What would you do if you saw someone cheat?

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casillas

casillas

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I had my final in Cell Biology today and in the middle of the class the guy next to me pulled out a paper and clearly cheated off it. But i am the only one who saw (i think). What would you do if you saw this?

I took so long to think about it that he put away the paper. and i also did not want to be "that person" who told on someone. :(
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do what feels right to you. personally, i'd let it slide because in the end the dude's just cheating himself (cliche'd i know..) and it doesn't affect me one bit (provided i do well on the exam, the onus of which falls on me anyway)
 
I would tattle tell on that person so quickly. I mean come on dude(talking about the one who cheated) you are in college no room for cheating especially in an upper level biology class. Quite frankly I get disgusted by people like this. Freaking punks.
 
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Like what was said before do what you feel would be right. But for me he is hurting himself, and it will come back to bite him in the long run.. But I dont believe that I could run and tell on a person... But thats just me.
 
Yea if it were me, I wouldn't tell either. Wouldn't affect me. If it were med school, it would be different I think, because the things we learn there will make us better doctors.
 
Incidentally, this was a mock interview question I had...I gave the idiotic, I'd go talk to this random person who I've never come into contact with previously and tell him to repent for his sins type spiel...in reality, I've seen this happen and let it go by, I know what you mean about not wanting to be that one guy...

But, I remember turning in a test and hearing 2 other students silently pointing out to the prof. a third sitting in the classroom...he didn't actually catch him so nothing was done, but the prof. did talk to the guy and tell him he was accused of cheating and he'd be watched...(this class was based on a bell curve if you couldn't guess)

Go with what you feel...if you do tattle, I'd do it anonymously, I don't want to be recognized as the pissy little pre-med who tattled on someone...(camo, no offense to you, i'm not saying i wouldn't tell, jsut saying i'd do it quietly...def. not calling you a pissy pre-med, i want to avoud future confrontation)
 
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If professor curves the grade, then his cheating does in fact affect you. I had a human physiology course (400 level), the curve was based on how many points it would take the highest grade to reach 100. There was always this one guy who use to bust out a 100 and ruin the curve for everyone.

Personally, I would be pissed if I found someone cheating specially if I had to pull an all nighter for the exam. In your case, I would in fact snitch but after everyone cleared out the room. He/she would not suffer the consequences this time around, but there is always another test or a quiz. :nono:
 
haha it's cool.

Look I have had to tell on a person for cheating because I was working at the time in the lab and the class was taking their A&P practical. the dude kept pulling out his cell phone trying to look all inconspicuous, but I busted him.

He had cheated in previous classes and other students had caught him. So in this case I told the teacher that was in there at the time. It was obvious he was Wikipedia crap. piss me off. trying to cheat on my own watch. ha

So all in all, I would play it on a case by case basis. I mean not every time I would go run and tell the teacher, I merely put that because I had my previous example described above in mind.
 
I wouldn't run up and tell the prof right away but when I turned in my test I'd mention that I thought a person was cheating especially if they were blatant about it like pulling out a paper. If I thought they peeked at the person next to them I'd stay quiet because they probably couldn't get more than 1 answer. A cheat sheet is pre-meditated though and somehow I think thats worse
 
red10 said:
I wouldn't run up and tell the prof right away but when I turned in my test I'd mention that I thought a person was cheating especially if they were blatant about it like pulling out a paper. If I thought they peeked at the person next to them I'd stay quiet because they probably couldn't get more than 1 answer. A cheat sheet is pre-meditated though and somehow I think thats worse
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Agree. :thumbup:
 
I'm usually not the type to tell -- I would just silently get extremely ticked off. If the teacher didn't see him, telling on him probably wouldn't make a difference. Most teachers won't bust a kid unless they saw him themselves.
 
usfbull14 said:
Incidentally, this was a mock interview question I had...I gave the idiotic, I'd go talk to this random person who I've never come into contact with previously and tell him to repent for his sins type spiel...in reality, I've seen this happen and let it go by, I know what you mean about not wanting to be that one guy...

