STUPIDEST thing I have seen someone do to fail...

[ANF1986]

This is arguably the stupidest thing I have ever witnessed someone do in my 4 years of college. It is the most brazen attempt at cheating that I have ever seen, I have to wonder if the guy was serious. So, I recieved an email from someone in my class. He looked up the list serv and got the emails of every student in the class, and then sent an email to all of us that said :

Can some one who is getting a A please send me a copy of their answers or check mine Please. I really need to do well on this exam or i'm gona get a C. Please help me. Pleaseee.

1. b
2. d
3. a
4. c
5. d
6. b
7. a
8. d
9. b
10. c
11. a
12. d
13. a
14. d
15. b
16. c
17. b
18. c
19. b
20. d
21. c
22. d
23. a
24. d
25. d
26. c
27. d
28. a
29. c
30. c
31. b
32. a
33. b
34. c
35. b
36. d
37. a
38. d
39. b
40. b

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[DrYoda]

I must say those mass emails people send out to the entire class are almost always funny.

Someone did that in one of my classes a couple years ago, but offered $25.

 

[Retsage]

What was it for? A take-home test?

 

[ANF1986]

What was it for? A take-home test?

More like for our FINAL EXAM, which comprises 35% of our grade...Those 40 questions take about 8 hours to answer...

 

[Retsage]

 

[chemnerd89]

This is arguably the stupidest thing I have ever witnessed someone do in my 4 years of college. It is the most brazen attempt at cheating that I have ever seen, I have to wonder if the guy was serious. So, I recieved an email from someone in my class. He looked up the list serv and got the emails of every student in the class, and then sent an email to all of us that said :

You can't deny that was creative.

I had one kid literally Xerox copy someone else's (in the same section) lab report this year in the lab that I TA.

 

[mbe36]

A take-home final in college???!!!

Wow, I wish adcoms took stuff like this into account when looking at peoples' GPAs.

 

[EpiPEN]

this sounds like a poli sci class, maybe cheating the system is the only way to get the A+.

 

[ANF1986]

A take-home final in college???!!!

Wow, I wish adcoms took stuff like this into account when looking at peoples' GPAs.

Thats overly presumptive...How would you suggest that you administer a test which requires hours of reviewing Supreme Court cases, opinions, and secondary documents which support the cases in order to answer the questions? I suppose the professor could babysit the students in a room for 8-10 hours while they comb through the mountains of documents, but that would probably be a huge waste of his time. There is no resource at home which will give you any better of an understanding of the material that wouldn't also be available to you if you had to take this test at school...

 

[Pedsbro]

this sounds like a poli sci class, maybe cheating the system is the only way to get the A+.

From the most recent comment, it looks like it's even worse than a poly sci class...it's a law class!

 

[chewsnuffles]

There is no resource at home which will give you any better of an understanding of the material that wouldn't also be available to you if you had to take this test at school...

Except your cousin who is a lawyer you could call, or one of your dorm mates who took the class last year, or you could even poll the audience!

 

[Japika]

This is arguably the stupidest thing I have ever witnessed someone do in my 4 years of college. It is the most brazen attempt at cheating that I have ever seen, I have to wonder if the guy was serious. So, I recieved an email from someone in my class. He looked up the list serv and got the emails of every student in the class, and then sent an email to all of us that said :

I get a lot of emails kind of like that, of people asking "what's the answer for ...." on assignments.

 

[BluePhoenix]

A take-home final in college???!!!

Wow, I wish adcoms took stuff like this into account when looking at peoples' GPAs.

After the first semester, my undergrad was almost entirely take home exams. Some were timed, some were closed book no notes. While there were definitely ample opportunities to cheat, if that was something you wanted to do, the honor code was something that was taken seriously by both students and faculty and cheating was extremely rare.

Often times, it wouldn't have helped you anyway, because if you didn't understand how to do the problems, no amount of extra time or resources would have helped you and you definitely wouldn't have been able to find someone to give you the solution.

 

[halekulani]

More like for our FINAL EXAM, which comprises 35% of our grade...Those 40 questions take about 8 hours to answer...

it takes 8 hrs to answer 40 multiple choice questions?

