<p>With finals season upon many of us, I thought I'd ask your opinions, especially since my friends (all of whom are very good students) seem to lean so strongly in both directions.</p>
<p>Let's say you take a major test (for argument's sake, a final exam) before the middle of the day. It's a killer, though, and several students look up in surprise when the bell rings. Your teacher decides to allow students who have not finished to come by after school and complete the test.</p>
<p>All students have the same time window. Some have finished the test, go home, and think nothing of it until they get it back. Others, who have not finished, put the test out of their minds until the end of the day, then go back and complete the last couple of problems. Still others, who may or may not have completely finished the test, study their textbook, notes, or other materials during lunch or during an independent period, go back to the class, and either fix a few errors or complete the portion of the test they were unable to finish due to lack of knowledge.</p>
<p>Is the latter action cheating? Many say no, arguing that in allowing students to leave the room and return to finish the teacher understands that they will be able to double-check a few answers, and that since each student had the same amount of time in which to do so, the test is fair. Others contend that it is indeed cheating, because going back and changing your answers is wrong, no matter what.</p>
<p>I'd say no, because 1) strict instructions were not laid down that said, "no looking at books/other resources in-between." The honor system is crap; teachers know that students aren't necessarily going to follow it, and it is unreasonable to expect even the best of students not to sneak a peak for a second. 2) there is no way to judge who has looked at their notes in-between classes. If a kid who is "caught" doing this type of cheating, there are loads more kids who have not been caught. If you can go off campus for lunch and study, that's just not a fair expectation at all. </p>
<p>Finally, It is the teacher's responsibility to give a fair amount of time for students to complete the test. For a quick student, a 2 hour final should take no more than 1 hour. For a teacher, a 2 hour final should take no more than 45 minutes. For a student who takes a while to work on problems, 2 hours would be sufficient unless they were really unprepared. </p>
<p>Really, in order to avoid this, if it is a long final, the teacher should give a 2-part final. A 2 part final would work as follows: The 1st part must be completed within the 1st period, and then pass out the 2nd part in the 2nd period. This avoids any sort of cheating. Reviewing in between would be perfectly ok because they don't know exactly what to expect.</p>
<p>Honors systems are for holier-than-thou hypocrits that think they are better than everyone else, sit at home slaving over a textbook, and always work hard instead of smart. </p>
<p>You acted intelligently; at the end of the day, does it matter if it's cheating or not? No.</p>
<p>My school avoids this by setting up test periods (can only have 2 tests/day) before we have a 10 minute break and last period of the day, so there's always extra time to finish up.</p>
<p>I do think it's cheating (or at least would be considered so by my school) because "you're compromising the integrity of the exam".</p>
<p>That is blatant cheating, if you view the exam than go back and study for what you saw thats obviously cheating, especially if you go back and change answers. The honor system isnt crap its put there to prevent situations like this.</p>
<p>It's cheating because they know specifically what to look up and it gives an unfair advantage to those who already finished their tests. It's the same as looking at a text book during the exam, a big NO.</p>
<p>the honor system may not be crap but kids at my school treat it like it is. with my exaggeration of any kind. ALL of the top kids in my grade cheat. like habitual planned, using calculators, codes, and plain old answers in your pencil cheat. granted most of them are legitimately smart but they cheat none the less, that's how the system goes and it cant be avoided. whatever.</p>
<p>The teacher just made a stupid mistake by allowing your class to do that. There is no cheating here. Maybe you were reading the stuff to "learn more" lol.</p>
<p>how come my chem teacher doesn't let us do that? i guess she's smart enough to know that we'd definitely study more and come back with correct solutions</p>
<p>^ exactly. to the op, if your teacher would have cared, im pretty sure he or she is smart enough to realize that someone would study a bit more. therefore, i dont believe its cheating.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Amen.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It's cheating because they know specifically what to look up and it gives an unfair advantage to those who already finished their tests. It's the same as looking at a text book during the exam, a big NO.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
That is blatant cheating, if you view the exam than go back and study for what you saw thats obviously cheating, especially if you go back and change answers. The honor system isnt crap its put there to prevent situations like this.
<p>
[quote]
Honors systems are for holier-than-thou hypocrits that think they are better than everyone else, sit at home slaving over a textbook, and always work hard instead of smart.
[/quote]
How are people that want things to be fair hypocrites, honestly? Since when is cheating working smart, not hard? </p>
<p>Arguments could be made either way for the OP, I'm not too sure about that, but saying that things like writing notes on your hand/arm/whatever is perfectly acceptable is ridiculous. That's for idiots who can't compete with people smarter than them so they need an unfair advantage.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How are people that want things to be fair hypocrites, honestly? Since when is cheating working smart, not hard? </p>
<p>Arguments could be made either way for the OP, I'm not too sure about that, but saying that things like writing notes on your hand/arm/whatever is perfectly acceptable is ridiculous. That's for idiots who can't compete with people smarter than them so they need an unfair advantage.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Only nerds look at it as a competition. Everytime I've done it (which is very often) I've never even thought about trying to get a higher grade than someone, it's always done simply to get a good grade. I don't give a **** about other people's grade. I'm more concerned with things that actually matter, and no, that's not who can score better on the oh so important high school chem exam or an algebra quiz. I think that says soemthing about you, and other people like you, that you'd assume it's always a competition.</p>
<p>Just for clarification--I myself did not change my answers, although honestly that was more due to sheer exhaustion than anything else. However, several kids did, while others pointedly did not, which brought up the question...</p>
<p>
[quote]
Just for clarification--I myself did not change my answers, although honestly that was more due to sheer exhaustion than anything else. However, several kids did, while others pointedly did not, which brought up the question...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You don't need to explain yourself; I would have been the first one to be changing the answers.</p>