Cheating at Universities is more common than you think

[UWdude]

I was here a while back, and I said something to the effect that cheating happens all the time at universities, to which I got a bunch of "nuh-uhs" and "prove its". I couldn't, and still cannot find the poll in which 50% of university students admitted to having cheated at least once, but it is out there somewhere.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/business-15749628/students-busted-for-cheating-22954742

I want you all to take special note of the student at about 2:10 here.

Note his shocking take on cheating. This is not uncommon, especially in business schools. I have actually seen girls on their laptops looking at a website to buy papers before. I have heard a guy on his cell phone talking extensively about his hustle, eventually saying, "I am tired of selling papers, that's why I am trying to set up this non-profit". This was on his cellphone in a computer lab, while he was writing someone's paper.. for an economics class.

I love the commentators at the end, in typical American fashion, cringing their noses at not the cheating itself, "well maybe everybody cuts corners here and there" but, the matter of fact way the student said it, "but to say it in such a fashion".

But this doesn't end at the Universities. These cheaters go on in life, and they knife their way to the tops of corporations and pension funds. Cheaters win all the time, no matter what little fairy tales your momma told you when you were young. If cheating was not a good way to get ahead, then people would not do it.

 

[Madalch]

I quite frequently get papers that have obviously been written by the same person (even though they've got the names of two different students on them). They get zeroes, and letters are written to the dean.

 

[UWdude]

I had a professor that got a paper from a football player, the issue was about race, and the writer's race and the students race didn't match... ...he gave the student a D. My professor nonchalantly told me this in casual conversation.

 

[UWdude]

I also had a professor from Russia that told us schools over there had a way to combat cheating:

tests were verbal. The professor asked you questions in private, and you had to answer them verbally.

 

[pgwenthold]

I quite frequently get papers that have obviously been written by the same person (even though they've got the names of two different students on them). They get zeroes, and letters are written to the dean.

I had that happen this year. I failed them both, and written letters to the Deans and departments.

My syllabus clearly states that the penalty for doing that is to fail the course. They did it. They failed.

If you "quite frequently" get papers like that are obvious, then you need a more forceful policy to prevent it.

 

[keale]

When i was in college there was a group a students that used their pagers to send the answers to each other on the tests that were multiple choice type.

 

[Madalch]

I also had a professor from Russia that told us schools over there had a way to combat cheating:

tests were verbal. The professor asked you questions in private, and you had to answer them verbally.

I am under the impression that a number of European countries still give oral exams, including Germany and the Czech Republic. The only oral exams I ever had in Canada were in graduate studies (one of them being the thesis defense, and the other a candidacy exam).

I remember reading about Werner (famous German chemist, did a lot of work with coordination compounds) and his oral exams- he'd ask questions such as "What is the percent by mass of phosphorus in phosgene?" Requires a great deal of thought if you're guessing at the formula for phosgene, but very simple if you know that it's 0%.

One student was asked, "What are the oxides of bromine?" (At the time, no bromine oxides had been made, since they're extremely unstable.) She guessed, "BrO2?", and he replied, "And....?" After three or four similar guesses, she was told the exam was over.

After telling her friends that she had passed the dreaded Dr. Werner's oral exam with one question, they laughed in her face and assured her that she had failed. So she went back to the exam room, poked her head inside the door, and asked, "Excuse me, Herr Professor, but I did pass, didn't I?"

In response, he threw a chair at her.

I always tell my students that story the day before they do their evaluations of me- it makes me look kind, considerate, and patient in comparison.

 

[drkitten]

I quite frequently get papers that have obviously been written by the same person (even though they've got the names of two different students on them). They get zeroes, and letters are written to the dean.

I stopped giving them zeros and started failing them on the spot.

I no longer "frequently" get them. Word gets around quickly.

 

[elgarak]

I am under the impression that a number of European countries still give oral exams, including Germany and the Czech Republic. The only oral exams I ever had in Canada were in graduate studies (one of them being the thesis defense, and the other a candidacy exam).

I remember reading about Werner (famous German chemist, did a lot of work with coordination compounds) and his oral exams- he'd ask questions such as "What is the percent by mass of phosphorus in phosgene?" Requires a great deal of thought if you're guessing at the formula for phosgene, but very simple if you know that it's 0%.

One student was asked, "What are the oxides of bromine?" (At the time, no bromine oxides had been made, since they're extremely unstable.) She guessed, "BrO2?", and he replied, "And....?" After three or four similar guesses, she was told the exam was over.

After telling her friends that she had passed the dreaded Dr. Werner's oral exam with one question, they laughed in her face and assured her that she had failed. So she went back to the exam room, poked her head inside the door, and asked, "Excuse me, Herr Professor, but I did pass, didn't I?"

In response, he threw a chair at her.

I always tell my students that story the day before they do their evaluations of me- it makes me look kind, considerate, and patient in comparison.

Indeed, while I was studying to become a physicist in Aachen, I had to take oral exams. Standard class test were written (typically two per semester in the physics courses, and they were big deals. 2 hours long on a Saturday, under strict supervision). Additionally to that, I had to take oral exams in dedicated fields after 4 semesters in experimental physics, theoretical physics and chemistry (to get the "Vordiplom", pre-diploma, roughly equivalent to a bachelor. There was also a written math exam), and again at the end to get my Diploma (again, experimental and theoretical physics, my self-chosen special field, either solid state or elementary particles, and an elective, not taught by the physics department, in my case astronomy). The oral exams were one-on-one with the prof, plus an assistant doing a protocol, lasting for about 30-45 min. Typically no accessories. You got a pencil and paper to jot down a diagram or a formula, nothing more.

