Cheating on exams in college

[SSmith]

I was accused of cheating on a project my last semester of undergrad in a class that I had a 99.6 in.

The project was to use some simulation software to optimize the production of a multi-stage distillation column based on certain parameters. The only access to the software was the department's computer lab. I had just worked ~4 hours in the morning to finish up the project before a weekend and another group came in from the same class to work the same assignment.

About a week later I get a call from the Dean wanting to talk to me about some urgent matters. It ends up that another group had the same exact work as I did on that project and wanted an explanation.

I suppose that my surprise at the whole situation wasn't enough, nor my explanation of how cheating occured that I didn't know about. So I was docked a letter grade for the class bringing me down to a 89.6 without the option to round it up to a 90.

I found out a few years later that the group didnt copy the work at all. The software did not automatically reseed the random number generator until either instructed to reseed it OR shut down the program. Of course training was extremely limited with the software (and didnt include the role of random number generators at all). So when I got up from the computer, I did the curteous thing and left the program up for the next group.

It still bothers me to this day. AND to rub salt in the wound, the professor that made the allegations is one I have to use as a PE reference due to the limited number of PEs in the Army working combat developments... I am still waiting for his comity reference letter. :angry:

 

[ODB_PE]

It still bothers me to this day. AND to rub salt in the wound, the professor that made the allegations is one I have to use as a PE reference due to the limited number of PEs in the Army working combat developments... I am still waiting for his comity reference letter. :angry:

How does that work? Isn't the reference supposed to be making a specific statement as to your character? Did he ever acknowledge that he erred in his accusations?

 

[SSmith]

How does that work? Isn't the reference supposed to be making a specific statement as to your character? Did he ever acknowledge that he erred in his accusations?

In the sum of my working experience with the Army, I have worked with exactly 1 PE. So to get up to the requisite 3, I have had to use previous coop PE supervisor and the one PE in the department. So that is why I have to use him. The topic has not been brought up since then short of an offhanded remark that he was glad lawyers didn't get involved with the whole situation. That can be interpreted either way I suppose. I just make sure to send a copy of my resume to show my professional development. It hasnt been a problem so far; but if it ever got raised, I would be glad to have a frank conversation about it.
The bottom line is that I didnt cheat. Regardless of what their "punish everyone" policy assigned blame. If it was a character issue, I would probably be more inclined to not talk about it.

 

[Dleg]

^Have you sent him your explanation? Maybe you should - maybe he still remembers that.

 

[ALBin517]

I think the root of the problem is that, for years, tech schools got complaints from employers that their graduates did not work well with other people. So when I went back to school (2000-2002) we were constantly given group assignments. Then the time for testing or individual assignments came around and it was tough for some to go from constant sharing to not sharing at all, with anybody.

The worst cheating I saw might not have been really cheating. It was in a soils final exam. Somebody had uploaded the entire exam from the previous semester (same instructor) onto their TI calculator. Then the sharing started. Probably 80% of the class used TI and I'd guess 95% of them had the previous exam for the exam. I felt I did as well as other exams but I went from 10% above the class average to 10% below the class average. The prof told me he was surprised that I did not improve as much as everybody else. I wanted to tell him what was up but who was I going to be asked to group-up with the following semesters? After graduation, I told the prof via email but he never replied.

 

[EM_PS]

I think the root of the problem is that, for years, tech schools got complaints from employers that their graduates did not work well with other people. So when I went back to school (2000-2002) we were constantly given group assignments. Then the time for testing or individual assignments came around and it was tough for some to go from constant sharing to not sharing at all, with anybody.
The worst cheating I saw might not have been really cheating. It was in a soils final exam. Somebody had uploaded the entire exam from the previous semester (same instructor) onto their TI calculator. Then the sharing started. Probably 80% of the class used TI and I'd guess 95% of them had the previous exam for the exam. I felt I did as well as other exams but I went from 10% above the class average to 10% below the class average. The prof told me he was surprised that I did not improve as much as everybody else. I wanted to tell him what was up but who was I going to be asked to group-up with the following semesters? After graduation, I told the prof via email but he never replied.

Yeah, TI's are great for that - they really outta be outlawed in undergrad, at least for tests anyway. I found that the warm, fuzzy group dynamic you speak of usually resulted in 1 guy who knew what the hell was going on, and the others in the group riding along on his shirttails. I think i would rather have cranky loaners working for me, than know-nothing, lazy do-nothings - this coming from one of the guys who usually knew what the hell was going on, resulting ironically in someone preferring to not have to work with other idiots (i mean people of course).

 

[klk]

I found that the warm, fuzzy group dynamic you speak of usually resulted in 1 guy who knew what the hell was going on, and the others in the group riding along on his shirttails.

Yeah, this happened to me a bit in college - I would help one of my close friends with the homework and really try to explain it to her so she would hopefully grasp the concepts when it came to test time. She would then let one person copy her assignment, who would let another person copy it, and so on. By the time I went to compare my answers with others to make sure I hadn't made mistakes, nearly everyone in the class had the same answers as me because they had essentially copied "my" assignment. I didn't really care too much as these people usually didn't do so well on the exams . . .