 

[DrYoda]

After the first semester, my undergrad was almost entirely take home exams. Some were timed, some were closed book no notes. While there were definitely ample opportunities to cheat, if that was something you wanted to do, the honor code was something that was taken seriously by both students and faculty and cheating was extremely rare.

A closed book take home exam you say? Discovered an oxymoron I have

 

[TooMuchResearch]

A take-home final in college???!!!

Wow, I wish adcoms took stuff like this into account when looking at peoples' GPAs.

All the P-chem exams at my university are take home, yet not a single A has been earned in the class in the last ~10 years. Take home exams can work just fine...

 

[airplanes]

All the P-chem exams at my university are take home, yet not a single A has been earned in the class in the last ~10 years. Take home exams can work just fine...

harsh.

my two cents: any prof who give out take-home exams and expects students to not collaborate is out of his mind.

 

[silverlining1]

A take-home final in college???!!!

Wow, I wish adcoms took stuff like this into account when looking at peoples' GPAs.

Most of my finals in college were take home, and they were HARD. Looking stuff up really didn't help at all because you were expected to analyze/synthesize information, design experiments, etc.

 

[chemolupusMD]

Take home exams are hell, real college take home exams. think about it, the prof is basically saying, i can "try" to cheat, is not like is going to help you. Is the same thing as an open book exam or when they give u a formula sheet for a test. they are not that helpful.

 

[Textuality]

Yeah, I had a friend who went to caltech, ,and almost all the finals were take home, and they knew/expected people to collaborate, but A's were few and far between.

 

[mbe36]

Thats overly presumptive...How would you suggest that you administer a test which requires hours of reviewing Supreme Court cases, opinions, and secondary documents which support the cases in order to answer the questions? I suppose the professor could babysit the students in a room for 8-10 hours while they comb through the mountains of documents, but that would probably be a huge waste of his time. There is no resource at home which will give you any better of an understanding of the material that wouldn't also be available to you if you had to take this test at school...

I don't know....my GF is a graduate Law student and she has never had a take-home exam. Yet, she has plenty of 4-hour exams that require her to produce and analyze in the same manner without the use of complimentary materials.

I just think of an exam as challenging what you have learned and retained and your ability to apply it directly. All of my exams require me to do everything that has been mentioned as a reason for having a take-home exam.

I am not bashing, but I would not promote the practice if I were a faculty member. Sure, few people get A's- but does just about everyone get a B?

 

[Revilla]

Most of my finals in college were take home, and they were HARD. Looking stuff up really didn't help at all because you were expected to analyze/synthesize information, design experiments, etc.

That's what my Genetics exams were almost like. Before the first exam, the teacher gave us a choice -- take-home or in-class. We all thought it was a trick question and, of course, we voted take-home. It was about six pages of the most convoluted analysis/synthesis questions I'd ever seen in any class. Part of it was multiple choice (with about eight choices per question, four of which could have been right), part was short answer, and part was essay. I spent about 15 hours on that exam. When it came time for the next exam, we, as a class, asked her to please give us an in-class exam. It was a much better experience for everyone.

I have to add that I actually think I learned more with the take-home. It required you to really think and formulate your answers and back them up, especially because many of the questions weren't black and white. You had to analyze the information in the text, on the powerpoints, and if you were inclined, through your own research, so that you could make concise points in the essay and answer intelligently in the short answer questions. With the in-class exam -- multiple choice and short answer -- it was more or less what you knew. Either you knew it or you didn't. There wasn't much time for thorough analysis.

 

[Revilla]

I don't know....my GF is a graduate Law student and she has never had a take-home exam. Yet, she has plenty of 4-hour exams that require her to produce and analyze in the same manner without the use of complimentary materials.

Undergrad classes are generally not four hours long. I don't know how things are done at other schools, but at my school, the only time an exam is given outside the regular class time is during finals and those are only two hours.

 

[EpiPEN]

Most of my finals in college were take home, and they were HARD. Looking stuff up really didn't help at all because you were expected to analyze/synthesize information, design experiments, etc.

I feel ya

I took an electrical engineering class back in the day where the professor let us have anything we wanted during the final...





The only thing bringing the book did was to help cushion the heads of my fellow classmates as they banged them against the table

 

[silverlining1]

I feel ya

I took an electrical engineering class back in the day where the professor let us have anything we wanted during the final...





