Am I guilty of cheating?

May 11, 2010 5:58 PM

I have received and studied a year-old key to a test that I am taking tomorrow, am I guilty of cheating?

A few weeks ago a friend, who is in the same class as I am, approached me with a key to a test over the same material I am being tested on from last year. I have used it as a study guide, and have not memorized any of the answers (nor plan to). It has been beneficial in me learning what I am doing right and wrong in regards to the problems that will probably appear in the test.

Unfortunately, I do not know if this is an authorized copy of the key. I assumed that this one was made available for use in studying for the final, and that the questions on the next year's test would be different. (this class has many repeat students, as it is rather challenging)

The other assumption is that someone copied the test without the professor's knowledge, which would make this unauthorized and I'm worried this would constitute cheating and I have already damned myself by studying off of it.

Is such a thing considered cheating? The wikipedia entry states that "If the student in the earlier time period informs the other student in the later period about the test; that is considered academic dishonesty" and I'm worried this is a form of that kind of information.

I have not taken the test (which is tomorrow) but have used the key to study for it. If use of the key is considered academic dishonesty what do I do? I realize I should have brought it to the attention of the professor first, but I'm worried if I do so now I'm already considered guilty.

Am I guilty of cheating?

posted by anonymous to Education (28 answers total)

You are guilty of cheating because you have had an unfair advantage over your fellow classmates. BUT. Do not turn yourself in. That would be ridiculous and unnecessary and you could get kicked out of school. Teach yourself a lesson and just don't do it again. If you let the school teach you a lesson.. well chances are they probably won't be all that nice (and it's not really that big of a deal).
posted by pwally at 6:05 PM on May 11, 2010

I'm going to disagree with pwally here and say that you're not guilty of cheating until you take the test. Bring the key with you, and approach the professor before the test and tell him or her what you've told us. It is incumbent upon him or her to devise some sort of alternate test, if it turns out the key would give you the unfair advantage.
posted by Etrigan at 6:06 PM on May 11, 2010

Am I guilty of cheating?

Not yet. ;-)
I would suggest that you take the key to the professor before the test tomorrow.
If tomorrow's test is completely different there should be no problem, no matter where the key came from. If the professor is re-using last year's test then taking it could constitute cheating. But you are going to have to ask to make sure.

Studying old tests is a legitimate study method, so there is no problem per se. But since you don't know where the key came from you need to be careful.
posted by SLC Mom at 6:08 PM on May 11, 2010

I know a number of my professors didn't frown upon studying old tests. These professors also usually give out a practice test of their own for studying, so studying a past test from a friend wouldn't give you too much of an advantage. Obviously these professors don't reuse questions from semester to semester.
posted by rancidchickn at 6:11 PM on May 11, 2010

Unless your professor is incredibly lazy, you do not have the key for the test you are going to take tomorrow. You may have an unfair advantage, but this is not uncommon.
At the school I attend, it's quite common for the greek houses to keep copies of old exams on file for members who take the same class later. It drives me up the wall since I don't get the same resources, but it is quite common. Lots of my professors even provide copies of old exams to head off this issue.
Disciplinary policies are unclear since none of us know the circumstances. Just don't turn yourself in. No point to it.
posted by Iggley at 6:15 PM on May 11, 2010 [3 favorites]

Some professors give out previous exam keys, some don't. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of thing I've ever seen anyone give a policy on at the beginning of a course, and they really ought. Typically, however, old tests are fair game for studying from in my experience. The the easiest thing to do is ask the prof before the test. Even if he doesn't like it for this test (and, frankly, one should have more than one term's worth of exam questions), there's definitely no broad reason why what you did was cheating. It's not cheating to have run into an exam problem already in publicly available sources like course notes and alternative textbooks, it just implies sloppy test-making.
posted by Schismatic at 6:21 PM on May 11, 2010

This may be an unpopular opinion, but here goes:

Whether you are "guilty" or not is really a legalistic issue. Clearly, there are a few different ways to define cheating, and within each of those ways further distinctions of timing.

The, once we have determined guilt, we have to deal with the equally ambiguous issue of "punishment," or at least course of action.

Neither of these considerations will help you in the end, IMHO.

Would I have taken the key? Perhaps, but probably not. Pragmatically speaking, I wouldn't want a snitch to find out.

