Would this be considered cheating?

[onza]

If you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough!

 

[ussfletcher]

Its only cheating if you A) brought it to the exam to look at with you, or B) had the test you were going to take ahead of time.

I don't even consider it cheating to ask students from earlier classes what was on the exam. IMO Professors should change their questions for every test.

 

[frostedflakes]

Look at it this way: If you told the professor about this, what do you think his reaction would be?

There's your answer. People can try to rationalize it any way you want (calling the professor lazy or whatever), but considering most people agree that it's not a good idea to advertise what happened to the professor, I think that makes it clear that they consider it to be wrong or at least questionable. I mean if it's not cheating and it's not a big deal, who cares if he finds out?

This stuff really depends on the professor, though. Some are fine with students collaborating on assignments (as long as you're actually discussing the material in a manner that contributes to your learning and not just copying, of course) while some have very strict no collaboration policies. Some are fine with students using old exams as study resources while some are not or are selective about the old exams they give students access to. Whether the 2009 exam is unauthorized aid depends on what your professor thinks. Considering it was the same version of the test you took this semester and he didn't give this one to you guys along with the other versions, I think it's a safe bet that he didn't want you guys to have access to it.

 

[Hacp]

The classes I like best are the ones where the professor gives you 100problems. 5 of those are going to be on the exam.

 

[MrPickins]

It's wasn't cheating for the first test since you had no way of knowing he would reuse the exam, but now that you do know, it would be cheating to keep looking at the old exams.

This.

honestly...it's a school in Texas...I doubt they care at all.

Yeah, UT is a pretty shitty school...

 

[guyver01]

http://www.colorado.edu/policies/acadinteg.html

One of the universities around here has as their academic policies:

Cheating


Cheating is defined as using unauthorized materials or receiving unauthorized assistance during an examination or other academic exercise. Examples of cheating include: copying the work of another student during an examination or other academic exercise (includes computer programming), or permitting another student to copy one’s work; taking an examination for another student or allowing another student to take one’s examination; possessing unauthorized notes, study sheets, examinations, or other materials during an examination or other academic exercise; collaborating with another student during an academic exercise without the instructor’s consent; and/or falsifying examination results.

Note... it says possessing unauthorized examinations DURING an exam.

It doesn't say anything about using other exams as study material.

In fact.. since the instructor provided old exams as study material, and never strictly forbid the use of additional exams, concent would be implied.

The only policy it might fall against is

Unauthorized Possession or Disposition of Academic Materials

Unauthorized possession or disposition of academic materials may include: selling or purchasing examinations, papers, reports or other academic work; taking another student’s academic work without permission; possessing examinations, papers, reports, or other assignments not released by an instructor; and/or submitting the same paper for multiple classes without advance instructor authorization and approval.

 

[Mide]

Nope you didn't cheat. You did the work on the real exam so it goes to show that you "learned" what you were supposed to. Just don't tell anyone to be safe

 

[PhaZe]

Review your school's policy in case you get in a bind.

http://registrar.utexas.edu/catalogs/gi09-10/app/gi09.appc03.html#sec-11-802-academic-dishonesty

(6) divulging the contents of a test, for the purpose of preserving questions for future use, when the instructor has designated that the test is not to be removed from the examination room or is not to be returned to or kept by the student;

 

[SonnyDaze]

No not cheating. How the hell were you supposed to know your exam would be almost identical to the 2009 exam? And your study exam was giving to you freely, not like you stole it or something.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Whether you did it on purpose or not, if a professor releases a test back to a student, it's in the open. The student should be able to do whatever he/she lieks with it. You can scan it, you can post it on the interwebs, you can give it to your best friend. If you're too lazy to come up with new questions for something one year later, that's your fault.

Honestly, we used to look at old homeworks. My roommate signed up for a bunch of classes she ended upd ropping and so did I, but we had the passwords for that year's assignments. We just downloaded all of them at the end of the semester and saved them. The professors do change questions up, but sometimes they recycle. The midterms are usually very different, but its still good practice. The HW would sometimes use recycled stuff.

 

[PhaZe]

Whether you did it on purpose or not, if a professor releases a test back to a student, it's in the open. The student should be able to do whatever he/she lieks with it. You can scan it, you can post it on the interwebs, you can give it to your best friend. If you're too lazy to come up with new questions for something one year later, that's your fault.

Honestly, we used to look at old homeworks. My roommate signed up for a bunch of classes she ended upd ropping and so did I, but we had the passwords for that year's assignments. We just downloaded all of them at the end of the semester and saved them. The professors do change questions up, but sometimes they recycle. The midterms are usually very different, but its still good practice. The HW would sometimes use recycled stuff.

One would think that, but it isn't always true. I made a post here about a year ago about a student who kept a simple directory like website with his old engineering exams/hw.

Some kids got busted for copying homework, and they informed the prof that they found it online and directed them to the website. Then all hell broke loose and the kid with the site was almost suspended, but fortunately was found not guilty. The guys who copied the homework ended up getting f's in the course. (homework is worth 10% mind you)

 

[Pepsei]

It's wasn't cheating for the first test since you had no way of knowing he would reuse the exam, but now that you do know, it would be cheating to keep looking at the old exams.

ah, but still, no one would know for sure that the prof would reuse it until the test time.

so it's definitely not cheating. this is just like real life.

 

[SunSamurai]

It was cheating

The bigger issue is defining what cheating is on a moral and ethical scale relating to work performance. You can bet your ass every successful company stays that way though means that can be defined as cheating. It is part of survival of the fittest. If the risk of getting caught is less to a degree than that of the theoretical income, fucking do it.

This is school, not your girlfriend.