But, I remember turning in a test and hearing 2 other students silently pointing out to the prof. a third sitting in the classroom...he didn't actually catch him so nothing was done, but the prof. did talk to the guy and tell him he was accused of cheating and he'd be watched...(this class was based on a bell curve if you couldn't guess)

Go with what you feel...if you do tattle, I'd do it anonymously, I don't want to be recognized as the pissy little pre-med who tattled on someone...(camo, no offense to you, i'm not saying i wouldn't tell, jsut saying i'd do it quietly...def. not calling you a pissy pre-med, i want to avoud future confrontation)
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Hilariously, there are people who would actually go through with that idiotic answer you gave. I actually had some random premed come up to me and say that he 'saw' me cheating and that I should repent. I wrote somebody's contact info on my wrist and I guess it looked like notes. I told him he did the right thing and thanked him for enlightening me. What a d*mb*ss. :laugh:

To the OP - unless your school has an honor system, you are not obligated to snitch. In fact, snitching wouldn't do any good, since you are the only one who saw him cheat and have no other evidence to back up your claim. It is the instructor's responsibility to make sure there is no cheating.
 
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Key his car. I know it sounds awful but... O Well
 
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i wouldnt tell. i dont like ruining futures =/. he can do whatever he wants...if he gets ahead, power to him, but i doubt that will happen.
 
ReptarBar said:
i wouldnt tell. i dont like ruining futures =/. he can do whatever he wants...if he gets ahead, power to him, but i doubt that will happen.
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as much as we all like to think that cheaters never prosper in the long run, there are a lot of scummy people who do get ahead from dishonesty. Hell, we put a lot of them in places of power
 
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thats fine. as i said, power to them if they get ahead by cheating. wont make any difference in the working world. however, they run the terrible risk of messing up their futures as well.

i mean its not like the school system we have in place is for everyone. im sure countless people couldnt realize their potential just because they were bad test takers. im not gonna get involved in someone else's role in this strange system.
 
To BerlinDude,

That is simply sad. I really cannot say anything else, because I felt like a complete douche making up that answer, but to actually follow through...you'd have to be socially incapacitated to pull that off...I applaud your patronizing, I would have done the same lol.
 
ColeOnTheRoll said:
I wouldn't mention it. That kind of crap really makes me furious, but it's not worth stirring up a storm for one idiot.

Hopefully he'll be duly punished at some point in the future.
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hey cole, just out of curiosity where do you go to school in dallas?
 
i heard david ortiz got expelled from school for plagiarizing the mitchell report
 
ah okay nice. good school. my parents went there.
 
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Too bad it's the final. If you ever see it happen again just make a fake email account and email hte prof about it. Maintain anonymity and make hte prof a little sharper for next test. This question type has come up before on sdn. Everyone bagged on me for being willing to rat the guy out. :D
 
usfbull14 said:
Incidentally, this was a mock interview question I had...
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There are plenty of different opinions all with good back up

hypothetically speaking..what if it was your friend who cheated and you caught them



hmmmm.. which answer do yall think an interviewer from the admission committe would be looking for if ever asked this question?? because honestly i cant see anybody ratting out their friends in real life.. :confused:
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LastPolarBear said:
Too bad it's the final. If you ever see it happen again just make a fake email account and email hte prof about it. Maintain anonymity and make hte prof a little sharper for next test. This question type has come up before on sdn. Everyone bagged on me for being willing to rat the guy out. :D
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It's okay bro I have ratted out one person for cheating. Your not the only one :thumbup:
 
I saw a guy cheating off a set of papers he was hiding during a Genetics test. I was definitely ticked off, but I didn't tell the professor. I figured it would come back to get him sometime. Turns out he got caught a little while after I left.
 
would it be possible to answer "no i would not turn him in" in an interview and get away with it?
 
ReptarBar said:
would it be possible to answer "no i would not turn him in" in an interview and get away with it?
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prob only if you backed it up like you would try to intervene without the professor. if you just flat out said no...well that'd be interesting to see
 
SFANJUM said:



There are plenty of different opinions all with good back up

hypothetically speaking..what if it was your friend who cheated and you caught them



hmmmm.. which answer do yall think an interviewer from the admission committe would be looking for if ever asked this question?? because honestly i cant see anybody ratting out their friends in real life.. :confused:
​
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Yeah, I panicked, even though it was a mock interview...thinking back, if it was a friend, I would have said that I would feel obligated to talk to my friend about it first...people make mistakes and should get a second chance to redeem themselves. I suppose I would say that if it happened again, I would suggest to the professor to keep a lookout at person X.

I can't actually imagine reporting a friend though, it's just not natural to screw over a friend...
 
ok yea in a curved class where a cheater can screw everyone else over, there is no excuse. what about in an uncurved class, though? is it my duty to turn him in? no one else is being helped/harmed but himself? what if he had compelling reasons to cheat? what if hes just trying to make it through college despite being a poor test taker?
 
