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I remember it was very common, especially in high school.
Making a "machete" was part of preparing for the exams. It seemed impossible to remember all the formulas. That was a way to feel supported. Having a hidden machete (sorry, I have no idea how to say it in English).
As far as I know, it was a common practice of... I don't know if all of them, but at least almost all of my classmates. I think it can be something cultural, or from some schools, but also individual. I asked my wife and she said, "I never."
I think it's a good way to get to know people's idiosyncrasies.
So my question is, what was your experience as a student? You did it, did you know that others did it?
I only cheated once in public school...accidentally saw a neighbor's answer when I was wondering if I was falling way behind on the test, and looked over to see what page she was on. Saw an answer I didn't know, then seemed stupid not to write it on my paper.
As an administrator, the biggest cheating we had was with Japanese students. They saw it as their duty to help their few fellow Japanese students in the school.
I avoid cheating by making all my tests open-note. I let them use their hand-written notebooks and the tests are on Chromebooks in which I lock down the browser so they can only access the test and nothing else on the Chromebook until they are finished.
In the modern world, one can look up anything they want in a heartbeat. So I'm not so concerned about whether they have formulas memorized or vocabulary memorized. The more difficult thing that demonstrates you really understand the science is being able to decide HOW to solve a particular problem (what formula to use and how to set it up). Or how to apply a certain principle in biology to a new situation that you haven't seen before.
In the end what happens is the A students still get As, the C students still get Cs, and the F students still fail. But I don't stress about whether students are cheating.
Plus, it gives them a big incentive to take detailed notes and keep legible notebooks. The smart students figure out that it is far to their advantage to keep detailed and perfect notebooks which is what I want them to do in the first place. Since writing things down pencil to paper and doing detailed diagrams with colored pencils and such is one of the best ways to learn material.
No, didn't cheat in school. Knew a few kids who did. It ultimately didn't really help them. They were still C kids.
What I never understood in school was the obsession so many teachers had over using notes/using the text. Not once in the real world outside of school was I ever told to do it from memory. Every book, note, resources was available and expected to be used. In some jobs you were even penalized if you didn't have the book open. It was far more important to get it right than to do it from memory.
The kids were to log in, take a test, print it out and hand it in.
There must have been some scheming and planning by two students.
One took the test.
Another one at the same computer, later class, printed out "their test" and handed it in only it had the other student's name on it.
I only cheated once in my life, and got caught. It was in my 9th grade Italian class. For one week, my teacher was given these ridiculous quizzes which were basically matching from a long list of idioms, but without having the list that we were supposed to match to. The results of each quiz from each day that week were added up, and it counted as the equivalent of one test score. So each quiz was not worth very many points. I flunked on Monday and Tuesday, as did nearly everybody else. Many students were very blatantly cheating, and the teacher said she didn't care since it was worth so few points that it was not worth our honor to cheat.
On Wednesday, before the quiz, I was being made fun of by a notorious school bully, who the teacher hated. I complained and asked to be moved to a different seat. So she moved me to the other side of the room, next to the radiator. I then had the idea, to put the list of idioms on the radiator so that I could at least see our choices. I felt that made it a fair exam, since it still did not give away the answers, it just made my choice known. I asked the guy sitting in front of me if I could put the list in front of him, so we could both see it, and so he could cheat too, but that he'd be the one to take the fall if we got caught and she decided to punish us for cheating (remember, on Monday and Tuesday, many other students were blatantly cheating but not punished). He agreed. Unfortunately, the teacher caught me cheating, and somehow knew it was me rather than the guy in front of me. So I got a 0 for the quiz. Ironically, even if I was not caught cheating, I still would have flunked the quiz since it was still hard even knowing what idioms we could match to. And she then yelled at the entire class, saying that in the past 3 days she saw more cheating than she has in her entire life. I had to stay after class. She accused of lying about being bullied so that I'd be moved to be next to the radiator. And she said that I cheated so that the "losers" would accept me. I said that I openly admit that I cheated, but that I really was being bullied, and that I cheated because I felt her exams this week were ridiculous, not to get the "losers" to accept me. On Thursday and Friday, she gave much easier quizzes, and I got 10 out of 10 on both of them. But with the failing grades Monday and Tuesday, and the 0 on Wednesday, it added up to a failing score for the week. But my other grades that quarter were high enough that I still got an A for the quarter.
I felt that my teacher handed the situation right, in that I learned my lesson from the 0, but she never mentioned the incident again, never held it against me, and never tried to ruin my life over a one-time lapse in judgment on my part. Although it was unfair that she was clearly aware of other students cheating but chose to penalize only me. But I can't really complain since I did knowingly and willfully cheat, plus I would have flunked that quiz anyway even if I was not caught.
I was falsely accused of cheating in 6th grade social studies. This teacher falsely accused basically everybody of cheating at some point, including students who were normally the teacher's pets. Nobody got an A in her class. In my case, I was marked wrong on the question I allegedly cheated on (which I got wrong anyway), was not allowed to complete the exam and had any questions not yet answered marked wrong, and I got a 10 point deduction, and I was told that if I complained I'd get a 0. With those penalties, I got a C on the exam. As unfair as it was, I knew it was best to cut my losses and accept the C rather than complain and risk a 0 with no recourse.
One other case where I sort of cheated: in my 9th grade science class, somebody (not me) broke into the teacher's car and stole his grade book. He said we had to give him our graded exams so he could record the grades in his new grade book. If you could not find an exam, you'd have to retake the exam either during lunch or before or after school. What I did was I handed in any exam where I had an A. And any exam where I had less than an A, I pretended to have lost, and retook the exam, memorizing the answers from the first time, so that I'd get an A. I think nearly everybody in the class did this.
I think a point can be made that, right or wrong, students feel justified in cheating on exams or in classes that they feel is unfair. If the teacher is going to fight dirty, the students feel justified in fighting dirty. I am not saying that is right, but it's how people react to unfair treatment by teachers.
I think a point can be made that, right or wrong, students feel justified in cheating on exams or in classes that they feel is unfair. If the teacher is going to fight dirty, the students feel justified in fighting dirty. I am not saying that is right, but it's how people react to unfair treatment by teachers.
Sounds a lot like the Professor Quinn cheating scandal at UCF about 10-15 years ago. There are several Youtubes on it that still pop up.
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