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Old 03-14-2019, 09:10 AM   #41
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I taught composition for many years, so I ran into plagiarism from time to time.

The most imaginative student took an essay from another source, one with which I was familiar, and went through the essay changing words here and there, using a thesaurus to help him.

I recall reading through the essay thinking it sounded familiar, but I wasn’t quite sure why it was ringing bells. It also just sounded off, somehow.

I finally twigged his method when I ran across the word “necromancy,” in a phrase something like “the necromancy of summer,” which he’d changed from “the spirits of spring.”



Once I broke his “code,” he and I had a talk, and he ended up dropping my class.

I was recently reminded of this incident while watching”Lark Rise to Candleford,” in an episode where a character did the same thing with an Andrew Marvell poem for a poetry contest.
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Old 03-14-2019, 10:45 AM   #42
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Not cheating, exactly, but I had lot of contacts with people who were ahead of me in my degree programs and I made a big effort to get old tests. At Georgia tech, they called it "word", as in, "have you got word on professor X's physics class?" I always knew the material, but often there was a tricky question or two. I'd study and understand the intricacies then wouldn't get caught out on those. I felt a little guilty if the prof re-used an old test that was exactly the same. Rarely happened, but sometimes I'd get a 4 year pile of old tests. And to add to the guilty, I paid it forward or backward to the students who followed me. But typically, for me, the difference with and without the old tests was no more than upgrade from a B+ to an A.
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Old 03-14-2019, 11:15 AM   #43
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In college, I exchanged free rides home (4 hour drive) for a 3-page paper for someone in "rocks for jocks". It took me less than half a day to research and write the paper, and the guy got probably his only "A" on that paper.

I had a bit of an ulterior motive...that guy and I later ended up dating for about three years.
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Old 03-14-2019, 11:17 AM   #44
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I beg to differ, gaming the system, not cheating exactly is like being a little pregnant. Anyone can rationalize their behavior anyway they like but cheating is cheating and only you know that you didn't complete the tests fairly.
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Old 03-14-2019, 12:04 PM   #45
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Tough crowd, is all I'm going to say!
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Old 03-14-2019, 12:06 PM   #46
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Originally Posted by HadEnuff View Post
When I was in high school, sophomore year I think, (whatever year we studied World History in those days), the teacher had us sit in assigned seats for all tests, and he'd move all of the desks away from each other, as far as he could given the limitation of the size of the room.

For the final exam I found myself right in front of him, with my desk touching his desk. I liked history, and didn't need to cheat, but if I'd needed to, when I looked up I was staring right at the test key he had out so he could grade the tests as we finished them.
Or he thought very highly of you not to cheat even if you had answers right there!
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Old 03-14-2019, 12:18 PM   #47
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I beg to differ, gaming the system, not cheating exactly is like being a little pregnant. Anyone can rationalize their behavior anyway they like but cheating is cheating and only you know that you didn't complete the tests fairly.
I'm going to say the Prof/TA was lazy and repeated questions

We had much the same at our Fraternity. Test files. If there were files on a course I would cover the questions. Same in the CPA prep courses. Besides the material covered there was a ton of previous questions. I covered those extensively

Rocks for Jocks...LOL...that was Space & Stars. Known easy class you could pair with a heavier load term
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Old 03-14-2019, 03:36 PM   #48
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In high school I handed a paper into one class that I had already used for another class. It was cheating but not copying from another. I don't think I have thought of that incident in years. Is there a statute of limitations on this?

I'm sure I will burn in hell for this one.
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Old 03-14-2019, 03:44 PM   #49
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Originally Posted by sengsational View Post
Not cheating, exactly, but I had lot of contacts with people who were ahead of me in my degree programs and I made a big effort to get old tests. At Georgia tech, they called it "word", as in, "have you got word on professor X's physics class?" I always knew the material, but often there was a tricky question or two. I'd study and understand the intricacies then wouldn't get caught out on those. I felt a little guilty if the prof re-used an old test that was exactly the same. Rarely happened, but sometimes I'd get a 4 year pile of old tests. And to add to the guilty, I paid it forward or backward to the students who followed me. But typically, for me, the difference with and without the old tests was no more than upgrade from a B+ to an A.

That is not cheating at all.. but it can come back to bite the person doing it...


