Sunday, March 2, 2008

cheaters never prosper

i have never in my life seen such blatant cheating before.

sure i've seen cheating in high school. i can proudly say that i've never done it, but i've witnessed a few times. then i got to college, where people think nothing of writing all the answers down on their hands. in my first semester, i had a really easy psych professor who would allow us to take the tests whenever we wanted within the week. i always took it at the earliest time to get it over with. before one test, the guy in front of me asked me if i'd email him and tell him what the questions were about. so i said "uh...i don't think so" to which he replied "why not?" it was all i could do not to laugh in his face "cuz it's cheating?" so he shrugged, turned to the girl next to him, and asked her instead.

in a different class the teacher told us her rules for taking her tests, which she based around the cheating incidents she'd had in her classroom:
1. if you wear a hat to the test, the visor had to be backwards (one guy was going cross-eyed looking up at his visor where he'd written the answer)
2. bottles can't have labels on them (someone actually took the trouble to take off the label, write information on the back of it, and glue it back on the bottle)
3. she checks our hands before she gives out the papers (for answers written on them)
4. ditto for the desk
5. ditto for the back of the chair in front of each person

now it might sound crazy, but it seems to me that it's the only way to prevent cheaters from passing. although it's kind of scary that the guy who is preparing your taxes, or the nice doctor who is setting your son's arm really cheated their way through the system. ok maybe I'm exaggerating, i doubt they would get that far, but it's just scary that i'm in an environment with absolutely no conscience or morals (i was surprised when peter said thank-you after i threw him a pencil)

9 comments:

frumskeptic said...

I don't know why you care so much. Doctors can't get far cheating because they end up doing Residency. So thats where they'd end up screwed. The accountants are responsible if they screw up. Its not really your fault becuase the IRS WILL blame the accountant first. So if he screws up, not really your problem.

I understand you mean more than just those 2 examples, but the truth of the matter is, college is used as a tool (in most cases) to get a certain desired career. If for example I want to be a doctor, why should it matter if I do happen to cheat in Literature. Do you really care if your doctor memorized lines from Shakespeare? do you care if your accountant cheated through basic chem?

I'm all for cheating if its something stupid. No reason to stress or drive yourself crazy over a subject you could literally care less about and only need to take because of stupid bureacratic liberal art requirements.

Looking Forward said...

cheating really does disturb me.

I've seen some similar examples too.

but I've never done it.

I've circulated an old test before, not knowing that he was going to reuse it (he said that he wouldn't), but I've never actualy knowingly cheated (save once in first grade, when I cheated on spelling because I was failing it and I just couldn't do it... I learned my lesson really quick because evidently I wasn't very good at it.)

frumcollegegirl said...

whatever, it just bothers me...although sometimes it's funny to watch people cheat. it doesn't make me dislike someone who cheats, I'm just amazed by it, whatever. it's actually interesting to see the ingenious way some people cheat...

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

ahh I have so many cheating stories of what people do...

Its sad but in my major the Jewish people cheat a lot!

Actually one time last year it was by the midterm and this Jewish guy saw I didn't know some answers so he thought he was being helpful and he told me the answers. Now I didn't know what to do. So I went over to the prof and I told him I didn't understand the questions. So he explained it to me and helped me a little. So then I went back to my seat figured out the answers. Two out of Three were the same as the ones the guy told me, I wrote down my three answers. Happens to be one of his answers was wrong. Anyways, so then the next day in sem I asked my Halacha teacher if I was allowed to write down my answers since I had first heard it from the other guy, and he said yea I was allowed to.

I heard the watter bottle one before. Another one is that in a Jewish boys school where the teachers are non Jewish, in middle of a test all of the boys got up and said they had to pray. So one boy starts with Echad mi Yodeah? and whoever knew the answer would says Achas Shtayim Shalosh or whatever the answer was. Then they would continue for all the questions to the end of the test and write them down. Then they said they were finished praying.

But then there's also test banks the Jewish people get, in the beginning I thought it was cheating to know which questions will be on the test and have the answers guaranteeing a 100, but now I'm not so sure anymore.

frumcollegegirl said...

no, test banks are not usually considered cheating, because the professors know that if they take their tests from there students will have seen it.

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

Today as I was leaving college this guy puts a business card in my hand. Usually I say no thanx, but here he just shoved it in. So then I look at it and it sounds like a cheating factory. Here's a quote:
"Custom Research Assignments, Thousands and Thousand of Reports already on file, we specialize in both graduate and undergraduate work....No job is too big; no job is too small! Same day and next day service is available."

I have the contact info if anyone's interested...lol

frumskeptic said...

babysitter: for an entire year I used to write my cousin's papers for him. In return (only b/c he is my cousin) I had him drive me home every friday :). Then, last year, one of my friends neighbors needed help writing papers. So she gave him my email. I wrote all his papers for 2 semesters. made lots of money, and I feel NO guilt whatsoever.

these were english papers, he's learning to be a nurse.
My cousin is a computer geek, I wrote his english/history papers.

Some people just cannot wrte, or add, or w/e it is... lol.

Like my moms friend had to take summer school b/c she failed Gym!!!
you cant tell me you wouldnt help someone cheat in GYM!

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

lol, so yea they want you to be well rounded in everything that's why there's a requirement. I never had anyone write papers for me, but I'm sure it helps a lot. That's cool you were able to do it for them.

But yea its unfair to make someone go to summer school cause they didn't pass gym!

Jewish Side of Babysitter said...

Frumcollegegirl: I know this is an old post, but I had a final yesterday and it reminded me of one of your posts, don't remember which one it is exactly.

Last night I had a final and it was in a huge lecture hall, so as soon as I walk in, 7 people (I actually counted after) asked me to sit in front of them so that they can copy my answers. They were fighting over where I should sit, of who would get the best view. They said I should write the answers on a scrap paper first with a big letter "A/B/C/D". Then when it came time to start the test, guess what my prof did? He called on people that were close by and he moved them to the front. So the main one guy who wanted to copy my answers got moved to the middle seat in the first row, and the second main guy also got moved, so too bad on them. So cheaters never prosper. The prof is smarter than them.