I didn't see any cheating going on during tests, although I'll never forget the first engineering class I took with my then-boyfriend (who is now my husband). We took dynamics together, and he wasn't aware of my test taking techniques (I fill in the scantron at the end b/c I think its more efficient). Well he didn't know that and when he glanced over at my scantron half way through the final exam (it was empty) he thought I was failing the exam and started panicking and trying to show me his answers. After going into the exam with a better grade than me, his final exam score brought down his entire grade for the class and I beat him by half a letter grade. We weren't competitive or anything . . .

:17:

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

My wife did her PhD work at Dartmouth. They have a pretty strict honor code there from the sounds of it.

There were two students in one of her math classes that turned in identical homework assignments regularly. Homework was supposed to be individual for this class. One day they just suddenly weren't there anymore. Turns out they were expelled by the school's judicial committee. Since they weren't students anymore, their student visas were revoked and they were both sent back to China.

 

[EM_PS]

^^ good thing China's got WAY better schools!

wrong thread. . . .

 

[engineergurl]

^^ good thing China's got WAY better schools!
wrong thread. . . .

:Locolaugh:

 

[Samzmom08]

I know a PhD student in my class used cheat note during the exam, got suspended permanetly. Prof. said that this person, especially at doctorate level, should have known better not to cheat.

 

[Carlito]

I know a PhD student in my class used cheat note during the exam, got suspended permanetly. Prof. said that this person, especially at doctorate level, should have known better not to cheat.

This is unbelievable!

What a hopeless sod!

 

[hountzmj]

Cheating was rampant at my school for the first 2 years I was there. The professors just tended to write the exams in such a manner as that it didn't matter if you cheated or not because cheating generally didn't help.

By the time junior year rolled around the vast majority of the cheaters had moved on to other programs. At that point the professors started allowing us to have a "cheat sheet" of formulas, notes and such for exams. That really leveled things out. Pretty soon there wasn't anyone left who had been a cheater in the first place.

--hountzmj

 

[sehad]

If you were caught cheating at my university it was automatic dismissal from the university. NO QUESTIONS ASKED! To me cheating can be overlooked in highschool to an extent but it only hurts you in college. You don't learn the matieral and you have a test 4 years after you "cheated" your way through college that is virtually impossible to cheat on!

Out Engineering department had block classes, meaning that engineering students took a progression of classes together. I took most of my engineering classes with the people I started with my freshman year. Most of our homework was group oriented that fostered a leadership and meeting deadlines atmosphere as well as dealing with multiple personalaties. I think this served me well, so cheating on homework was not an issue. This was undergrad of course, not sure how the masters program worked.

But, can you really be prideful in something that you had to steal from others to get? My gpa was not impressive but I finished the program in 4 years without cheating. This means more to me than finishing with a 3.6 or better but not doing the work myself.

 

[Katiebug]

Did I see it? Honestly, I was usually too busy concentrating on my own test or exam to be looking around the room at what everyone else was up to!

Most classes allowed you to do homework with others as long as you handed in your own problem set. For my junior and senior years I actually did most of my studying with two friends, and it was genuinely collaborative. Some of the other little study groups weren't so collaborative and one person would wind up doing 3/4 of the work and the others would ride their coattails. I got lucky in that regard.

I know people cheated on homework. I know this because I worked as an undergrad TA and grader for Intro to Machine Design during my senior year. The prof's policy was that you had to show all of your work; you couldn't just write down an answer and have that be acceptable. I saw so many situations where little cliques of students would all have the same answers, the same exact equations and formulas written in the same order, and eventually towards the end of the problem set inevitably a few of them would just copy the answers only from their friends. They were not given credit for those answers anyways, so after a month or so most of them gave up and just handed in the problems they finished.

Nearly all of the engineering professors had homework as no more than 10-15% of the overall grade, so even if you "cheated" on homework, you were only cheating yourself out of being able to handle the projects/labs/exams.

For class projects when not otherwise specified, I wasn't above searching on the Internet for examples or similar questions that might lead me to a solution method. My course grade in Finite Element Methods was based solely on three projects, the first of which was demonstrated almost verbatim by an ANSYS tutorial at another university. We let the professor know, and he added an optional extra credit portion for those who were interested in taking it further than the other school's tutorial. I did it (let's just say it involved wine, wine bottles, and uncorking them - a no brainer!).

In grad school (for business, not engineering) there was no need for anyone to cheat. I found my management degree to be absurdly easy in comparison to my undergrad engineering coursework. If someone had needed to cheat in that program, they were probably too stupid or too lazy to have been admitted in the first place. However, I did find that some classmates would take advantage of team projects to sit on their laurels and do nothing, then take credit for the work.

 

[sehad]

I had a class with my roommate. I saw him cheating on an exam in out classes. Here's the question.........Obviously I didn't turn him in or point and say oooohhhhhhhhh.

Is it ethically wrong not to turn someone in if you catch them cheating?

 

[EM_PS]

that's a tuffie! With the honor code system @ certain colleges / universities, its pretty much spelled out that it would be your duty of righteousness to turn in the offender! but getting caught at cheating is often hard enuff. . .how are they going to 'catch' a perp who did not 'do' his civic duty?

 

[sehad]

If a tree falls and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

 

[IlPadrino]

I had a class with my roommate. I saw him cheating on an exam in out classes. Here's the question.........Obviously I didn't turn him in or point and say oooohhhhhhhhh.
Is it ethically wrong not to turn someone in if you catch them cheating?

"A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do"

 

[sehad]

"A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do"

Flashbacks from my father when I was 13!!