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Cheating on Exams

I remember an incident when I was in college. I was a computer science major in a small college, so you got to know all of the other students in your major, at least by sight.

There was this one kid who hardly ever came to class, always asking others for help. It was obvious that he wasn't studying and cutting classes. Once he showed up for a mid term exam and sat next to me. It was multiple choice, and it became really obvious to me that he was cheating off my answer sheet after the first few questions.

So I decided that I would mark the incorrect answers, so if the answer was choice A, it would fill in the circle for B, and so on. After a while, I put down the pencil and pretended to review my answers and acted like I was going to go forward to turn in the answer sheet. This dude then gets up, and turns in his answer sheet. I then quickly corrected my own answers and turned in my sheet.

The next time we met in class, he had an F and I had a B. He was pissed! He didn't understand what had happened at all!
Nelson-Haha.jpg

A week later, a bunch of us were taking a break in the computer lab. The same dude comes in and starts complaining how he got arrested the night before. He said that he was drunk and used a black powder pistol to shoot out the front window of a store in his neighborhood. He was a class act all the way! After that, he dropped out, we never saw him again.
 
People cheat. Get over it. Lives do not depend on whether or not a business man knows stuff right off the top of his head.
 
I recall in one of my undergraduate classes this one girl who would walk up to the prof's desk before class, grab a completed homework, copy it, and return them both to the desk regardless of whether or not the prof was there yet. I started holding my homework until he got there fairly quickly.
 
emt1 said:
People cheat. Get over it. Lives do not depend on whether or not a business man knows stuff right off the top of his head.
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Really? Tell that to all of the people that lose their jobs because of bad decisions made by unqualified managers and executives.
 
emt1 said:
Perhaps people shouldn't have been hired to manager positions straight out of college.
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I don't think that's what he's trying to put across... The point is, if you don't learn the stuff in college, you won't know the stuff when you start working. Sure, you can try to wing it in the real world, but it usually does not work out.
 
I put some equations in my TI83/89 in high school a couple of times. Once the professor handed out the equations unannounced anyway and it didn't matter. In college, however I haven't cheated at all...I'm a political science major and almost everything I do is essays written outside of class or long answer essay exams. Even if I wanted to cheat it would be very difficult.

No reason to report it...his loss ultimately, you often wind up applying stuff you learned at the beginning later on anyway. I'd only report it if I saw someone cheating on something more important...like a airplane pilot's written license exam or a medical license exam.
 
imaketouchtheme said:
I don't think that's what he's trying to put across... The point is, if you don't learn the stuff in college, you won't know the stuff when you start working. Sure, you can try to wing it in the real world, but it usually does not work out.
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If someone can't handle the real world because they cheated in college, sucks for them, they shouldn't have cheated.
 
imaketouchtheme said:
I don't think that's what he's trying to put across... The point is, if you don't learn the stuff in college, you won't know the stuff when you start working. Sure, you can try to wing it in the real world, but it usually does not work out.
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^^^ what he said.

emt1 said:
If someone can't handle the real world because they cheated in college, sucks for them, they shouldn't have cheated.
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I don't even know what you're talking about anymore. What does that have to do with your original comment and the responses since?
 
Surely said:
I don't even know what you're talking about anymore. What does that have to do with your original comment and the responses since?
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If someone is going to cheat, they better be sure that it won't actually affect their life or future in a negative way. I think it's also a waste of time to get all bent out of shape about other people cheating, unless it's a situation where the better performance of others could negatively affect you.
 
emt1 said:
If someone is going to cheat, they better be sure that it won't actually affect their life or future in a negative way. I think it's also a waste of time to get all bent out of shape about other people cheating, unless it's a situation where the better performance of others could negatively affect you.
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Who's bent out of shape over this? Certainly not me. I was simply sharing an experience that occured yesterday.

Frankly, I'm more annoyed by your arrogant posts than by the cheating.
 
Surely said:
Who's bent out of shape over this? Certainly not me. I was simply sharing an experience that occured yesterday.

Frankly, I'm more annoyed by your arrogant posts than by the cheating.
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You made the thread, and said that it pisses you off.
 
emt1 said:
If someone can't handle the real world because they cheated in college, sucks for them, they shouldn't have cheated.
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I know this has been replied to and furthermore discussed, but you are, once again, missing the point of this post and discussion. The point is, this was a major final exam, so most likely if he cheated on it, he did not know the information taught in the class and it may be a fundamental part of his future career. Now if this was some little test at the end of a lesson, sure, it probably won't affect him in his future life. But if he relies on cheating in college, you better believe he's going to rely on it in his job. No matter how you look at it, your outlook on this matter is distorted and incorrect. Cheating is not good no matter which viewpoint you look at it from.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you were the type of person that cheated in college.... :rolleyes:

EDIT: Or currently do.
 
imaketouchtheme said:
I know this has been replied to and furthermore discussed, but you are, once again, missing the point of this post and discussion. The point is, this was a major final exam, so most likely if he cheated on it, he did not know the information taught in the class and it may be a fundamental part of his future career. Now if this was some little test at the end of a lesson, sure, it probably won't affect him in his future life. But if he relies on cheating in college, you better believe he's going to rely on it in his job. No matter how you look at it, your outlook on this matter is distorted and incorrect. Cheating is not good no matter which viewpoint you look at it.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you were the type of person that cheated in college.... :rolleyes:
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I'm actually still in college and I'm a psych and pre-med student. Also, I have never cheated, because it's actually important that I know this information off the top of my head, and I want to succeed in life.