In the written exams, cheating was hindered a lot. Typically no accessories (usually, just a calculator in some classes. Programmable, but not graphing or alphanumeric display and keyboard). Students seated far apart (every second row, two empty seats between each pair of students). 4 or 5 assistants (PhD students of the professor) patrolling. Paper was provided.

From what I hear, things have changed. Instead of the standard diploma curricula, a lot of universities have switched to a bachelor/masters program. In some cases, departments have simply renamed the pre-diploma/diploma degrees, but usually the whole curriculum has been re-organized (to give out degrees that are easily recognized internationally, and to reduce the length of the curriculum. At my time, the program was intended to get the diploma in 8 semesters/4 years. The average in my time was 15 semesters [for the physics degree], and [male] students typically started with 21 or 22, after military service. Girls were typically a year younger).

 

[Travis]

I find that weird because I never cheated in college nor did I know anyone that ever did (or at least let me know they did).

 

[DarthFishy]

It's really quite bad here as well. I've gotten Assignments that are copied verbatim from Wikipedia (which was one of the sources given for discussion in class!)

Other students here have over 50% plagiarism levels for their dissertation proposals! It's gotten so easy to cheat or to plagiarise that it's really become a very wide spread phenomenon.

I personally blame liberal teachers of course

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

I find that weird because I never cheated in college nor did I know anyone that ever did (or at least let me know they did).

Seconded. I remember being vaguely aware that there were places where people could go to buy prewritten essays, and I remember one professor saying that he'd recieved one once, and could recognize the writing style, but I never knew anyone who said they'd done that.

I'd be a fool to turn in a purchased paper in any case. I tend to have a distinctive writing style.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

I remember reading about Werner (famous German chemist, did a lot of work with coordination compounds) and his oral exams- he'd ask questions such as "What is the percent by mass of phosphorus in phosgene?" Requires a great deal of thought if you're guessing at the formula for phosgene, but very simple if you know that it's 0%.

I love questions like this. I've had professors who would test this way, and it's my favorite way to take a test. I remember an anatomy test where my question was something along the line of 'name every structure from the kidney to the lung, in the order a blood cell passes through them'.

I would have been able to answer the percentage of phosphorus in phosgene too, even if I didn't know the structure, as long as I remembered the warnings about handling chloroform. There's no phosphorus in that, so there's no phosphorus in any of its breakdown products either. (as long as my hearing was working fine, and I didn't think he'd said phosphine)

 

[Alan]

I know of one time that people at uni cheated. It was on a test about mathematical things within psychological research. The week afterwards, the tutor said that they knew that a few people cheated. I can't remember the consequences, but I think it was a conspiracy by some people in the two tutorial groups. I assume they got zero.

Oh, and there were signs up everywhere about what plagiarism is and what the consequences were. But I hadn't heard anything about somebody doing that.

 

[Two Toed Sloth]

While in a medical physics exam, someone asked the invigilator if they could go to the toilet. About 5 min later he came back, and then 5 min after that a man came in wearing rubber gloves and asked him quietly to follow him out the room.

Why the rubber gloves? I have only speculation.

That was only notable as it was an actual exam, I've seen people cheating in the class tests all the time, the gits.

 

[Aepervius]

At the programming course, psysic diploma, back in the 90s when it was not widespread, I was the only one which had passing note.

At the exams, the university asked me to go into a separate room, because suddenly everybody was throwing eyeball to my paper, and there is no way I could work without somebody looking.

They still found the way to go into the toilet , and throw a paper to me thru a window asking for answer.

Yes, in university cheating is widespread, for the first years. But on the second, or third or even last year, cheater usually get caught very quick, as the number of people dwindle. By the time I was in Quantum Mechanic specialisation, tehre was no cheater at all as far as I can tell.

 

[UWdude]

Yes, in university cheating is widespread, for the first years. But on the second, or third or even last year, cheater usually get caught very quick, as the number of people dwindle. By the time I was in Quantum Mechanic specialisation, tehre was no cheater at all as far as I can tell.

I would bet in economics classes, as well as other liberal arts, it continues for all the years, especially since the difference between 100 level courses and 400 level courses is not that big.

I find that weird because I never cheated in college nor did I know anyone that ever did (or at least let me know they did).

When I was in high school, I was pretty sure nobody smoked weed, (except maybe the rockers).
Come to find out, its use was widespread. If you aren't in the culture, you may never even know it exists.

 

[Delphinium]

Cheating has always happened but I really wonder why, because it's always seemed to me that if you plagiarise or fake something that the person you're cheating is you. Even if it seems the easier route to somebody, what they've lost is an opportunity to learn as well as risking an even bigger loss if they get caught out and end up being failed.

 

[UWdude]

Cheating has always happened but I really wonder why, because it's always seemed to me that if you plagiarise or fake something that the person you're cheating is you. Even if it seems the easier route to somebody, what they've lost is an opportunity to learn as well as risking an even bigger loss if they get caught out and end up being failed.

In many types of classes, especially economics classes, the whole point of going to college is to make connections, not to necessarily learn anything.

(as you can see, I have an axe to grind)

 

[TragicMonkey]

Apparently another student tried to copy my answer in a history exam once. It was a pretty foolish move, since it was an essay. Doubly foolish because we were allowed to pick our own topic, anything from Roman history. Triply foolish because this was me, and I had a habit of writing essays arguing ridiculous things (imagine that). The professor was mightily amused, said he certainly never expected to receive two essays arguing that Constantine's conversion to Christianity was subterfuge to disguise his membership in the Mithraic cult, and he was just hiding it from his mother due to an unresolved Oedipus complex.