ReptarBar said:
ok yea in a curved class where a cheater can screw everyone else over, there is no excuse. what about in an uncurved class, though? is it my duty to turn him in? no one else is being helped/harmed but himself? what if he had compelling reasons to cheat? what if hes just trying to make it through college despite being a poor test taker?
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Don't have pity on the guy.
 
There are some guys in my class that cheated a couple of times in my OChem classes (both I and II)...they would keep the flashcards of the reactions on their lap. F***** up if you asked me. They're my friends so I would never tell on them, but me and my other friends were pissed about it, especially when they get better grades than us. Oh well, it all shows through in the end right?
 
It will catch up to him eventually. I had one professor who emailed the whole class about people who had been cheating and would be receiving F's in the course. Embarrassing and career killing.
 
ilovebiology said:
There are some guys in my class that cheated a couple of times in my OChem classes (both I and II)...they would keep the flashcards of the reactions on their lap. F***** up if you asked me. They're my friends so I would never tell on them, but me and my other friends were pissed about it, especially when they get better grades than us. Oh well, it all shows through in the end right?
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You would think right? But sometimes I wonder and this is just a thought. If I were to cheat my way through Undergrad, study my ass off, get a private tutor and find every advantage I could use for both the MCAT and my undergrad. Then being the slick cheater I am I get into Harvard, and combining (Cheating, Some All nighters, and being a slick guy) I graduated near the top of my class from Harvard Med School.. Would I still be a cheater or would I be kind of like some baseball players.. "Hey I just found a loophole"..

I guess its all up to the person, but personally could I live with myself if I cheated my way through school and ended with a Ivy league Medical degree... Hard to say..
 
ReptarBar said:
what if he had compelling reasons to cheat? what if hes just trying to make it through college despite being a poor test taker?
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:laugh:

I have stated in past threads that I am not in the business of policing anyone. However, turning a blind eye is quite different than being stupid. If a hypothetical cheater used the "just trying to get by with the cripping condition of bad test taker" :)lol:), I would turn them in. Not because they cheated(which as previously stated I don't care about), but because they insulted me.
 
red10 said:
prob only if you backed it up like you would try to intervene without the professor. if you just flat out said no...well that'd be interesting to see
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Yea, well that's exactly what I'd say. What am I, the morality police? It's the school's responsibility to catch cheaters.

If I get asked that question I'll let you know how they like my answer.
 
everyone seems to be saying they would let it slide, or go tell the professor anonymously.

what if this was actually an interview question? would anybody change their answer??

just curious
 
No one's said blackmail yet? Man, you guys are too nice.
 
I was taking one of the first tests of my first semester of college. The room was packed, people were seated directly next to each other. I got the feeling that this guy on my right was looking a little more in my direction than he should. This feeling continued throughout the test and got a little more obvious. I was sure he was looking at my paper. I glanced at his paper, and sure enough, he was working on the exact same part of the test as me, answering the exact same questions! (it was one of those where you could pick 8 out of 10 questions to answer per section or something like that). I was highly irritated and distracted. I didn't say anything, but when I got up to hand in my test, I hastily wrote on a piece of paper "next time you cheat you should be more careful," handed it to him, and walked away. I never saw that guy in class again. In retrospect, I probably would have handled that differently, but I'm not sure how. I hope I'm not put in that situation again.
 
not so calm now said:
I was taking one of the first tests of my first semester of college. The room was packed, people were seated directly next to each other. I got the feeling that this guy on my right was looking a little more in my direction than he should. This feeling continued throughout the test and got a little more obvious. I was sure he was looking at my paper. I glanced at his paper, and sure enough, he was working on the exact same part of the test as me, answering the exact same questions! (it was one of those where you could pick 8 out of 10 questions to answer per section or something like that). I was highly irritated and distracted. I didn't say anything, but when I got up to hand in my test, I hastily wrote on a piece of paper "next time you cheat you should be more careful," handed it to him, and walked away. I never saw that guy in class again. In retrospect, I probably would have handled that differently, but I'm not sure how. I hope I'm not put in that situation again.
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I would have written "look over here one more time and I'll turn you in" on my test while he was copying. either that or I woulda put the wrong answers down and then gone back and fixed them while putting my hand over the answer so he couldn't see.
 
Report it.

I don't lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do.
 
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