I was taking a summer course which is really short... the first day the prof said we would have a test each Fri... and that there were examples of his tests in the library (come to find out a number of profs had them there... I never knew)...



SOOO, first test I get a 93 and I am in the lower half of the class!!! Second test I do better 96 or so IIRC... but still at the mid point... I was thinking that there were a lot of smart people in the class..


Come the third test and I am in the upper 90s on my grade... the only person in the 90s.... nobody was in the 80s.... nobody was in the 70s... a few high 60s and then a bunch much worse than that...



Well, the first two test were exactly the same... all questions the same and in the same order... as you can guess, the third was not... some people noticed and tried to remember what was discussed in class, but not that well... others never did notice and got in the 20s...
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Old 03-14-2019, 03:48 PM   #50
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Scholarship athletes getting " extra help" in remaining academically eligible so they can still play on the team. What is in the news lately,wealthy parents in bribing and paying huge sums of $$$ to get their kid into prestigious schools to be set up for success.
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Old 03-14-2019, 04:08 PM   #51
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Originally Posted by sengsational View Post
Not cheating, exactly, but I had lot of contacts with people who were ahead of me in my degree programs and I made a big effort to get old tests. At Georgia tech, they called it "word", as in, "have you got word on professor X's physics class?" I always knew the material, but often there was a tricky question or two. I'd study and understand the intricacies then wouldn't get caught out on those. I felt a little guilty if the prof re-used an old test that was exactly the same. Rarely happened, but sometimes I'd get a 4 year pile of old tests. And to add to the guilty, I paid it forward or backward to the students who followed me. But typically, for me, the difference with and without the old tests was no more than upgrade from a B+ to an A.
I noticed that DS's frat house (at a top ten engineering-orientated university) had extensive files of past exams as well as assignments, projects and papers written by earlier residents. Pledges were assigned the task of keeping things filed and organized and spent lots and lots of time doing so. The cabinets filled a small room.

This was years ago. I'm sure today they've added computerization and scanning the documents and establishing a search function.

I suppose it's a benefit of belonging to a "nerd" fraternity at a tech-orientated university.
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Old 03-14-2019, 04:12 PM   #52
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At engineering school - had a final exam that was traditionally very difficult. I loved the subject and knew I would have no trouble at the exam.

We were in a large lecture hall and everybody was setup by the proctor to be about 4 chairs apart. After about 10 minutes, I guy that I knew sat right next to me and proceed to unabashedly look at my test. This was a two hour exam and I promptly closed my test book and sat there for the next 60 minutes knowing I could do the test in less than 1/2 the time available. They guy decided to wait me out but finally gave up after 60 minutes of me staring forward.

He moved next to somebody else and copied off them - proctor was an idiot and reading some harlequin romance book throughout the test.
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Old 03-14-2019, 04:27 PM   #53
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Originally Posted by sengsational View Post
Not cheating, exactly, but I had lot of contacts with people who were ahead of me in my degree programs and I made a big effort to get old tests. At Georgia tech, they called it "word", as in, "have you got word on professor X's physics class?" I always knew the material, but often there was a tricky question or two. I'd study and understand the intricacies then wouldn't get caught out on those. I felt a little guilty if the prof re-used an old test that was exactly the same. Rarely happened, but sometimes I'd get a 4 year pile of old tests. And to add to the guilty, I paid it forward or backward to the students who followed me. But typically, for me, the difference with and without the old tests was no more than upgrade from a B+ to an A.
I did something like that. I think it was differential equations, there were a bunch of classes but all were going to use the same final, and I found out which professor was making the final. One of my friends was in his class and I got all of his old tests from the year. I worked through them again and again and the test was hard but I got the highest grade in the class, maybe even all classes, and brought my grade up from a B to an A+.
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Old 03-14-2019, 04:29 PM   #54
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In High School algebra class a good looking blonde girl sat next to me. She never paid any attention to me except on test day because I usually got top scores on the tests. I saw her trying to copy so I just used my arm to shield my answers. The teacher never noticed.
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Old 03-14-2019, 04:30 PM   #55
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I reprogrammed a simulator so I could pass the unbeatable Kobayashi Maru test at Starfleet. Oh wait, that was Captain Kirk in Star Trek.
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Old 03-14-2019, 04:41 PM   #56
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In high school I handed a paper into one class that I had already used for another class. It was cheating but not copying from another.
If it was actually your paper and your work, why is that cheating?

