mine cheated. The professor found out through an anonymous email basically just saying "somebody cheated, I don't know who they are. I'm only telling you because I'm afraid they'll ruin the curve". So, the prof decided to throw out everybody's midterms and make the final cumulative to make up for it.

Lesson 1: Either keep your mouth shut or identify the cheaters. Don't waffle halfway because you could be screwing yourself more than helping.
 
The actually had an incident at my college where someone had found the midterm exam and sent it to an entire physics class. There was a ridiculous amount of consequences thrown at the people who cheated. Basically, it was admit to cheating or be expelled for not coming forward. That's a catch-22 if I ever heard one. Personally, I don't know if I would turn in a cheater (this is not saying that I wouldn't, this is saying "maybe"), it seems like the consequences screw over the guilty and the innocent at times.
 
SHC1984 said:
That's how I feel about cheaters. If you are too lazy to put in the effort than you deserve to fail. The End.
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I am stunned. I don't even know why. It's like you lack the ability to see even simple things from multiple perspectives. Why I am ever surprised anymore confuses me. I mean your stance against cheating is commendable, I have nothing but respect for people with strong moral convictions. But you argument is not a moralistic one - it's some nonsense about hard work = an A, lazy = cheating, and cheating being wrong because it is unfair to you.

Hard workers can cheat too. Or can they? Is every cheater lazy? No one has ever cheated for any other reason? By your reasoning, as long as the cheater worked hard - what? They should get an A for hard work? Can someone who worked hard cheat? I guess in your world as long as you work hard you would never be tempted to cheat (why would you need to?).

Let's set aside the extreme example of cheating on a test for a minute, which I do find inexcusable. How about classmates getting together and doing homework as a group (in this example the professor had specifically told the students that this assignment must be done individually and has specifically forbid group work). This is still cheating - is everyone in the group lazy, except for I guess the one person who does all the work?
 
Benelli said:
The actually had an incident at my college where someone had found the midterm exam and sent it to an entire physics class. There was a ridiculous amount of consequences thrown at the people who cheated. Basically, it was admit to cheating or be expelled for not coming forward. That's a catch-22 if I ever heard one. Personally, I don't know if I would turn in a cheater (this is not saying that I wouldn't, this is saying "maybe"), it seems like the consequences screw over the guilty and the innocent at times.
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This reminds me of something I saw once. A guy got marked off for a question on a lab exam. He noticed someone else answered exactly the same as him (he went around trying to see everyone else's graded papers actually), so he brought it to the professor's attention (in an obnoxious way I might add) and....the professor lowered the other persons grade! Moral of the story?
 
owlegrad said:
I am stunned. I don't even know why. It's like you lack the ability to see even simple things from multiple perspectives. Why I am ever surprised anymore confuses me. I mean your stance against cheating is commendable, I have nothing but respect for people with strong moral convictions. But you argument is not a moralistic one - it's some nonsense about hard work = an A, lazy = cheating, and cheating being wrong because it is unfair to you.

Hard workers can cheat too. Or can they? Is every cheater lazy? No one has ever cheated for any other reason? By your reasoning, as long as the cheater worked hard - what? They should get an A for hard work? Can someone who worked hard cheat? I guess in your world as long as you work hard you would never be tempted to cheat (why would you need to?).

Let's set aside the extreme example of cheating on a test for a minute, which I do find inexcusable. How about classmates getting together and doing homework as a group (in this example the professor had specifically told the students that this assignment must be done individually and has specifically forbid group work). This is still cheating - is everyone in the group lazy, except for I guess the one person who does all the work?
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Hard work can equal an A or the person can be naturally smart and know how to study very efficiently and still get an A. Or the person can be brillant and get an A with very little studying. All that is fine, a person can do whatever they need to do to get a good grade. Some have to work harder and some do not. That's fine.

Cheating isn't just unfair to me, it is UNFAIR to everyone that didn't cheat. Everyone that didn't cheat either studied and got a good grade or didn't study and got a bad grade. The cheater however, didn't study and want a good grade. How is that fair to anyone that studied?

