<p>Interesting thread. As a parent paying the full fare tuition at an Ivy, I would be furious if the profs are using a test bank instead of writing their own tests. Isn’t that part of what that large tuition check pays for? And as someone stated earlier, by writing new tests each term, it reduces the likelihood of cheating.</p>
<p>I remember having a history class in college that had 100% of the grade on the final exam which was the only exam of the semester. I would have liked to have old copies of previous tests in the library to give me some sort of idea of the information that the prof was seeking on the test.</p>
<p>I also can see how the OP thought she was purchasing practice tests ( if the site was not the one with the disclaimer). It is common practice to purchase test books such as is done for college entrance exams. I can see how the OP thought this was an online version of the same thing.</p>
<p>I also think it is disturbing that the dean appears unwilling to have a dialogue about this. Afterall, shouldn’t this be a learning experience, even if its one with terrible consequences?</p>
<p>Is there a student newspaper at this school? I think this would make for an interesting discussion in the school paper. It could help clarify policies and academic conduct rules for the whole student body. Could also include a discussion of probabtion process and appeals.</p>
<p>MidwestMom is right. Universities have internal judicial procedures that have to be followed in scholastic dishonesty cases, and in this tale they are not. Step 1: student is afforded a hearing before any penalty is imposed, and student is allowed to hire outside counsel to advise and attend the hearing. Step 2: At the hearing the dean presents the case against the student, and the student responds. Someone who is not the dean (at my university it’s a professor from the school of law) serves as judge and issues a verdict.</p>
<p>In this story there is no due process and the dean is a walking magnet for lawsuits. No university in this country would leave itself so legally vulnerable as that.</p>
<p>Private universities can and do write their own honor codes, and uphold honor committee findings or deans’ findings without “legal” due process. By matriculating, and with your signature, you agree to the college’s policies, and thus they have the right to do pretty much what they want. A student is not allowed outside legal representation in the hearings, just a university representative.</p>
<p>Public universities may have entirely different, more transparent “judicial” systems.</p>
<p>You are correct that the process described is dead wrong, but probably wrong about the “no university in this country” part – we don’t know what university it is, and I was very often amazed at the blatantly illegal or improper things that I saw people in authority do during my law career. I mean, that’s the stuff that keeps lawyers in business – there’s always some autocratic, ill-informed employer or landlord or rookie cop somewhere acting in complete and total disregard of clear legal standards, I don’t see why a dean at some small college would be exempt from stupidity. </p>
<p>I would agree that this is unlikely to have happened at a top tier university – but the fact that appropriate procedures haven’t been followed is not a reason to doubt the story.</p>
<p>The OP said the dean commanded two of the college’s professors to give F’s to the OP’s sister as well, and the two professors complied. </p>
<p>I would have thought that this was
a small school,
not an academically rigorous school <a href=“%5Bb%5Dall%5B/b%5D%20of%20the%20junior%20OP’s%20%20professors%20using%20test%20banks%20rather%20than%20writing%20their%20own%20tests%20-%20this%20was%20not%20a%20first%20year%20freshman%20taking%20all%20intro%20classe”>i</a>, *
not open to much outside scrutiny <a href=“dean%20an%20autocrat”>i</a>*
and
-perhaps a religious school <a href=“such%20a%20strict%20honor%20code%20that%20it%20held%20the%20OP%20accountable%20even%20for%20an%20%5Bu%5Dunintended%5B/u%5D%20violation”>i</a>*
until I came to the part about the sister and the two professors - three irrational educated adults all in positions of authority at a U.S. college.</p>
<p>I think the OP (like me) recently learned that there is such a thing as a “test bank” for college textbooks and decided to have some fun with it.</p>
<p>Of course there is no harm in offering helpful suggestions. I have sometimes responded to posts from OPs I didn’t believe figuring that if their stories didn’t really happen to them, my response might be useful to future students. Okay. I don’t know why this thread has gotten to me. :o</p>
<p>ClassicRockerDad -
The writing style does make the OP sound like a young man, doesn’t it? but if the OP has an identical twin sister, the OP is a woman.</p>
<p>I don’t think SHE is a ■■■■■, and I don’t think it could possibly help anybody to accuse HER of being one. Furthermore, it could be very hurtful if you are wrong. Please be respectful. The whole point of this board is to help each other. Please remember that.</p>
<p>Tksmom has a good suggestion with going to the school newspaper. If OP is telling the whole story, I´d be pretty outraged as a paying parent with this situation. If professors there are going to be allowed to use test banks, then they better make damn well sure that the exams are not available to any potential buyer on the web. AND put students on notice from the beginning that searching for practice tests on the internet is unacceptable. I think the best thing OP can do is try to get some publicity for this case–maybe send the link to this thread to the paper or others.</p>
<p>Some questions:<br>
poster never mentions the actual exams she took. Were they identical to the tests she studied from? Did she get 100% on all her exams? </p>
<p>Would a university decide to give all Fs based on tests found in the library without consulting with professor to see if these were identical tests to what was given in the class?</p>
<p>I think it is unclear whether she took the exams. She did say that the test banks were acquired to prepare for possibly future or maybe past mid term exams. I don’t know when this occurred but I think most schools do not have mid term yet and someone found the test banks in the library which presumably left by OP. All the classes she is taking use test banks so it must have been a big pile of test banks in the library that were linked to her somehow.</p>
<p>I read the pm that I received. The story he has told in the thread is slightly different than the one he sent in the pm. In any event, the OP is a guy.</p>
<p>Identical twin of opposite sex is super rare. And here is a quote from first post:</p>
<p>“The worst part is I have an identical twin sister, whom takes the same classes with me. They also gave her the grade “F” because they assume we look exactly the same and we are sisters so she would be using those test bank exams too.”</p>
<p>Identical twins of opposite sex are not rare, they are mpossible. They would have to be fraternal twins and they make look alike as much as any sister and brother.</p>
<p>The story is posted here is different from the one that I received in a pm.</p>
<p>I now think that the guy who sold the materials to the twin sister is writing here trying to figure out how he can bail his customer out. Perhaps it is a ■■■■■ after all.</p>
<p>Wildwood11, I just googled and there were a handful of documented cases of identical twins of opposite sex in history. Not impossible, but sounds like 1 chance in a gazillion.</p>
<p>Sorry, but how can that be when they come from one egg with the same genes? Sex is already determined before the split. Could only happen if for some reason the genitals didn’t fully develop in one and the parents had to make a choice at birth.</p>
<p>I am not an expert, but it says this could happen to an identical twin boys and one of them suffer Turner’s syndrome where one of the twin looses Y chromosome.</p>