Accused of cheating on MC exam because I crammed keywords

So I wrote a 100q mc exam but had to leave 30 minutes in due to not feeling well. I crammed the keyword from each q and formed songs with them out of curiosity to see whether they repeat questions on the deferred exam. When I went in to write the deferred exam turns out they were the exact same questions just mushed around so I matched them back to confirm that the instructor recycles questions - I planned to tell my friends about it like basically giving them a heads up that they dont form new questions. Turns out they proctor saw my scrap sheet with the question numbers i matched back and claims i was cheating. I didnt have a phone or anything else on me and the scrap they were on was giving to me brand new when i went into the exam. I am able to recreate the sheet if necessary to show that I did memorize the numbers. Don’t understand how that is an academic misconduct. Attached image of my sheet he sent to me.

Don’t understand this-did you bring in a sheet with notes for the test when this was not allowed? Then in this case it’s considered academic misconduct.

If you were planning to tell your classmates about the test, that is another form of academic misconduct/cheating.

Planning to tell them that they were the exact same questions. Not what the questions were. Its one thing to memorize 100 words in 30 minutes, there’s no way I could memorize 100 full questions in that short amount of time.

Also, I didnt bring the paper in, it was given to me as scrap. The tissue I brought in was from my bathroom break and they let me take it in when they saw me with it.

You began the exam, spent 30 minutes cramming the keywords from 100 questions, then felt ill and left the exam planning to retake it later?

And OP where did the tissue come from? You did not mention a bathroom break in your first post. Don’t make excuses.

Sounds to me like what happened @rhododendron

OP, you cheated. Stop pretending you didn’t.

I did take a bathroom break and the proctor saw me with the tissue and i told him i got it in case i ad a cold, not the ffirst time i would do that.

I had a tooth ache and was uncomfortable, they knew I had a good amount of time with the exam and had seen all the questions, i had no way of knowing for certain that they would repeat the same questions.

I admit to being confused with your story.

Why would you spend 30 minutes of test time cramming keywords— as opposed to taking the test??? IF you were ill, you should have been hurrying to get the test in-- or asking THEN if you could leave. Not cramming keywords so that you could have an advantage, or give someone else an advantage, at some later date.

You “had a tooth ache and (were) uncomfortable”-- and for that you left an exam??? Because of discomfort? Or was it a cold that required a tissue? As opposed to, say, taking an Aleve, getting through the exam, and getting to the dentist?

You should have known exactly about the test when you took it as every other student taking that test. You were trying to game the system-- we call that “cheating” – and you lost.

What are you hoping to get out of this thread? Advice? Sympathy?

I admit that I was really hoping they would give the same exam but I had no way of knowing that. I did not violate my schools honour code as I did not bring in or take out any foreign materials from the exam. I also did not consult with anyone or talk to any students about what was on the exam. I got the tiisue because i had a cold/runny nose.
I’ll clarify a bit here.
The honest truth is that I went in to write the exam the first time, knowing I had a major tooth issue that could prevent me from completing the exam, however I took advantage of that and went over the questions, also memorizing key words from each question, because if it turned out that they recycled the questions, I could use that to my advantage in another exam in the future. What I did was unethical and not honest, but it doesnt qualify as cheating by my schools standards/code because I did not take anything into the exam with me, just what was in my head. I guess I was looking for advice on how to mitigate the situation and explain what I just wrote to the associate dean.

I think I fully understand what you did. You went into the test reviewed it knowing your “medical” condition would prevent you from completing it, memorized or recorded key words and questions with the intention of using that “peek” at the questions to aid you on the retake. You didn’t know for sure if the questions were to be recycled but you suspect they would be.

In other words you cheated by gaining an unfair advantage over anyone who just sat for the exam. An honor code deliberately can’t spell out all acts of dishonesty. As the old expression goes cheating is like pornograhy… I can’t define it but I know it when I see it. You cheated.

There are likely dozens of ways you can cheat that don’t fall within the narrow standards and codes of any school.

Don’t act this way it will always bite you. Coming to this venue for sympathy or support suggest a complete lack of contrition. You were wrong move on.

That “advantage” you speak of: THAT’S CHEATING.

Cheating is doing anything at all that gives you an advantage over others. You’re playing semantics, trying to justify something you know was wrong.

You’re in college. It’s time to stop trying to play the system. Quit, or get the education you came there for.

I have admitted to what I did, and i’m remorseful about it, but I dont want to be charged with using materials or outright cheating by copying other people. I was just looking for advise on how to explain exactly what happened and mitigate the effects of this. I’m not trying to justify it, just not to get accused of doing any more than i did.

How about telling the exact truth to the conduct authorities. No mincing words, minimizing or debating. A full blown apologetic and specific description of what you did.

I assure you that will prevent you from getting “accused of more than you did”.

That is what I plan to do. Its really not my fault that they chose to reuse the exact same exam when deferred exams are supposed to be entirely different from the original exam. I’m not trying to play semantics, but I genuinely dont see why it would be fair to punish me the way a student who brings in a phone or class notes will be punished. I believe I got lucky because they let me, and they knew that I had spent a reasonable amount of time with the questions to be able to do what I did.

Justify your actions all you want. See how far that attitude gets you in life.

i’m not justifying my actions. However its my entire future on the line here and I dont want to own up to anymore than I did. Thats all. I am extremely remorseful and feel like dirt, but if i dont advocate for myself i may be accused of doing a lot more than I acually did so even while trying to come clean i still need to advocate for myself and not admit to anymore than I did.

Sooooo now you’re saying it’s the school’s fault that you cheated. Wow. It’s YOUR fault. YOU chose to memorize the questions the first time you saw them, planning to use it to your advantage later. You are not going to get sympathy from the people on this forum.

No, i am not blaming anything on the school and i’m not looking for sympathy. All i’m saying is that i feel like I walked into a trap because they gave me the same set of questions on two different exams. I chose to memorize the questions but my memorization would be useless if they didnt give me the same questions. I feel like i am getting misunderstood,