Here's what I think you should do: decide if you're OK with what you've done, then stop worrying about it. If you're not OK with it, don't do it again. But DON'T screw yourself over because of a moral imperative. Is it worth getting a 0, failing the course, or getting kicked out of school just to be able to say you are morally pure?

On the other hand, if you think there's a decent chance you'll get caught anyway, coming clean now would be the thing to do.

Just my pragmatic view on things.
posted by Truthiness at 6:27 PM on May 11, 2010 [9 favorites]

@ Truthiness
I think you hit the nail on the head.
posted by Iggley at 6:32 PM on May 11, 2010

From my friend who is sitting across from me and teaching an undergrad class this semester and who is also avoiding doing any work by browsing the Internet, I paraphrase:

"No, but I give my tests out. I assume that anything returned is traded amongst friends. I would only be so lucky to teach a class where a key can be memorized. You need to check with your dishonesty policy and your teacher's handouts, some specifically warn against doing this and that is all that matters. If you have a crazy professor who thinks kids won't share tests and is lazy and won't change tests semester to semester, don't expect him not to act crazy if you come to him to him with this. Keep in mind that whoever gave you the key would also be culpable if this turns out to be a case of academic dishonesty."
posted by geoff. at 6:33 PM on May 11, 2010

The key is from last year's exam? You're fine.

You can reasonably expect professors to change the test over that period of time, just as they can (must) expect students to have access to tests from that long ago. Truly, they should make the tests available universally to ensure that access is equal for all students.

This is just my opinion. Your professor may disagree. Asking him or her what the policy is regarding studying old tests would be a safe way find out, and allay your conscience, without exposing yourself to potential (imho, irrational) punitive action.
posted by kprincehouse at 6:45 PM on May 11, 2010

You're fine. You are studying past materials in good faith. It's no different than when I used a my fraternity's file of old tests as a study aid, and that's considered to be ok. The only tests we filed were ones we aced. A test on which the taker received a 100% score is effectively an answer key. Particularly if it's quantitative in nature and the number of potential correct answers is very limited.

Another analogous situation would be if you asked for last year's tests from a student a year ahead of you. Assuming that student aced the test, again, it's effectively a key.

In any case, you are studying in good faith. You are not cheating. Take the test, do well, and get on with things. Burn it as an offering to the god of tests beforehand if you like.
posted by pandanom at 7:08 PM on May 11, 2010

And DO NOT tell your professor ANYTHING. You might have one who is lazy enough to simply flunk you rather than make up a new test on the spot. Do not assume that the professor is motivated and not a jerk. Sometimes it's hard to tell until it's too late (really).
posted by pandanom at 7:10 PM on May 11, 2010 [1 favorite]

I would not approach the professor. I don't think you did anything wrong--foolish, perhaps, but not wrong and not deserving of the consequences that might befall you if the professor becomes angry at what you did. What you did could easily look like cheating, particularly if the instructor's exams are the same or very similar from year to year, and the consequences for cheating are often severe. The consequences you might deserve for the foolish choice you made (taking the exam copy without learning where it came from or whether it was approved by the instructor for use in studying) are far less harsh than the consequences you are likely to receive if you approach your professor and he or she responds angrily. Don't risk it. Learn from this and move on.
posted by Meg_Murry at 7:16 PM on May 11, 2010

I'm going to go against the general consensus and say definitively, NO, you are not cheating. None of this "yes you are but don't tell the prof and live with the secret shame forever!". You have no evidence that this exam key was obtained by suspicious means. You have no reason to think that you have the key to the exact exam you're taking. If there are many repeat students in the class, are they cheating if they remember old exams and use that experience to inform a study strategy for this test? No, of course not! You are using whatever fairly obtained study materials you have access to in order to master the material to the best of your abilities. You may be at an advantage, but not an UNFAIR one. Would it have been nice if you e-mailed it out to your whole lecture hall to level the playing field? Sure, but you're not obligated to. Quit worrying and ace that test.
posted by alygator at 7:48 PM on May 11, 2010

At my school (and most likely other ones) all of the fraternities and sororities have file cabinets with collections of old exams, homeworks, etc. for many of the classes. The professors know this. If the professor is so lazy that they can't be bothered to write a new exam, then I think that is a bigger problem than you studying from an old exam.

