Hey Fonzie, Try This - It's Pigeon Proof

[Max Power]

Ah, remember the good ol' days when people would just "cough" out the answers?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=817&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20021205/ap_on_fe_st/cheating_students

Students Use E-Mail to Cheat on Exam
Thu Dec 5, 8:37 AM ET

TOKYO (AP) - A prestigious university in Tokyo has failed 26 students for using e-mail functions on their cell phones to cheat on their e-commerce final exam, a university official said Thursday.

Professors became suspicious when identical answers, mistakes and all, showed up repeatedly on the final, taken by roughly 500 students in July, said Hitotsubashi University Vice President Takehiko Sugiyama.

He said one student is believed to have left the classroom during the exam and e-mailed answers to his classmates using his cell phone. Twenty-six students later admitted to cheating after performing poorly on a makeup exam, Sugiyama said.

The university decided not to suspended the 26, but they were failed on the test, Sugiyama said.

He said it was the first time Hitotsubashi has had to contend with cheating via e-mail.

[Skip]

As my avatar should indicate, I never needed to cheat as I always knew everything due to a combination of good genetics, hard work, and what in the future turned out to be my 'awesome Mod powers.' ;)

Sorry ... back to your originally scheduled discussion ... while I prepare to take over the world.

[satchel]

As long as there are tests, students will devise new ways to cheat on them. Teachers and professors I know often repeat the well-worn observation that if these students put as much energy into studying as they put into cheating, you probably wouldn't need to cheat.

At the bar exam one of the proctors told me they had to ban M&M's from the exam room because some applicants had worked out a clever scheme for using the placement of M&M's of certain colors on their desks to signal multiple-choice answers to one another.

A related foible that law students fall victim to is not exactly cheating, but the widespread distribution of course notes and outlines containing erroneous statements of law in them. During my first year, one of my professors highlighted the danger of this to us. At the beginning of the second semester of the course, she said she'd encountered in our first semester finals about 30 exams (out of 120) that all contained the same error. She didn't accuse anyone of cheating on the exam, but cautioned us strongly against using the course outlines widely available on the internet. (I don't think my exam was one of the 30, if you are wondering! ;) )

[KCBOOMER]

Originally posted by Max Power
The university decided not to suspended the 26, but they were failed on the test, Sugiyama said.


I am an avid supporter of the US military acadamies. None of these institutions are immune to students attempting to cheat, but their reaction is certainly not the cowardly way this school took. At the academies if you cheat and get caught you're gone. The magnitude of the cheating is immaterial. To me that is the proper way to deal with such a situation.

[sweaver]

Originally posted by satchel
At the bar exam one of the proctors told me they had to ban M&M's from the exam room because some applicants had worked out a clever scheme for using the placement of M&M's of certain colors on their desks to signal multiple-choice answers to one another.
Ah, yes. The "m&m code." :loud:

Teaching for as long as I have, I have come across several episodes of cheating. I usually handle it within the confines of the class. One of the best was a few years ago, while I was still teaching high school. A student had a bottled water, and had inserted the "cheat sheet" inside the label of the bottle. I happened to spot it as I passed out the test, confiscated it, and she had to take the test without.

Most students who cheat in my class either get a zero, or have to take the test over sans notes or help. However, I once had two guys who sat in the back, and would pass their tests back and forth, with both of them working on each test. They couldn't even pass the test working together, so I let it go. And they thought they were fooling me.

[JamesI]

I once had a prof who made us turn our baseball caps backwards in fear of our writing notes on the bill of the cap.

If I catch a student cheating, their test gets taken and they are refered to academic review.

[satchel]

Originally posted by JamesI
I once had a prof who made us turn our baseball caps backwards in fear of our writing notes on the bill of the cap.


That was another ploy mentioned by the bar exam proctor. Baseball caps were also forbidden in the testing room.