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Don't EVER cheat in College.
- Thread starter Mark Wilson
- Start date
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
I had a number of take home exams in college while getting my degree in mechanical engineering; none of these tests were meant to "weed out" anybody.
The exams were usually made up of three or maybe four questions, each of which would require enough design and number crunching that students completing the exam within the 75 minutes of one single class period was unrealistic.
Good for you on that one. I had the same thing happen to me, except I was the one cheated off of, and was accused of it. The other guy never admitted to it to the professor, but I had plenty of drafts, timestamped on my computer that proved that I had done the work and revisions myself. Needless to say, I didn't fail that class, but my "friend" did.
From the master, himself.
You messed up, but this is a good lesson for kids my age. Don't cheat because it isn't worth it. Instead, bottles up!
move to South Korea.
Here it's not called cheating, it's called cunning. Different cultures see it very differently.
When a CEO in Korea gets caught stealing millions, there is a large group of people saying, "that dude's a genius, but got caught". If he's with a big company, it's possible the guy will be pardoned and put back in a position elsewhere to do it again since he's so "smart". I don't think may people in the West think highly of Berney M.
This is not a rip on Koreans at all, it's simply the way another culture views the same action. It was hard to wrap my head around for a long time but it's sinking in.
Here it's not called cheating, it's called cunning. Different cultures see it very differently.
When a CEO in Korea gets caught stealing millions, there is a large group of people saying, "that dude's a genius, but got caught". If he's with a big company, it's possible the guy will be pardoned and put back in a position elsewhere to do it again since he's so "smart". I don't think may people in the West think highly of Berney M.
This is not a rip on Koreans at all, it's simply the way another culture views the same action. It was hard to wrap my head around for a long time but it's sinking in.
When I give a test to my class, I tell them, "Undetected cheating will go unpunished. If I catch you cheating, you will get an F in the class, and you can talk to the Dean about whether you get to stay in school." No cheaters yet ... that I know of.
I only give take-homes, not in-class exams. It's mostly because I think that taking a week to go think and write is a better way to show what you've learned (and to remember it later) than trying to scribble down whatever you can remember on the spot in an hour (and stayed up till 3 am cramming) and then forget it all an hour later.
It also means that honor code is a matter of plagiarism, not cheating. Almost every semester I get one or two who think they can get away with cutting and pasting off a wikipedia page. That's instant F for the course, but I don't usually try for further disciplinary action -- I guess I generally assume the F is punishment enough.
My worst case was a guy before I had the instant F policy -- I just gave him an F on the individual assignment and let him try to continue to pass the class. He proceeded to plagiarize AGAIN! I was stunned by that one -- I don't know how he ever thought he would get away with it when he'd been caught already.
It also means that honor code is a matter of plagiarism, not cheating. Almost every semester I get one or two who think they can get away with cutting and pasting off a wikipedia page. That's instant F for the course, but I don't usually try for further disciplinary action -- I guess I generally assume the F is punishment enough.
My worst case was a guy before I had the instant F policy -- I just gave him an F on the individual assignment and let him try to continue to pass the class. He proceeded to plagiarize AGAIN! I was stunned by that one -- I don't know how he ever thought he would get away with it when he'd been caught already.
Cheating is normal in central European universities. Many professors and administrators here are plagiarists. Most of the students I catch are shocked when I fail them for cheating on exams or plagiarizing essays. I was once warned by the administration not to fail a student for cheating.
It's a hard lesson to learn. Be glad you got a chance to repent of it, and still have a chance to make good with the rest of your education. I wish you well.
ah, the little reminders of the relative nature of human perception.
I haven't had that happen, but I did have one incident with a professor for my women's studies course. We were assigned to watch a film of choice, and of course, being that its a "womens studies" prof, extra high sensitivity is brought to the forefront to make sure that all men are "honest."
One of the films was "Trans-America", which I chose on the basis that the local blockbuster video had run out of all the other film options.
I wrote a good original essay (IMO) and turned it in. Later on I heard from the prof she thought I may have copied a review, given I didn't give uber-detailed descriptions of particular "attention getting" scenes. I called her bull and pulled out the dvd, asking "what do you think this is for? doubling my pleasure?"
She got the clue and realized her mistake and walked off.
True story.
One of the films was "Trans-America", which I chose on the basis that the local blockbuster video had run out of all the other film options.
I wrote a good original essay (IMO) and turned it in. Later on I heard from the prof she thought I may have copied a review, given I didn't give uber-detailed descriptions of particular "attention getting" scenes. I called her bull and pulled out the dvd, asking "what do you think this is for? doubling my pleasure?"
She got the clue and realized her mistake and walked off.
True story.
In my university physics course the professor made certain we knew that it would be considered cheating to store certain types of information in our programmable calculators and that he would randomly check during tests.
I guess since there were about 150 students there are some who figure it's better to play the odds and cheat and hope to not get caught. Wrong decision for several people. Every test day the prof would wander around the auditorium and once in a while ask to see your calculator. He would poke around in the memories and if it was clean he'd hand it back and move on. In about half of the tests we had that year he'd catch someone cheating and then immediately fail them from the entire course.
I guess since there were about 150 students there are some who figure it's better to play the odds and cheat and hope to not get caught. Wrong decision for several people. Every test day the prof would wander around the auditorium and once in a while ask to see your calculator. He would poke around in the memories and if it was clean he'd hand it back and move on. In about half of the tests we had that year he'd catch someone cheating and then immediately fail them from the entire course.
I had a math prof last semester that would walk around and clear the memory on all programable graphing calculators during exams.
lowsound
Never felt the need to cheat. As corny as it sounds, the only person you're cheating is yourself.
This is true. After you graduate, the grades you got are worth squat. The knowledge and skills you acquired are what counts.
