<p>For one of my AP classes, my teacher thinks that I've cheated on a test essay with another student. (These test essays are done at home.)</p>
<p>I didn't cheat. I'd rather fail than cheat. Her reasoning behind thinking we cheated is that our essays sound similar. Of course they sound similar! We use the same textbook and get all our case-studies and examples from that book!</p>
<p>She hasn't confronted me about it, but she did write a note on the other student's paper about "how she knows we either worked together or one of us copied the other's paper and changed a few words around" and that she "really detests this kind of thing". Yes, she wrote detests.</p>
<p>My class hasn't gotten that essay back, so I'm a bit ****ed that she hasn't said a thing about it to me and I had to find out through the other student. I'm also really angry that she just assumes we cheated without giving us any benefit of the doubt. Apparently in previous years a lot of her students cheated and I think that that's pretty much colored her expectations of students. I plan on confronting her about it tomorrow, but I'm not sure how I can explain this to her or if she'll even really care about what I say.</p>
<p>The other student didn't even know I was taking this course. I didn't even know she was taking this course either. I don't even talk to her at all unless she asks me about a math problem during calc!</p>
<p>The first thing is obviously to tell her that you didn’t cheat. If she doesn’t believe you, maybe you should get other teachers to act as a sort of character witness? Let them talk to your teacher and say you’re a good student who–in your words–“would rather fail than cheat.”</p>
<p>First of all I would like to say that of course when you deal with classes that allow you to take home the tests, the teacher is always going to expect cheating (very common). </p>
<p>As for what you should do I think you should just go talk to her and say “[other student name] informed me that you think we cheated on the test but we didn’t. I think the reason our papers look the same is because there weren’t may cases and information to use in the textbook. I just wanted you to know that I would never cheat or even think about it.” </p>
<p>important thing is that you don’t insult her teaching skills by being frank and don’t as for a different grade on your paper make sure she just knows you didn’t cheat or else she will think you just want a different grade and you did cheat</p>
<p>A friend of mine was in a similar situation last year, in computer science. He was already in college, by the way. Anyway, in the computer science class, you’re strictly not allowed to share code or discuss homework besides some ‘vague concepts’ because it’s easy to ‘cheat’ when doing homework. The professors run a program that takes a database of all past student homework from all over the United States and run it against online-submitted homework.</p>
<p>Anyway, he and another person in the class (about 600 total students, two lecture times) had 99% similarity in their code. They were called in for academic misconduct, etc. The thing was, they claim they didn’t even know each other, let alone were ‘buddy buddy’ enough to do homework together.</p>
<p>The professor refused to let this pass, since academic misconduct is a big deal. The CSE department is highly competitive and you need about 3.7+ GPA in both intro classes to be considered for the department, or so I’ve heard.</p>
<p>My friend ended up emailing the professor, CC’d the Electrical Engineering (he was in the EE department) & Computer Science/Engineering Advisors (they’ve seen situations such as this) <em>ALL OF THEM</em> a respectful but firm email about the situation. He ended up having the misconduct charges dismissed. Basically, the prof figured that if the student went through all the trouble to CC all the advisors, what were the chances the student actually cheated?</p>
<p>Definitely make noise. Cheating on a test is a big deal, and even if your teacher is pressuring you to give in, DO NOT ADMIT GUILT. Don’t take a ‘lower grade’ to compensate for ‘cheating’. You probably plan on appealing this, and don’t give the administration any reason to believe that you actually cheated. If you must, hold a conference: you, the other ‘cheater’, your teacher, and an administrator. At my high school, it would have been the Dean of Students. What if the teacher wont budge after? Bring your parents in.</p>
<p>Listen, do NOT say anything until you get your paper back. If you talk to her before that, it shows that you’ve talked to this other kid which DOESN’T help your case at all. Just chill until you get yours back. She might assume he copied you and only tank his grade.</p>
<p>@Funstuff: assume he copied OP? that would mean that OP gave the other guy the take home test, right? OP would be as guilty in cheating as the other guy. For most schools, if you help someone cheat, you’re as guilty as the cheater trying to benefit from it. I feel like in this case, it’s all or nothing - either OP+other guy gets off, or they’re both penalized.</p>