If a person fully prepared themselves for an exam (some have to work harder than others on this) then that person will have no reason to cheat. If you already know everything WHY cheat? If you cheated, you obviously did NOT know everything b/c you didn't prepared for the assignment or exam and therefore you want to cheat to get a grade that you don't deserve. (tell me how else would you define cheating? I am curious...)

It is also morally wrong. Just like stealing and murder. I hope you would report those too!!!

If the professor ask you to do your own homework and you and a bunch of people did it together that is cheating. It might come as a surprise to some, but you should always follow the RULES of the classroom...if you don't then that's cheating. And it is lazy! The reason you want to work in a group instead of doing it yourself is b/c you don't want to work as hard for the grade. You are hoping someone in that group would be more prepared to answer the questions and you can benefit from them answering the questions FOR YOU. Instead of actually doing your own work, you want someone else to do it for you. How is that not lazy?
 
SHC1984 said:
Cheating isn't just unfair to me, it is UNFAIR to everyone that didn't cheat. Everyone that didn't cheat either studied and got a good grade or didn't study and got a bad grade. The cheater however, didn't study and want a good grade. How is that fair to anyone that studied?

If a person fully prepared themselves for an exam (some have to work harder than others on this) then that person will have no reason to cheat. If you already know everything WHY cheat? If you cheated, you obviously did NOT know everything b/c you didn't prepared for the assignment or exam and therefore you want to cheat to get a grade that you don't deserve. (tell me how else would you define cheating? I am curious...)

It is also morally wrong. Just like stealing and murder. I hope you would report those too!!!

If the professor ask you to do your own homework and you and a bunch of people did it together that is cheating. It might come as a surprise to some, but you should always follow the RULES of the classroom...if you don't then that's cheating. And it is lazy! The reason you want to work in a group instead of doing it yourself is b/c you don't want to work as hard for the grade. You are hoping someone in that group would be more prepared to answer the questions and you can benefit from them answering the questions FOR YOU. Instead of actually doing your own work, you want someone else to do it for you. How is that not lazy?
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All good points SHC. I bolded the parts I thought were best expresed. I do take issue with one thing though - you can work hard and still cheat. They are not mutually exclusive.

Other than that, I basically agreed with you. One counter point to the homework assignment though; in that case the person who is most prepared is volunteering their answers to the group - so is that form of cheating still unfair? I don't see how, the student in questin is volunteering her answers. I also might be inclined to argue that is not lazy to want to work in a group - it is smart. ;) I always do all my own work, but I do like to check my answers before I turn in my work. Cheating? Yes. Unfair? I would argue no.
 
owlegrad said:
This reminds me of something I saw once. A guy got marked off for a question on a lab exam. He noticed someone else answered exactly the same as him (he went around trying to see everyone else's graded papers actually), so he brought it to the professor's attention (in an obnoxious way I might add) and....the professor lowered the other persons grade! Moral of the story?
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This actually happened to me as a kid in fourth grade. I was the person whose grade was lowered. So you could say I learned at any early age never to let people see my tests/quizzes. Sometimes I even lie about my grade on the test/quiz (Telling people I got a 'C.' I did this ALOT in Organic Chemistry) so people wont ask to see my test or become haterz . Sometimes its good to keep a low profile.
 
owlegrad said:
All good points SHC. I bolded the parts I thought were best expresed. I do take issue with one thing though - you can work hard and still cheat. They are not mutually exclusive.

Other than that, I basically agreed with you. One counter point to the homework assignment though; in that case the person who is most prepared is volunteering their answers to the group - so is that form of cheating still unfair? I don't see how, the student in questin is volunteering her answers. I also might be inclined to argue that is not lazy to want to work in a group - it is smart. ;) I always do all my own work, but I do like to check my answers before I turn in my work. Cheating? Yes. Unfair? I would argue no.
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If a person works very hard and still do not understand the material and therefore have to cheat to pass the class...that person DO NOT need to be in a pharmacy school! :laugh: Those are the people you saw me describing in the top 10% thread...those are the people that would scare me if they were to be my pharmacist!!! (do you trust that they can accurately verify YOUR scripts if they were that dumb? sorry to be mean, but seriously!) So yes, we essentially agree on this then!