Now quit looking crap up on wikipedia and go study!
posted by bolognius maximus at 7:58 PM on May 11, 2010

It sounds like you're using the answers you have to learn the material, as opposed to blatantly memorizing some multiple choice letters. I won't give you any guidance on whether this is really "right or wrong", but I will tell you that I would do it, and I wouldn't feel bad about it either. If you're learning the material, I think that's really the whole point, and wouldn't worry about it being some kind of "unfair" advantage.
posted by Diplodocus at 8:10 PM on May 11, 2010

Perhaps you could take the test without saying anything first. If it's a totally different test from the version you studied, no harm, no foul. But if it's identical or even very similar to the copy you received ahead of time, I think your conscience might encourage you to tell the professor afterward. Bring him your copy, tell him you studied it because you thought there would be new questions this year, and tell him (honestly) that you'd be willing to sit down and take a new version of the test at a time of his choosing in the next week or so.

As much as I like to think my conscience isn't relativistic, I would probably not do this if the teacher has a history of being grumpy or ridiculously old-fashioned. But I also know it would weigh on me to not come clean, if it turned out that a significant number of questions were re-used between the old test and the current one.
posted by vytae at 8:18 PM on May 11, 2010

My department (economics) keeps every answer key on file at the library. Professors encourage us to use them to study. The idea is to remove the unfair advantage awarded to those in fraternities / sororities and to those with friends who have taken the course before, by giving those answer keys to everyone.
IMO, you're not guilty of anything. Professors have to accept that this is just another way of studying.
posted by OLechat at 9:00 PM on May 11, 2010

I do not know what your institution's policies, or your professor's policies are, but this would not have been considered cheating in any class in any academic institution I have ever attended.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:15 PM on May 11, 2010

This is equivalent to having a copy of last year's corrected test, yes? I don't see how that would be cheating. If the teacher is using the same test, that's ... ridiculous. Previous tests are excellent study guides, and when professors pull the "you can't have your own test back" stunt, they are giving a relative reward to those groups that have members with really good memories who create study guides for next year's test takers.

Now, if you feel that you are in possession of stolen information, like say you have the answer key that the professor distributed only to TAs for grading, I think you would be in trouble for that.

100% corrected test, or reproduction from memory, in your hands? I'd call that a study guide. Copy of information never shown or distributed to students? That would be a problem.
posted by zippy at 9:36 PM on May 11, 2010

I, too, wish all professors would write new questions for their exams every semester, and hand out their old exams as study aids, but that certainly doesn't happen in 100% of cases. I've been specifically told by at least one professor each semester in both my graduate work (currently) and in undergrad (1999-2003) that the exams would not be handed back, because they like to reuse questions from year to year. Students wishing to find out what they got wrong could review their exam with the professor during office hours. Having a copy of the exam from last year would be considered dishonest, as would studying from such a copy.

Of course whether it's cheating in this case depends entirely on whether that copy of an old test was considered "fair game" by the professor in question. That's not determined by how my professors think, or by how anyone else here's professors think, or how we all wish professors would think. Anonymous, there is really no way for us to know whether you are guilty of cheating, because (as you can see from the variety of answers) it depends on your exact, particular circumstances.
posted by vytae at 10:17 PM on May 11, 2010

At the school I attended, I was required to pledge that, "On my honor as a gentleman, I have neither given nor received aid on this exam." At this point, before you take the test, you have no idea if you have an advantage or a disadvantage. You could be studying questions that are not going to be on this year's test in any form. Courses evolve, teachers change things, etc. For all you know, you wasted hours with this key. The only way you will know is after you see this year's test.

So, you either proactively declare you have last year's key or after taking the test decide if you would be comfortable if asked if you "cheated". You did not memorize the answers, but used it as a study guide. Sounds more like you have a good outline of what to study than you cheated, but it is your judgment call. I would decide after the test and live with whatever you do decide knowing that you made the decision in good faith and you can justify it.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:33 PM on May 11, 2010

I have also taken tests that are the same from years back and they are graded on a curve. Memorization is the real test. Often, a 95 is a C because of the curve. Everybody memorizes the answers and the few you get wrong or forget are what separates the top from the bottom.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:35 PM on May 11, 2010

Wow - a bunch of people here could've used the key for their ethics exam, which they obviously failed.

