Basic background I am freshman at University of Texas Austin... So i just got back from my government final, and during that final more then 1/3rd of the people cheated on it. Just the row around me 4 girl on my right had their notes laying on the ground (we took our test at a auditorium) and was copying off of it the entire time, the guy in front of me had his notes put under the chair next to him and was staring at it the entire time. Over 10 people (out of about 120-150 students) left the room in just the first 10mins of the test to "goto the bathroom", only to come back in like less then 30 sec and half of them was still stuffing paper back into their pockets when they first walked in. One of the guys in front of me had 4 pages of his bluebook filled (we take our essay tests on those) like 10mins before the test was even handed out, and he finished in like half an hour on a test that normally takes 3 hrs (I finished in 2hrs and 40mins). None of the 3 TA's was there only the professor who just sat at the front of the Auditorium reading and didn't seem like he ever looked up. He is honestly a great professor but he didn't even seem like he cared that people might be cheating on his test I emailed my TA right after I got back from test about maybe they want to actually walk around watch the students next semester for that class when it comes to finals, like they normally do for all the other tests, and to b**** to her about this, she replied in 5 mins with "well you should feel good because you didn't cheat and was honest" Well you know what else feels better??? Sleeping the night before!!! But oh f@$k me and my r****ded a$$, why stay up all night to study for one of my 3 tests that day when i can just chill and cheat on the entire test..... Its not like its even that hard of a class, just a lot of stuff to remember and I am going to get a A for this class anyways , just I feel is so unfair when they just let this kind of stuff go under their noses. I came to UT because of the great education it offers (and the parities and girls), but now i look at it i should have went to USC (which i was accepted into) maybe their academic programs takes pride in real honest hard work Sorry for the random long rant, just so frustrated with whats happening here, is it like this in all the other schools?
If you're a good student and are fair and honest and take care of your ****, you will look around and wonder how in the hell most of these people even got into college in the first place. No school is immune.
I never understood the lack of being able to use notes on an essay test.... I mean you don't go to a meeting in the business world and NOT be able to use your notes. If you can't cheat em, join em. DD
Which GOV class was it - where was your test at (which auditorium) and who was the professor. I'm going to laugh out loud if its Enelow for 312L - that was the easiest class ever I've got a ton of Government course work on my computer - I just graduated with my Gov degree from UT last May if you need any help on which courses/profs to take and stay away with - hit me up. Stuff like this happens you just can't let it bother you or can't fall into it because the consequences are so grave. So they got away with it this time, but next time they might not be so lucky. Chin up bro.
freshman level courses are usually where cheaters have a field day. they get busted/weeded out in the 3000 level classes. just be patient.
When I was a TA at UT, if I had to proctor an exam I actually would spend some time walking around, and would go check all the pieces of paper on the floor. People thought I was overly into it and wondered what was up with me. We were actually trained mostly to "keep cheating from happening", because they're worried about liability if they actually punish someone who gets caught. I got the idea that a lot of cheating situations are actually not prosecuted because they are hard to prove and the university is afraid of retribution by the student. I think that's a sad situation. As a teacher, on the occasions I've found a plagiarized paper (easier to prove) or seen a cheat sheet taken to an exam, I have given the student a zero for the assignment. Some of the papers they were allowed to redo and do right, but still not for full credit. It's hard, though; they might complain if you don't let them go to the bathroom during a test, but of course they could get there and pull all kinds of notes out of their pocket (or even somewhere in the restroom). I might ought to announce at the beginning, "Now, has everybody gone to the bathroom?" like in kindergarten. I certainly wouldn't let more than one go at once, though, and I always check floors of rooms.
