Would you report it to the TA if you saw someone cheat?
I saw a trad student use her iphone during a quiz and told the TA.
I haven’t seen cheating with my own eyes at my school, but I know it happens and that many trads do bring it to the prof’s attention. Before our second biochem exam last fall, the prof announced that we would have assigned seats because he had received emails from students angered by cheating they saw during the first exam. Similar thing in orgo - mandatory assigned seats for exams. Prof said students requested it because they were upset by cheating they saw among strategically seated groups of friends. Some of these “kids” work hard and are just as irritated about cheating as I am, so if I do see it myself I probably won’t report it because I am confident that someone else gladly will.
Yeah, have seen cheating, seen other students see cheating, thought I saw the instructor see cheating, and found out later that no one owned up to seeing anything and no one was caught nor was anything done to stop it. I go to a small school and am pretty sure I will will say something along the lines of, “didn’t you get the message about turning off your cell phones during this exam?” out loud the next time and see what happens.
- Switzerland Said:
I haven't seen cheating with my own eyes at my school, but I know it happens and that many trads do bring it to the prof's attention. Before our second biochem exam last fall, the prof announced that we would have assigned seats because he had received emails from students angered by cheating they saw during the first exam. Similar thing in orgo - mandatory assigned seats for exams. Prof said students requested it because they were upset by cheating they saw among strategically seated groups of friends. Some of these "kids" work hard and are just as irritated about cheating as I am, so if I do see it myself I probably won't report it because I am confident that someone else gladly will.
Are the seats arranged stadium style? There could've been a Flying V at play.
Orgo was stadium seating, biochem just a gradual upward slope to the room. My school is pretty small.
I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea what a flying V is, and a quick google search was fruitless - care to explain?
Interesting topic. I have seen students cheating by looking at others’ papers and have not reported it. If I saw a lot of it and felt it was giving a significant advantage to them, I would talk to the professor and ask him or her to prevent it in order to level the playing field - but even then I would not likely give names.
I don’t really understand why people cheat for pre-med. You have to KNOW the material for the MCAT, so what’s the point? Getting an artificially high grade does nothing but set you up for a hard landing. It seems to me that we need accurate assessments of our mastery of the material, so if I can’t get it right on my own, I’d rather get it wrong.
Interesting to see what others think on this.
- Switzerland Said:
Orgo was stadium seating, biochem just a gradual upward slope to the room. My school is pretty small.
I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea what a flying V is, and a quick google search was fruitless - care to explain?
I have to admit, I have absolutely no idea what a flying V is, and a quick google search was fruitless - care to explain?
This is a form of copy-cheating. The person whose exam is going to be copied sits in a seat toward the front. People who are going to copy sit diagonally behind (both left and right, or possibly just right, as this has a better view if the desks are right handed). Then more people fan out behind them. Since this one involves a lot of people, you usually see people from some sort of group do it- an athletic team or a fraternity/sorority. To the view in the instructor, the group sits in a 'V' shape. It's hard to catch this one as with good stadium seating, the line of sight to an exam in a row in front of you won't be terribly far off from your own exam, or you can play it off as thoughtfully staring into space.
It's easier to beat it than catch it. You can do assigned seating, which prevents anyone from sitting in formation. Having multiple forms of the test helps too.
Bottom line? Remember: bad students don't cheat. Good students cheat. If your bad students cheated, they wouldn't be bad students. They'd be good students. And in general, good students are the ones smart enough to come up with good cheating schemes as well as execute them successfully.
As for the origin of the phrase, check out “The Mighty Ducks”. You should be able to find relevant video on YouTube.
That is a difficult question. I would be too scared to cheat on an exam.
That being said, I understand why one might succumb to the temptation when under massive amounts of pressure.
If it didn’t have an effect on my grade then I probably wouldn’t mention it to the professor, but if it is graded on a curve I definately would.
Also, even if you tell the professor, there is then the issue of the professor being able to do anything without proof. Of course they will be able to prevent it in the future.
If a professor witnesses cheating and doesn’t do anything about it that is even sadder.
In one of my undergrad classes, there was a girl who I was certain was having an affair with the professor, there were many signs of it. She told me she had taken him every semester and had always gotten an A, then she didnt show up for the midterm or final and most of the classes and she just acted very strangely around him and was always staying after class.
It is sad but lack of ethics probably impacts students’ grades more than we even are aware of. I am far from perfect, but given the ethics we witness in society these days, does it surprise you that these things happen?