Let's start with a virtue or character ethics approach. You're worried about cheating. Presumably you disapprove of cheating, because it's a form of dishonesty. You want to be a good person, and you believe that good people don't cheat. So, in order to satisfy yourself that you are a good person, you can either (a) not take the test or (b) let the professor know what happened in order to find out whether you can take the test or not. You can't wait and see, and you can't take the test and chalk it up to experience, because you have a prior doubt and an opportunity to act excellently. Taken together these utterly cancel out any moral claim like 'well, I guess I cheated after all - can't do anything about it now'. You should tell the professor before the exam.

Or consider a deontological approach. Would you be happy for everybody to have access to answer keys that may be for an upcoming exam, or may not, but they're under no obligation to find out and can take the exam even if they realise they know the answers already? I suspect the answer is 'no' (it should be - if the answer is yes, I'd love to hear the reason). If you're not happy for everybody to do what you're doing, you shouldn't do it. Again, you should tell the professor before the exam.

Note that in both cases you're doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because of the merits of the consequences. The approach adopted by those above, on the other hand, is a particularly despicable form of utilitarianism called 'esoteric morality'. 'You should do the exam even if it's cheating because the evil so created is less than the evil that might be created by disclosing your concerns that you may have cheated. No, you wouldn't want everybody to do this, but it's OK to live by refined and complicated rules so long as you keep your actions a secret and espouse the right thing publicly.'

Well, you can't know what the professor's reaction will be if you tell him. It could be a good reaction: 'Oh, it's fine. Please take the test.' Or 'Thank you for being honest. You may sit another exam.' So you can't say anything about the relative utility of cheating versus disclosure until after the fact. And do you really want people to be able to do one thing privately and preach something else publicly for their own benefit? This seems a pretty poor basis for a well-developed sense of morality to me. I think that inn the long run, such an approach can only increase the amount of suffering in the world, and so it defeats any utilitarian objectives you might have had anyway.

So tell your professor. Not because you may or may not cheat and may or may not get caught, but because you're a good person and it's the right thing to do.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:21 AM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Do you think it's cheating? Don't ask Wikipedia, ask yourself. In thirty years, you will not care how you did on this test. I speak as someone who has failed tests and classes and entire programs, so please believe me, it's not actually the end of the world. But you will, for the rest of your life, remember every important decision, and those memories will define you. What kind of person you believe yourself to be depends on how you act. The consequences of failing a test or a class fade away over time, but if you do something that you believe is wrong, you will live with that knowledge for ever. So if this feels wrong to you, do what you need to do to erase the unfair advantage.
posted by prefpara at 5:40 AM on May 12, 2010

At the school where I did my undergraduate degree you could tell whether an instructor was happy with you having model answers to past papers because if they were happy with that, the model answers would be on the course website, or handed out in class.

So, the first thing you should check is whether the instructor is giving out these answer keys.

Note that in both cases you're doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because of the merits of the consequences. The approach adopted by those above, on the other hand, is a particularly despicable form of utilitarianism called 'esoteric morality'.

Personally I don't see it as particularly despicable to consider the rightness of the reasonably foreseeable consequences of an action as well as the rightness of the actions themselves.

IMHO what you should do is make a photocopy of the test key and put it under the instructor's door, anonymously.

If he's fine with people having the key, no problem; if not, he can change the test. Either way, the outcome will be a test that the prof doesn't mind you using the key to study for.
posted by Mike1024 at 6:08 AM on May 12, 2010

Obiwanwasabi

The profesor's reaction could also be a bad reaction. Punishment is arbitrary and has little to do with morality.

If the Prof. sees this as cheating, punishment can range from an F grade to expulsion. The moral high ground can have some nasty consequences.
posted by Iggley at 9:29 AM on May 12, 2010

Iggley: Are you really suggesting that we should be free to do the wrong thing simply because it's more convenient? "Wow, this could turn out bad for me. It could also turn out good, but I don't need to take the chance. Just the possibility that something bad might happen gives me the license to lie, cheat, steal, whatever."

What sort of place would the world be if we all went around doing the wrong thing just to suit ourselves?
posted by obiwanwasabi at 1:23 AM on May 13, 2010