Would you cheat?

[Terzo]

So your professor is giving a final exam. She announces that it will be a take home, with the following restrictions:
1. It is closed book.
2. It is closed note.
3. You have four hours to spend on it.

As far as I'm concerned, this is asking for students to cheat. You'd have to be an idiot to get caught. In the end, I think this will only end up hurting the honest students.

Opinions?

*update*
For those who asked, the the results are in. I didn't cheat, and I know at least three others who didn't (the class is roughly 30 people).
The average on the exam was a 37 (out of 50), and I received a 36. I wasn't given any other info, such as median or standard deviation.

 

[MoPHo]

If this were for an ethics class, maybe. If not, absolutely.

 

[Freshgeardude]

the teacher is pretty naive tbh.

ofcourse it is going to happen.

 

[nageov3t]

I'd lean towards no.

but you know everyone else is going to... and if they do, it seems like you're only shorting yourself by not.

 

[Zeeky Boogy Doog]

I think the prof was joking? That's pretty good lol material.

Edit: I'd probably do it as the prof asked, then once I was done, recheck everything with book/whatever, just to see how I would have done if it was normal.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

I'd probably study and prepare as if it were a normal exam and finish as much as possible without looking at my notes. Beyond that though, I'd probably look at my notes to confirm I did the work correctly. I'm no saint.

 

[RoloMather]

LOL. . . take home close book exam.

 

[Newbian]

And here I was thinking this was going to be about cheating on your SO.

As long as your anytime card has that person it's ok.

 

[randay]

maybe its a test. maybe theres no way it could be finished in 4 hours legit.

 

[Gothgar]

I would cheat a lot

 

[Terzo]

It's for a physics class. And the professor is definitely not joking :/

 

[Newbian]

Any test that takes 4 hours to do means there is something wrong with it to start.

 

[MoPHo]

Originally posted by: Terzo
It's for a physics class. And the professor is definitely not joking :/

If the prof didn't want you to cheat, s/he would have the test in class and observe you taking it. I feel that this is appropriate.

 

[Tiamat]

LOL, if she wanted it closed notes, closed book, she would have had the exam in class. The idea of the take home exam is to maximize your chances of doing well by allowing the use of open notes, open books, and open time.

 

[Bibble]

Even with an honor code, it's asking students to cheat. Even if everyone doesn't cheat, at least one person will, and that ruins the class for everyone.

I was in a class that did this - the tests were short essays and we had 2 hours to answer two questions. The professor gave us the questions in class and we had to e-mail it back to him within 24 hours, although, as stated above, we were only allowed to two take two hours to do the test. It was closed book but open note. As for grading, he let the class set the standard, so he would just rank them to see which was best, which he would make an A, and everyone else's grade was determined to how it compared to the best one.

I followed the directions on the first test, and I got a B- on it, with a comment that my answers were too short. I had written 2.5 pages total. I looked around and saw some kids getting back 5 page essays. This was totally bogus as I had done all the reading and taken notes in class. Clearly, some people had cheated by either using the book or taking more than 2 hours, or both.

Needless to say, I managed to do better the next time around.

 

[cKGunslinger]

Originally posted by: Bibble
Even with an honor code, it's asking students to cheat.

A true measure of honesty is how you behave even if no one knows it but you.

If you cheat, you are a dishonest person. Throw out disclaimers, excuses, and "Goody two-shoes" insults - but you can't argue and rationalize with facts.

 

[ChaoZ]

Maybe she expects you to cheat and makes the exam almost completely impossible. I hate take home exams for that reason.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Bibble
Even with an honor code, it's asking students to cheat. Even if everyone doesn't cheat, at least one person will, and that ruins the class for everyone.

I was in a class that did this - the tests were short essays and we had 2 hours to answer two questions. The professor gave us the questions in class and we had to e-mail it back to him within 24 hours, although, as stated above, we were only allowed to two take two hours to do the test. It was closed book but open note. As for grading, he let the class set the standard, so he would just rank them to see which was best, which he would make an A, and everyone else's grade was determined to how it compared to the best one.

I followed the directions on the first test, and I got a B- on it, with a comment that my answers were too short. I had written 2.5 pages total. I looked around and saw some kids getting back 5 page essays. This was totally bogus as I had done all the reading and taken notes in class. Clearly, some people had cheated by either using the book or taking more than 2 hours, or both.

Needless to say, I managed to do better the next time around.

Sounds like your complaint is bogus. Why isn't it feasible that someone wrote twice as much as you? I used to come out of exams, ask others how much they wrote, and they wrote often quite a lot more than me. And these were timed exams not take-home.

 

[SandEagle]

your professor is a textbook idiot

 

[sjwaste]

It's not asking students to cheat. Integrity is important, and I mean that far beyond school work. Sure, you cheat now and risk nothing in terms of getting caught, but that sort of behavior will eventually catch up to you. And don't say you're only doing it once, that's never the case.

In the office, I can handle people making mistakes, but I will fire lack of integrity on the spot.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger

Originally posted by: Bibble
Even with an honor code, it's asking students to cheat.

A true measure of honesty is how you behave even if no one knows it but you.

If you cheat, you are a dishonest person. Throw out disclaimers, excuses, and "Goody two-shoes" insults - but you can't argue and rationalize with facts.

This.

And even if she can't prove who cheated, she'll have a pretty good idea who did. You don't want her thinking you're a cheater if you have more classes with her. And there's always the possibility that she's using some trickery, and she will be able to prove you cheated. Then you're boned.

 

[Chronoshock]

In my algorithms class we had a take home exam, closed book and absolutely no collaboration. I followed those rules and to my knowledge (talking to people after turning in my exam), everyone else did too. My classmates and I were motivated to see how well each of us could do, and cheating would rob us of that.

 

[Saint Nick]

This is proposterous.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
A true measure of honesty is how you behave even if no one knows it but you.

 

[shortylickens]

The teacher is covering his ass.
Obviously its open note/book if its takehome. If they cared AT ALL about ethics & morals they would have it in class.