Can you buy past exams?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I was wondering if it is an availability at colleges to somehow buy past midterms and finals? If yes, are they often the same every year?</p>

2

<p>Professor’s typically collect the tests at the end of class so nobody takes a copy. Exams change every semester, because Professor’s know if the exams stayed the same, people would cheat. There are things called test banks- when Professor’s give copies to the students to keep and the students save them (greeks have test banks). Quizes float around, but you don’t buy them. We have study binders, and people include any quizes/test that were handed back.</p>

3

<p>You are opening a can of worms.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1005147-help-academic-probation-using-test-bank.html?highlight=test+bank[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1005147-help-academic-probation-using-test-bank.html?highlight=test+bank&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Test banks are 100% legal at my school. There was a story on the use of test banks, and because the tests were legally obtained because Prof’s voluntarily released them, students can not get in any trouble. </p>

<p>[University-wide</a> test bank still in development - News](<a href=“http://media.www.cwruobserver.com/media/storage/paper1370/news/2009/04/03/News/UniversityWide.Test.Bank.Still.In.Development-3695881.shtml]University-wide”>http://media.www.cwruobserver.com/media/storage/paper1370/news/2009/04/03/News/UniversityWide.Test.Bank.Still.In.Development-3695881.shtml)</p>

<p>If Prof’s allow students to take a copy of the test, there isn’t anything the school can do. Our school was looking to create a university wide test bank. I don’t have any use for them because I rarely have tests, and when I do, the Prof’s collect them. The only class I was handed back anything was in Econ when they handed back graded quizes. </p>

<p>I’m sure it’s a different story if a student steals a test. </p>

<p>There’s such a bag stigma for test banks, but I think there are varying definitions. I am talking about students saving old tests Prof’s let them keep. Using that definition I don’t think there is anything wrong with a test bank.</p>

5

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<p>I imagine if a professor states using test banks or old solutions as reference material isn’t allowed for the class the student wind up with some sort of disciplinary action. I mean, there are solution sets out there for almost every moderately common textbook, yet I imagine most people don’t think it’s academically honest to copy those answers off the internet (or however you manage to get a hold of it).</p>

6

<p>Depends on the school.</p>

<p>At my school most teachers even give you their past exams. If they don’t , it’s not difficult to talk to someone who has taken the class before.
And it’s totally allowed.</p>

7

<p>There seems to be confusion on the meaning of “test bank.” The thread violadad mentioned seems to talk about test banks written by textbook publishers that are a collection of questions given to professors to use to create tests and stuff; I don’t think you can even obtain them unless you are a professor, and are definitely not allowed to be used.</p>

<p>The test bank that tiff90 is talking about is just a collection of notes, homeworks and tests from a class that someone took, though I’ve only heard of them being referred to as “course bibles.” I think these are more accepted, though I’ve had a few classes that explicitly stated that they weren’t allowed to be used.</p>

8

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<p>Past exams, if given out to some, should be given to everybody I think, because otherwise the professor is encouraging an unfair advantage for some. I think past exams are a good diagnostic to find out whether you have studied enough and are really only that, since the questions can vary a lot from year to year.</p>

<p>As for homework, certanly not because you don’t learn anything by copying answers. Whether it is “unfair” or not is a different issue. I personally check my answers after doing them as completely as I can if there is a solution guide to the book because I figure I can check my own answers for free and it costs some points for the TA to do the checking for me. But otherwise, I think it is just that many times, having the solutions in front of us encourages us to take the easy way out and not think through the problems.</p>