The only thing bringing the book did was to help cushion the heads of my fellow classmates as they banged them against the table

LOL so true. Glad to know there are similar take-home experiences out there. And yea, I actually think I learned a lot conceptually.

 

[cbrons]

this sounds like a poli sci class, maybe cheating the system is the only way to get the A+.

if they go into campaign work or become politicians themselves, itll give them ample experience for what is expected of them in their occupation.

 

[fusionx22]

A take-home final in college???!!!

Wow, I wish adcoms took stuff like this into account when looking at peoples' GPAs.

Someone sounds bitter...lol

 

[chemnerd89]

I feel ya

I took an electrical engineering class back in the day where the professor let us have anything we wanted during the final...





The only thing bringing the book did was to help cushion the heads of my fellow classmates as they banged them against the table

My first P-Chem final was like that. I started to laugh (to keep from crying). But seriously, tests without notes are 99% of the time much more manageable if you know your stuff.

 

[Jtrenier]

Seems like the people who think that take-home tests are easy are the ones who have never taken them. I had one take-home test that was open book for an epidemiology modeling course. We were given one day to complete it. I ended up pulling an all nighter for that test despite the fact that I studied hard for the test and highlighted/marked all the key formulas and concepts in the book and classnotes. It was one of the hardest tests I've ever taken.

 

[rales]

In grad school, we had two weeks for a take home exam with just 4 questions. I got a 62. High grade was a 68. It was absolutely brutal, going to the library to look things up didn't help much, and talking to my classmates was a crap shoot at best - none of us were sure of anything. The problems literally took *days* to answer (if that's what you can call it). My answers ended up taking about 40 pages to write, not counting the plots, tables of results, and listings of the programs I wrote to do the numerical computations.

The class was theoretical nuclear physics and the four questions were open/unsolved research problems - the prof wanted us to take our best shot at solving them. The one question I remember was to work out the identities, isotopes, amounts and sequences of synthesis of elements in stars of various masses. Ouch. The prof wrote on my 'solution': "with this answer, you have successfully undone 500 years of progress in algebra". Ouch again. As far as I know, this problem is still unsolved and likely to remain so for a looonnngg time. Nobody actually *solved* any of the questions, we just spewed a semi-random pile of drastic approximation, unjustified assumptions, unsupportable simplification, incoherent derivation, and unadulterated mathematical bloviation.

Give me an in-class, closed book exam please.

 

[Chemdude]

OP, what if it's a scam? The prof. is trying to see who cheats...it's a conspiracy....."TakeHomeExamGate"

 

[Bacchus]

I don't know....my GF is a graduate Law student and she has never had a take-home exam. Yet, she has plenty of 4-hour exams that require her to produce and analyze in the same manner without the use of complimentary materials.

I just think of an exam as challenging what you have learned and retained and your ability to apply it directly. All of my exams require me to do everything that has been mentioned as a reason for having a take-home exam.

I am not bashing, but I would not promote the practice if I were a faculty member. Sure, few people get A's- but does just about everyone get a B?

Does it matter? You should be worried about your grade.

 

[fizzle]

I just want to say that there is a HUGE difference between a take-home multiple choice exam (like the one the OP is describing) and a longer-answer exam where you have to show your work or write an essay. I've never even heard of the former, but on the latter, even if you do collaborate with others, you do have to do your own work--otherwise, it becomes obvious that you worked with others.

 

[lol.psych]

A take-home final in college???!!!

Wow, I wish adcoms took stuff like this into account when looking at peoples' GPAs.

I'm actually working on a take-home test right now, for a grad level class on enzyme mechanisms (think biochem, but way more intense). It's open-notes, but really effing hard. There's nothing on the internet that would help, because if you look at mechanisms in journals, etc, it would be somewhat different than using the ones discussed in class, and this would be obvious to the professor. Can't ask classmates to help, because that's cheating and nobody (in the class) does that kind of stuff because we're above that. It's not a required course (and it's half the credit value of your average course) so the only people that are in it are the ones that actually interested in it.

Without a doubt, the hardest test I've taken and the hardest class I've taken. Take-home does NOT mean easy!