<p>Here is the course in question, according to the articles linked in post #53:</p>
<p>[GOV</a> 1368 Home § Government 1368 (Fall 2013-2014)](<a href=“http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k95680]GOV”>http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k95680)</p>
<p>It looks like the course now has a take home, open book final. It is not behind a student wall, so you can see for yourself how difficult it is.</p>
<p>I love open note tests. Of course that particular exam seems badly skewed to evoke a certain perspective.
I would be irritated if not only a lecture, but the final was so obvious re the professors stance.
When I was in vocational school for massage, a final three or four months in, consisted of blank piece of paper with minimal instruction.(it was an 18 mo full time program)
On it you were to fill in the skeleton, the ligaments, tendons & muscles, name attachments and insertions, major nerves and arteries, and list actions of muscles used in common activities.
Not open book, just you and the paper.
But that was just difficult for me, perhaps a Harvard student wouldnt have difficulty.
;)</p>
<p>One of the problems with take home, open note exams is that they can take quite a lot of time, researching and refining your answers, since you know EVERYONE also has access to their books and notes. I feel like open book take home exams are more like life outside academia anyway, because you WILL be asked to do projects and use all the resources you can marshall to do them as well as possible in a timeline.</p>
<p>However, that GOV 1368 take home final exam is supposed to the a three hour exam, not a “take as long as you want before the due date/time” take home final exam.</p>
<p>I did note that it said they are only SUPPOSED to take three hours or less. I am familiar with other exams that don’t have time limits and really are stressful for perfectionists who feel they have to work on them 24/7 until the last moment.</p>
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<p>I read the exam paper and looked at the other material posted on the website, and I can’t figure out what the badly skewed stance is? Seems about as politically neutral for a politics course as one could hope for.</p>
<p>I guess I must be dumb. The long question in particular asks you to give both the pros and cons of the reform you choose. There are some that I would say are reforms champions by the right, others by the left. It looked pretty even handed to me.</p>
<p>The exam instructions: " Please take no more than three (3) hours to complete the exam. We have indicated the approximate amount of time that you should devote to each section. Gauge your time accordingly."</p>
<p>This sounds like a firm time limit to me. I don’t know if it relies on honor or if the exam is timed in some way (which is possible for online exams). But “perfectionists” who take longer, if that is possible, would basically be cheating.</p>
<p>The professor suggests deciding in advance how much time to spend on each separate section in order to make the 3 hour overall time limit. Pretty clear.</p>
<p>It is supposed to be a time limit I believe although even if there was an online timer the fact that the exam is online so far in advance means that someone who wanted to cheat even online could just read the exam and come up with answers today and then just spend the 3 hours typing it in. Also, it’s turned in by email so it’s not like they have some kind of timer tracking system!</p>
<p>I wonder if he is sorry he did it or very very sorry he has been exposed.</p>
<p>I had an absolutely horrible loss at his age. Somehow I managed not to call in bomb threats on the anniversary. I also managed to survive the prospect of making a B. </p>
<p>I have some sympathy for him regarding what this could do to his future, but I haven’t seen anything yet which illustrates anything particularly mitigating. Everyone attending Harvard is under pressure and has problems; only one decided his own interests were so profoundly more important than others’.</p>
<p>There, that’s it! Nrdsb4 said it all.</p>
<p>And yes, I like to believe that we Americans strive to be a bit special, but also take the time to be considerate of others. A value in decline these days, I know.</p>
<p>Sally, I noticed that in the comments-it sounded as if the person was talking about Questbridge-but I also noticed someone else who claimed that he regularly cheated in HS. I don’t put too much credence in anonymous comments on an article.</p>
<p>If he was poverty stricken, he had a lot of expensive ECs and trips on his record… Although it is certainly not impossible. My S had violin lessons for years but I didn’t go to the dentist for a decade. :)</p>
<p>Well, looks like he got his wish. Won’t need to take that final.</p>
<p>Whether he was undergoing a mental breakdown or not is up to the psych experts to figure out. Even so, considering the gravity of his crime, worries about ending his Harvard College career are the least of his concerns. </p>
<p>More importantly, he alarmed fellow members of his college community and the greater Boston area considering the recent terrorist attack there. Doubt there’s going to be much sympathy from the courts unless previously unreported/unknown compelling mitigating evidence is brought forth by court/defense appointed psych experts.</p>
<p>One friend who lived just 10 minutes walk from the Boston Marathon bombings is really angry about the reports and the affidavit which states Kim was trying to avoid taking that final. He wants Kim to be tossed in prison for as long as legally possible.</p>