Does this happen at Cal?

<p>I just got done taking my third test for Physics at a Community College. I noticed that several people were making frequent "bathroom trips" together during the test. Also, a student across from me was text messaging on his phone during the test. My lab partner noticed that another lab group takes turns comming in to lab (two of the four people will come for one lab and then the other two will come for the second lab), and then they'll swap data. Labs are worth 30% of the grade. There is also a sign-in sheet that the teacher passes around towards the end of class. According to the sign-in sheet no one has ever missed a class, which isn't true. Does this kind of stuff happen at Berkeley or is unique to my single class?</p>

<p>I dont think you will see that kind of stuff at cal. I think at cc's ppl are less mature about their schooling. Not too many ppl at cal would take the chance of being kicked out.</p>

<p>In all exams that I have taken, either no one gets to go to the bathroom during testing (or you must turn you exam in to go, as in you cannot return and continue working on the exam), or one person goes at a time.</p>

<p>If you cheat in anyway and you are caught, you will either get an F on that exam, an F in that class, or be reported to the administration and possibly be expelled from the university.</p>

<p>I recall that during one midterm, the exam wasn't more than 20 minutes old before the professor suddenly shouted "You! I saw you cheating and looking at that other person's paper! Come here." The petrified student walked up with her exam, which was promptly taken from her, ripped up, and thrown away in front of you. She was summarily dismissed from the lecture hall and left in tears. The rest of the class firmly kept both eyes on their exam.</p>

<p>It wasn't until after the exam that the professor explained that the incident was a trick pulled by the professor and his actress daughter, who did a stunningly convincing job pretending to be a cheating student.</p>

<p>Thats funny. What prof was this?</p>

<p>Oh, that's great. My high school teacher did that once. He gave a student a fake cell phone and it "rang" during class. The teacher went over to her, grabbed the phone, and chucked it at a wall where it shattered to pieces. I wanted to scrounge for parts after class and found it was a clear fake, so word got out pretty fast.</p>

<p>Regarding the OP, I'm sure there are some students that do that. There will always be cheaters wherever you go. I haven't seen stuff like that myself, though. First of all, nobody cares about attendance, so that wouldn't help you at all. Second, labs are usually some measly 10% of your grade, so getting a perfect score on those is meaningless (and the grading is typically lenient to reflect this).</p>

<p>Test conditions are typically strict. Limits on the students leaving the room, forcing the student to hand the test over to the professor or a GSI when leaving the room, etc. Honestly, if you can't pass the test on your own, though, you probably can't cheat your way through either. The tests are hard, very hard. You will fail if you don't know what you're doing, cheating or not.</p>

<p>theyare strict about lab attendance, though. don't get the wrong idea about that.</p>

<p>Yes they are. For chem 1a if you missed one lab, its an automatic fail, i think.</p>

<p>Cheating does and can occur at Cal, usually in the podunk majors.</p>

<p>For all the technical majors though, professors are usually very strict.</p>

<p>There was a recent (within the last 10 years I believe) scandal where a "something"-studies professor was basically caught giving out free A's to people who had never attended class.</p>

<p>I've also overheard many times kids on campus talking about how to cheat by going to the bathroom to call friends and things like that. I just assume they were in majors that were smaller and allowed such things.</p>

<p>There's a reason why no professor at Cal usually allows a take-home midterm or final and all papers are meticulously screened and photocopied.</p>

<p>
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Cheating does and can occur at Cal, usually in the podunk majors.

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<p>Do you have statistics?</p>

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For all the technical majors though, professors are usually very strict.

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</p>

<p>Are you techie or softie? Unless you're both, I don't see how you can hope to paint an accurate picture of both.</p>

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I've also overheard many times kids on campus talking about how to cheat by going to the bathroom to call friends and things like that. I just assume they were in majors that were smaller and allowed such things.

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<p>Where's the logic in this? I would have thought that it'd easier to cheat in the bigger majors, where students often feel like numbers and don't get as much face-to-face contact with professors like students in smaller majors do.</p>

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There's a reason why no professor at Cal usually allows a take-home midterm or final

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<p>Where did you got that? </p>

<p>In my experience, tons of professors allow take-home midterms and finals. </p>

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all papers are meticulously screened and photocopied.

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<p>They do? Who told you this? The last time I checked, departments that assign "papers" have nowhere near enough resources (copy machines, paper, storage space) as to possible carry out the operation you describe.</p>

<p>
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There was a recent (within the last 10 years I believe) scandal where a "something"-studies professor was basically caught giving out free A's to people who had never attended class.

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</p>

<p>Link it.</p>

<p>ShiboinBoing, does doing what you do make you feel better about your life and situation or something? Reasonable people can recognize the truth in most of what you're saying, and how many times, you love to exaggerate beyond belief. Why don't you be constructive and reasonable like sakky? For a while you were being reasonable, a few months ago.</p>

<p>Which majors are the podunk majors? </p>

<p>The one clearly true and sensible thing shiboingboing said (other than "For all the technical majors though, professors are usually very strict," which might be the case, I'm not sure (or sure that ShiboingBoing knows this first-hand or that he knows which majors are actually technical majors) has to do with some ethnic studies or chicano studies prof giving unearned grades to athletes. Sakky has the link. Not that this being true can reasonably lead one to conclude all "studies" majors are somehow distinct in any way other than they are "studies" majors- that might be the case, but ShioboingBoing's post just indicates how he feels about these majors for whatever reason.</p>