If someone else doesn't want to succeed in life, then that's their problem. People just need to stop worrying about everyone else's business and life choices.
 
emt1 said:
I'm actually still in college and I'm a psych and pre-med student. Also, I have never cheated, because it's actually important that I know this information off the top of my head, and I want to succeed in life.

If someone else doesn't want to succeed in life, then that's their problem. People just need to stop worrying about everyone else's business and life choices.
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Referring to bold: I will agree with you on that. Too bad that wasn't your originally idea you posted. ;)

Referring to underline: Of all people to say cheating won't affect your future career, it came from someone in Med School. You should be the one advocating not cheating.... :rolleyes:
 
imaketouchtheme said:
Referring to bold: I will agree with you on that. Too bad that wasn't your originally idea you posted. ;)

Referring to underline: Of all people to say cheating won't affect your future career, it came from someone in Med School. You should be the one advocating not cheating.... :rolleyes:
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1. Where did I contradict myself?
2. I don't really care if some business major wants to cheat. His true abilities will show themselves in the real world, when he starts as a low-level businessman.

I personally think that cheating is pretty stupid, but I'm not going to judge or get upset if someone else does it. It's their life.
 
emt1 said:
You made the thread, and said that it pisses you off.
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Yes, I said it pissed me off. I didn't say that I'm currently sitting here swearing at the ceiling wishing death on the cheater.

emt1 said:
I'm actually still in college and I'm a psych and pre-med student.
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That explains a lot about your posts.

Specifically, this comment you made:
Lives do not depend on whether or not a business man knows stuff right off the top of his head.
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Right, I forgot..... only doctors' decisions are important decisions. Any other decision regarding anything else isn't important in comparison. How could any other decision possibly affect people's lives?

You have much to learn about life, my arrogant pre-med friend. (Pre-med? Doesn't that just mean that you want to go to med school? I guess I'm pre-CEO then.)
 
Surely said:
Yes, I said it pissed me off. I didn't say that I'm currently sitting here swearing at the ceiling wishing death on the cheater.



That explains a lot about your posts.

Specifically, this comment you made:

Right, I forgot..... only doctors' decisions are important decisions. Any other decision regarding anything else isn't important in comparison. How could any other decision possibly affect people's lives?

You have much to learn about life, my arrogant pre-med friend. (Pre-med? Doesn't that just mean that you want to go to med school? I guess I'm pre-CEO then.)
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I can see where this is going. I'll leave with this statement: worry about yourself and where you are going, if other people want to make stupid decisions - let them, and don't let it piss you off.
 
emt1 said:
I'm actually still in college and I'm a psych and pre-med student. Also, I have never cheated, because it's actually important that I know this information off the top of my head, and I want to succeed in life.

If someone else doesn't want to succeed in life, then that's their problem. People just need to stop worrying about everyone else's business and life choices.
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Problem comes is the cheater degrades the value of everyone else degree they got from that school. Have enough cheater go threw the program your degree becomes not even worth the paper it is printed on.
 
My University introduced a new letter grade FD - Fail due to Academic Dishonesty
stays permanently on transcript.

People still cheat , but at least put in more effort and creativity.
When I invigilate exams, I dont goof around, I see cheating , I note it,
maybe even take pics,
and since students have to sign paper as hand in exams, I get to make note beside name.
 
emt1 said:
I can see where this is going. I'll leave with this statement: worry about yourself and where you are going, if other people want to make stupid decisions - let them, and don't let it piss you off.
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Well when the cheaters artificially raise the GPA average for the dept and get better GPA than you , making you ineligible for grants/bursaries/scholarships while they enjoy free money, you might change your opinion.

and yes they devalue YOUR work too.
 
Leareth said:
Well when the cheaters artificially raise the GPA average for the dept and get better GPA than you , making you ineligible for grants/bursaries/scholarships while they enjoy free money, you might change your opinion.

and yes they devalue YOUR work too.
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Well said.

And as others have pointed it, it devalues your program/school/etc as well. If cheaters from School X were hired by Company A based on their [false] academic resume, when they perform sloppy work for Company A and leave a bad impression, Company A may not be so inclined in the future to hire graduates of School X.
 
Boneoh said:
So I decided that I would mark the incorrect answers, so if the answer was choice A, it would fill in the circle for B, and so on. After a while, I put down the pencil and pretended to review my answers and acted like I was going to go forward to turn in the answer sheet. This dude then gets up, and turns in his answer sheet. I then quickly corrected my own answers and turned in my sheet.
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I did this in high school. It annoys me so much when people try to cheat off my work!
 
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