With homework in undergraduate college and in pharmacy school...there are very little to no homework assignments. If there are homework they are usually NOT graded or count very little of your grade. The point of homework is for you to PRACTICE and understand the material for the exam. Therefore I always use it to my advantage to understand and practice for the exam...I don't usually worry about my grade as much as I actually want to learn the material on HW assignments. I would ask a question on it too if I didn't understand it...and if you want to check your homework assignments with your classmates then that is fine...The point is...HW count very little of your grade. If you want to cheat on 5% of your grade...it is wrong but I won't be too upset about it....it is usually cheating on an big exam that count 40% of your grade that is the big problem to me. Group work can be beneficial, but I never tried it before. The point is, a person will be foolish to just copy someone else's HW questions and not do the work b/c the point of HW isn't about the grade at all, it is about you UNDERSTANDING the material for the exam. That is why HW isn't graded at all most of the time. It isn't about the grade with HW. If a person cheats on their HW and don't understand the material then they are SOL for the exam anyways!!! so I really do not see why anyone would want to do that for themselves.

Lastly, this is how I see it...if a person did really cheat on their HW and got 5% of their grade that they didn't deserved...it won't help them in the long run b/c they will need to know the same material for the exam that is worth 40% to 50% of their grade...and they will NOT be able to do that very well b/c they cheated on their HW..so in the long run it balances out well.
 
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Passion4Sci said:
I'd mostly be concerned with being implicated for cheating myself.

I remember in HS, there was a policy of "both cheatee and cheater will be punished", similar to how both kids (or more than both if more than 2 fighters) in a fight got suspended, even if it was clear as daylight that Kid A socked Kid B right in the face and Kid B just stood there... Kid B would still get penalized.
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Wow, your high school sucked. The fight policy at my high school was that only the person who attacks first gets punished. (This is usually found out when they ask the people who gathered around the fight.) Precisely why, if I knew I was gonna get into a fight, I would never throw the first punch, but I always made sure I got the last punch.
 
I remember my friend cheating in our Yeast Genetics class with his frat bros.
 
It is only when their grade on the exam surpasses mine that I will attemp to inform the teacher...
 
Just recently something relating to this happened. Out of the 5 chem classes (1025,1045,1046,2210,2211), me and this girl have had 4 of the same teachers. For the most part, she has cheated her way through most of her classes. We just got our results for the Jan PCAT. I got in the 91 percentile and she got in the 5 percentile in the chemistry section. She might have the same grades as me but it clearly shows how much she actually learned and how is she going to explain this to adcom IF she gets an interview.

Would I turn in a cheater? No. Do I think its fair? HELL NO. Do I respect any person who cheats? Never.
 
I remember in 7th grade, the kids sitting next to me would cheat off my test. So one day on the math final, I answered all the questions wrong on purpose so they would copy the wrong answers, and then I changed the answers to the correct thing later. I kinda felt bad about causing 2 people to be left back in 7th grade and it definitely alienated me from a lot of the class when they found out what I did.
 
Shadii said:
Just recently something relating to this happened. Out of the 5 chem classes (1025,1045,1046,2210,2211), me and this girl have had 4 of the same teachers. For the most part, she has cheated her way through most of her classes. We just got our results for the Jan PCAT. I got in the 91 percentile and she got in the 5 percentile in the chemistry section. She might have the same grades as me but it clearly shows how much she actually learned and how is she going to explain this to adcom IF she gets an interview.

Would I turn in a cheater? No. Do I think its fair? HELL NO. Do I respect any person who cheats? Never.
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unfortunately there's a way around that bad pcat score. she could apply to cali school that don't look at it. but let's hope she doesn't get in anywhere. scary.
 
i never noticed any cheaters because i always focused on my own exam and work.
why were you looking around at other people taking an exam? were you attempting to cheat? that would be my question to you. when i am in an exam i spend my time accordingly and get out of there.
 
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why were you looking around at other people taking an exam? were you attempting to cheat? that would be my question to you. when i am in an exam i spend my time accordingly and get out of there.
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He stood up and saw the note cards on their laps. Sounds like situational awareness and acute observational skills, something a good pharmacist should be outfitted with.
 
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