Timeline for Is having access to past exams cheating and, if yes, could it be proven just by a good grade?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
26 events
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| S Mar 15, 2019 at 14:55 | history | suggested | Cimbali | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 15, 2019 at 13:39 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Mar 15, 2019 at 14:55 | |||||
| Mar 12, 2019 at 22:51 | comment | added | Joshua | After the Quantm incident, I am utterly convinced that relying on prior exams being secret is a really bad idea. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 22:27 | comment | added | J-Kun | @AzorAhai Unfortunately, I do not know the professor's view onto these questions, there is a difference between being morally right and being seen as honest. Therefore I wrote "should not" and not "is not". Thus, I would play it safe and not confess. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 22:05 | history | edited | Azor Ahai -him- | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 12, 2019 at 22:04 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | @J-Kun I thought your position was training with previous exams was OK. I don't see how that's compatible with your suggestion to not confess to having one. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:59 | comment | added | J-Kun | @AzorAhai Tests that have been presented to students cannot be considered "closely guarded". That's wishful thinking. It does not matter whether someone remembered the questions well or if they got a real copy of the exam. Furthermore, I would not recommend to confess to having such an exam. That could get you into more trouble. However, discussing with other students is never forbidden, you might have learned about the previous exam questions via that way, so this might be a less risky alternative... | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:51 | history | edited | Azor Ahai -him- | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:49 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | @J-Kun Please see the latest edit. My point is the student should at least know whether the tests are closely guarded or released for everyone. The fact that so many of the questions were similar suggests the professor tries to keep their tests under wraps, and might just want to know how one got out. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:46 | comment | added | J-Kun | I disagree... Training with previous exams should not be considered cheating. There is NO certainty that even a single question matches between exams. Professors reusing questions is NOT the student's fault. We should not punish students for practicing well and using available resources. This is hard-earned success and not sneaky at all. Furthermore, after exams, I often wrote down the questions as far as I was able to remember them. I used this material to practice with other people who took the exams later on, e.g., in the next year. Also cheating? | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:41 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | @Daniel Perhaps I was unclear initially. I was advising the OP that their actions may be looked unfavorably upon by the prof/administration, especially if the syllabus specifically mentions old tests. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:40 | history | edited | Azor Ahai -him- | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:38 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | @Evariste Obviously, if the questions could be accessed legitimately, the OP did nothing wrong. I edited to clarify what situation I'm addressing. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:38 | comment | added | Buffy | You don't need to take a copy home to remember and later write down the questions. I vaguely remember a prof (more than 50 years ago) who warned the class that since fraternities probably had old exam questions, we might be at a disadvantage if we didn't have access to them ourselves. Just a warning to work hard in preparation. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:38 | history | edited | Azor Ahai -him- | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:29 | comment | added | Daniel | @AzorAhai: If someone has a copy of an exam... you might well consider taking the copy as unethical. But reading the copy of a previous exame once it is out is not unethical (we can argue about exact circumstances), but in particular it is not cheating. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:25 | comment | added | Evariste | @AzorAhai Okay I get your point, I've never heard of such a thing, everybody can take their exam home where I live (as far as I know). I was assuming that the exam questions could be accessed legitimately somehow. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:17 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | @Evariste Like I said in my other comment; I have had professors who do not allow you to take your exam home. If someone has a copy of an exam that the professor keeps close to their chest, then someone has done something unethical. It sounds like you're coming from the perspective that anyone who took the test has a copy. If that's the case, then obviously, no one has done anything wrong. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:16 | history | edited | Azor Ahai -him- | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 12, 2019 at 21:05 | comment | added | Evariste | -1 if I could since no cheating occurred (obtaining past exams that have already been used can't be cheating since anybody from the previous years can potentially leak them and it is a professor's duty to enforce justice by preventing cheating. In this case, the only way to ensure fairness is to release the exams publicly so that no one depends on his personal network). Designing new exam questions can be an daunting task but it is the prof's job to do so. It would also not be fair to profs who do their job correctly to use exclusively past exam questions. If it happened, the prof messed up. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 20:26 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | @Buffy I have had some professors who release their exams as a matter of course, and I have others who only let you see your exams in their office and you can't take it with you. Without more detail on the culture/field, we really have no idea what the expectations are for this student. I didn't mean to suggest the student knowingly cheated; but they should know what the expectations are before going into the meeting. I agree a prof who assumes their questions are 100% secret is a bit naive. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 20:00 | comment | added | Buffy | If an exam was given in a previous year you can assume that it was, in some sense, published. Wise professors should assume that the questions are known. It is foolish to assume otherwise. If students are sworn to secrecy on how they are tested, then it is students from prior years who have cheated. I can accept this if "exam that was not released" means only that it was never given previously, nor published in any venue in any form. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 18:48 | vote | accept | Luke B | ||
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| Mar 12, 2019 at 18:46 | comment | added | Azor Ahai -him- | Read your syllabus. Ask your friend. Are the tests posted on the prof's website? Check Rate my Prof to see if anyone mentions released exams. Find out if you were supposed to have it or not. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 18:43 | comment | added | Luke B | Well I think it was released, but I am not sure. It was the first exam for this class, so I don't have any previous exam to know if they release the exam publicly. | |
| Mar 12, 2019 at 18:35 | history | answered | Azor Ahai -him- | CC BY-SA 4.0 |