I was a government major at UT. If anyone has to cheat in the freshman level classes, they probably won't be amounting to much after graduation. Don't worry, man.
insider, I think you are looking at this the wrong way.. think about it, why are you even in college? to learn and become educated and obtain a respectable position in the future to fulfill your ambitions... well, whatever you're studying, Medicine, law, engineering, business, heck, even arts, you will be evaluated in the real world based on the skills you acquired in college.. when the guy that is cheating in front of you screws up a surgery, totally butchers a law suit, or does an incredibly stupid mistake, the hospital or costumers/the firm hiring him/the company he works for won't be happy with him, and he will probably end up being a total loser that wasted 4 years of his life going to college and cheating his way through to graduation. He might as well have just started working at the local McDonald's (not that there's anything wrong with that) right out of college.. I really don't think it's a good idea that you go out and complain about the cheating of others, it's just a huge distraction and it will cost you your focus and dedication. Just think about the day that you and your fellow bongho (urrgh, I mean longhorns ) will be sitting around the table and a hot chick starts talking about the new plan being considered by the house of reps, and your r****ded cheating friends will go (wait, I thought the house is the same as the senate, but wait, what is congress again?), while on the other hand, the intelligent honest rocketsinsider will laugh at their r****ded ignorant azzes and correct 'em, impress the chick, go out with her, and hit it that very same night.. (maybe it won't go that far, but you get the idea )
cheating is so high school. why cheat in college classes that apply to a future job. cheat in art class, not chemistry!
Cheating in a government class? Well if they don't learn how to cheat there than how will they know how to cheat when they actually get involved in governmental work?
Haha...you know there's a reason why their nicknamed the "University of Spoiled Children." There are cheaters everywhere my friend and you will more than likely witness cheating up until the day you die. I cheated like hell during highschool but I never thought it was worth it in college, I had a buddy get kicked out of UT for getting caught, and he was way smarter than I was.
that's it? must've been a slow day. i remember a EE class where the race to get in the back rows on test day was a free for all. that's stupid. you don't leave the stuff out in plain view like that. assuming it's multiple choice, you just copy off your friends (and they off you). i guess with no calculator to type stuff in though, that desperate times do call for desperate measures. i remember finishing a 50 question marketing final in 12 minutes (including the time to fill out the scantron bubbles with name and such) and like 10-15 people actually finished before me. they're only cheating themselves. good question. you probably should have just cheated. i'm gonna guess that UT doesn't have a monopoly on cheating in college. any big classes like a government or business class will have tons of people cheating off each other or people who had old tests to look off of. just the way of the world. probably. grades and what you learn in college don't really matter anyway. you might as well cheat and make it easy on yourself.
Don't worry fish. Happened to me as well. Was it Prof. Dietz? One of the best feelings in the world is getting an A in a class you busted your a$$ for.
i don't know why people think everyone who cheats will be stupid and a loser later on. cheating, at least for us, wasn't really about the "need" to cheat, just the opportunity and ability to make things easier (and sort of the thrill of getting away with it). it's funny, but i'm not sure any of us really made any different grades with cheating than without. i and 2 other guys were pretty much going to get A's in everything w/o it, the other guys were going to post a mix of A's and B's, and the last few were going to get mostly B's. and that's just about how everyone ended up. of course saying it made it easier isn't all that true, it actually took a bit of work. all the typing stuff into calculators, all the track covering, actually getting away with it in the middle of a test. i was too paranoid not to study and be completely prepared, cheating was just a nice fallback, and it certainly came in handy some times. the only time it really saved work were the cases where you had old tests (like the marketing final where we had 9 old tests to look over and i had seen all 50 questions word for word beforehand) and then that could be very nice. also copying homework saved me a buttload of work. i was fairly well known for my disdain for homework and how many classes i did none of it. but then homework was always worthless. it was always the long, very precise BS way of solving the engineering problem, when the test was going to be all about the simple, idealized method and when the real world was just going to use a computer. the stuff i learned as a ChE in school almost taught me nothing for actually working as a ChE (except very very basic stuff like that a distillation column exists). everything else i've learned in the 6 months i've been working. so i can't say cheating has really held me back at all. i will say for as blatant and ridiculous as some of the stuff we did was, it was amazing no one ever got caught or suspected for the 3 years we did it. maybe we were just lucky or had lazy professors/TA's, but i think we just covered things up too well and were too careful to really give them a chance.
that's not the case for most classes... even in your other classes, the TA's will probably look around and walk around, tell students to put all their stuff in the front of the room..and they'll be monitoring the students.. plus, sometimes, they say go to the restroom before the exam, and you can't go during the exam. i guess it's not fair though if other people get higher grades from cheating..and of course, it's not right.