In college by carefully selecting the topic I once was able to use the same term paper for three different classes in the same semester and got an "A" in all of them. I did do the work, it was in fact my paper, and it met the criteria for all three classes. It never occurred to me that anyone would consider that cheating.

The worst part of course was that this being pre-computer days I had to retype the extra two copies.
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Old 03-14-2019, 05:08 PM   #57
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One case of cheating was so blatant it was ridiculous. A group of students from another country all spoke the same dialect. They talked through l throughout the whole test in their dialect. It was obvious to us other students they were group working the problems. Finally a student went to the teacher and complained. Teacher refused to do anything about it or stop them from talking.

Another case was widely used for a few tests. The teacher had two sections of the same course. He didn't care which section you attended. So students enrolled in the afternoon section would attend the morning section. In test days that means they got to see the test and smuggle it out of class... Then retake it that afternoon, having the advantage of books, groups of students, etc, to solve the problems in between the morning and afternoon section. Again, other students reported it to the teacher and it took him a while to believe... But after the midterm he took attendance on test days and if you weren't enrolled in the morning section, you were kicked out and denied the opportunity to take the test in the afternoon. That ended that scheme.
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Old 03-14-2019, 05:16 PM   #58
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If it was actually your paper and your work, why is that cheating?

In college by carefully selecting the topic I once was able to use the same term paper for three different classes in the same semester and got an "A" in all of them. I did do the work, it was in fact my paper, and it met the criteria for all three classes. It never occurred to me that anyone would consider that cheating.

The worst part of course was that this being pre-computer days I had to retype the extra two copies.
You did it even better then me.

Why is it cheating? Well, let's put it this way I would not have wanted my teacher to know I reused a paper from another class. So if it's not cheating it sure isn't something honorable.
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Old 03-14-2019, 07:00 PM   #59
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Another case was widely used for a few tests. The teacher had two sections of the same course. He didn't care which section you attended. So students enrolled in the afternoon section would attend the morning section. In test days that means they got to see the test and smuggle it out of class... Then retake it that afternoon, having the advantage of books, groups of students, etc, to solve the problems in between the morning and afternoon section. Again, other students reported it to the teacher and it took him a while to believe... But after the midterm he took attendance on test days and if you weren't enrolled in the morning section, you were kicked out and denied the opportunity to take the test in the afternoon. That ended that scheme.
Wow! Big classes with multiple sections always had exams at one time only, in the evening. Apparently, MegaUni had a process for this and it always worked out without conflicts, except that it conflicted with beer drinking.

I disliked those mega-classes because of that. Thankfully, they were few in number. Things like Psych101, Physics101, etc. All times were published well in advance for those who had conflicts like jobs. Beer drinking was not a job or acceptable conflict.

I remember one time the professor was late to the 7PM final. We were about to leave (all 200 of us) when he came in harried. He said someone stole a box of tests. So, he created ad hoc questions on the fly, writing them on the chalkboard.

I did well on that exam!

Turns out, the "stolen" tests were covered by a painter's tarp. Duh-oh! He gave everyone the option to keep the score or dump it. I kept mine.
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Old 03-15-2019, 04:51 AM   #60
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When I was in grad school I was proctoring a history exam when I noticed a young woman constantly looking down into her lap. A common cheating method (male and female) is to have note cards on your lap during an exam. However, when I did a circuit around the room, I saw nothing untoward. After I got back to the front, the lap referrals began again. I am convinced that the young lady either had note cards under her skirt or had written notes on her thigh. But I was NOT going to confront her. What would I say, "Young lady, what are you hiding under your skirt?"
I had a somewhat less than successful student in class that tried a similar tactic but was using her cell phone in her lap. Cell phones were not permitted in class or had to be turned off and put away or get a "0" on the test. She was willing to take the chance. I could see her hide the cell phone as I walked around the class. At one point the cell phone dropped from her lap onto the floor with an accompanying noise. I could see she was in a panic. I knew her grades were low enough she was not going to get more than a "D" for the semester so I let it go to see what she would do. She couldn't take the chance of picking it up right away so she waited until she handed in her exam to pick up her books that were on the floor to retrieve the cell phone. Anything that she was able to get off her cell phone didn't help. She dropped the class soon after and lost out on her tuition and time. I guess she saw the "writing on the wall".



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