Yesterday (Tuesday, March 27, 2007), I went to write one of my first final exams. I had done some studying (not as much as I would have liked to, but I did study hard). The majority of Saturday I had spent reading through the PowerPoint (we didn't have a textbook) plus handouts and class presentations. I even briefly looked over the mathematical formulas.
By the evening I was pretty impressed with myself - my exam isn't until Thursday and I'm studying already? Wonderful. However, while talking with my cousin I realized something was not quite right. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Turns out I had my exam dates mixed up. Instead of having all day Monday (no classes), most of Tuesday (just two classes) and almost all of Wednesday (just one evening class) to spend studying I only had Monday. That's correct. Instead of the exam being Thursday morning like I had thought, it was actually Tuesday morning. Woah. Not a good thing.
By the time I realized this it was almost Sunday morning and there wasn't much more I could do that night. I scribbled off an e-mail to Ruschen one of my group members asking if we could meet on Monday for an emergency math tutorial (it's never been my strong point) and went to bed.
Sunday I tried to relax and keep calm, cool and collected. I told some of my friends at church about my upcoming exam and one of the girls graciously agreed to lend me her calculator. (A girl's got to have her priorities: why spend money on a calculator when you could just as easily spend it on shoes - especially since you'll end up using them more?) In the afternoon I talked with friends back home and went out for dinner with my Aunt and Uncle who were visiting from Luxembourg.
After dinner things got serious. I had my notes still had my notes from Saturday spread out on the dining room table so I just sat down and started studying. Now, I have never claimed to be good in math. And throwing Greek symbols into the equation? Yeah. Not what I do for fun.
Monday morning I was up early - after all I couldn't sleep in with a clear conscience, I had an exam to be studying for. I had the whole morning to study on my own and study I did. I worked and reworked calculations from in class and from the work booklet. There were three formulas that the lecturer had stressed (here are the German names - no clue what they are in English - maybe the same?): the Bayes-Prinzip, the μ, σ – Regel and the Bernoulli-Prinzip. Simply by reviewing some of the class PowerPoint slides and then sitting down and working on a few problems I managed to figure out parts of the equations. Any questions I had I wrote down to ask Ruschen later.
At 13.30 I meet Ruschen for our math study session. She was great. She was very patient and not only answered my questions but also offered to help me with other calculations. We'd been working for about an hour when two of our classmates came into the room. They sat down at the table behind us and between laughing about the weekend's escapades they loudly read through their notes. Ruschen and I ended up taking a break and the four of us chatted for awhile. One of the girls pulled a sheet of note paper out of her day planner; "During class I took notes of everything I didn't quite understand. I know the a and the b formulas already, but I didn't quite get the c, d, e, f and g formulas so I'm putting them on my cheat sheet. I'm looking over the rest of my notes tonight and then compiling my sheet." I looked at the speaker, raised an eyebrow and asked her to explain. I'd heard a few things about cheating in Austria but I wanted to hear it straight from the source. And did I ever.
"It's quite simple. You just write down what you need to know and hide it up your sleeve until the exam starts. Or you write on your arm and wear a long sleeve shirt. If you're good you never get caught. And if you do get caught there's not much that they do. Sometimes you have to re-write the exam sometimes you just get a lecture. Everybody cheats so they can't really control it. It's a gentleman's crime."
Ah. I see. Well. Tomorrow was going to be interesting. If for nothing else than watching Austrian students write an exam.
My math session with Ruschen over and having been "educated" on the ways of cheating I headed home. My head was spinning - partially because sigma and mu were bouncing around in there and partially because I had a decision to make. A few weeks ago the instructor had said I could bring in my German/English dictionary. Theoretically a dictionary would be perfect to smuggle in a cheat sheet. I could even smuggle in a whole handful of sheets. On the one hand I could try the exam with what I knew and on the other hand I could try this cheating phenomenon. Yeah. Decisions.
In the end I spent the rest of the night studying. I reviewed handouts from the group presentations, practiced a few more calculations and went to bed.
Tuesday morning dawned bright and early. Too early...especially to be going to write an exam. At 8:15 I strode into the classroom, found a seat in the second row and arranged my things: pens, pencil, dictionary, calculator and water bottle. Cheat sheets? No. I'd decided not to. The exam had just started when one of the class heart throbs rushed into the room, flung his stuff down and took a seat. The instructor shook his head no and pointed to the seat beside me. Great. Or not.
You would think that once the instructor says "Go" things would calm down and students would concentrate on their work. Not quite. At least they didn't in this exam. I've never been in a situation like that.
I know students in North America are not angels (maybe they are at your school, but at my school cheating does happen. And when you're caught - oh my, there's hell to pay). Back home we're threatened with expulsion if we are caught cheating - the same goes for plagiarism. Academic dishonesty is taken very seriously.
What was going on around me was something I had never experienced before. Students whispering to each other and leaning over to copy off of each other's exams. I'd never have believed it had it I not seen it. Ever had the feeling you're being watched? Yeah. I had that. At one point Mr. Class Heart throb leaned over and whispered "Sarbanes-Oxley Act", I shook my head and muttered something about not knowing. He looked at me "No, for you: Sarbanes-Oxley Act." I glanced at him, looked down at my exam and flipped to the next page without writing anything down - needless to say he didn't try to read my exam or give me any more answers.
The last fifteen minutes of the exam were the worst. Students actually turned around in their chairs: "Hey, did you get number six? What do you have for the last question? Do you have that formula?" Where was the instructor? Walking up and down the aisle. Did he see what was going on? I don't see how he couldn't. Did he do anything? Not that I saw. Once he started collecting exams students actually started holding up and comparing their exams. Unreal. I can just imagine the heart attacks my professors back home would be having if I attempted anything like that. I would be escorted out of the classroom and straight into the office of the program chair. If I were lucky I'd get a suspension or have to re-take the class. Not a good scenario to say the least. A gentleman's crime? Right. Maybe in Austria but not back home.
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4 comments:
Well Anna, that all sounds so odd to me. But I was surprised to see the comment about the consequences of cheating here. As I recall, we've seen it happen and there was no reprimand. Interesting. I should mention I've seen cheating at the University and that is major trouble.
You're referring to our Media class right? I know there was a reprimand but I've heard conflicting reports on the severity.
Some friends here were saying that cheating has a lot has to do with the instructors - sometimes they physically see the cheating but to save themselves the 'hassle' of punishing a student they look away.
Holy Basilica. What's the point of cheating? If you don't know anything, yet still pass and graduate, won't you get screwed over when you have to apply what you learned in school at work?
Oh and I'm very proud of you for not cheating. You're really not the cheating type.
ABA
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