<p>So instead of taking notes by interpreting the material, you just straight-up copied some other notes? Honestly, it's hard to decide if I consider that cheating or not. I mean, if it's one of those things where you are meant to write your own interpretation but you instead use the words of another, it may be considered plagiarism (just guessing here, I don't know what the rules are for textbooks and notes and that sort of thing).</p>
<p>Regardless, you definitely need to bring your parents into this. The final decision is really a function of mercy at this point. You need to emphasize:</p>
<ol>
<li>Many others did the same, who were otherwise honest students</li>
<li>They're textbook notes. Nobody generally freaks out when you're using notes from a textbook as your source, as opposed to some other book. Textbooks are meant to aid the class, and it may be unreasonable to flunk a student for using textbook material.</li>
<li>This decision will severely impact your college admission status for most schools. It's quite a harsh punishment, considering the ambiguous nature of the problem. You should make it clear that if so many students were using the same notes, they obviously were not afraid that it was considered cheating because the material did not seem unreasonable to use.</li>
</ol>
<p>I think saying that "this is a punishment for procrastinators" is a bit disingenuous and unreasonable. Receiving an F over something like this is a tad strange. If the original poster here was supposed to write his own interpretation and instead just copied something word-for-word, it is going to be harder to argue. Otherwise, I think there are grounds for deeming the punishment unreasonable.</p>
<p>I am going to repaste Caatinga's advice here because it was spot-on, and this is the kind of attitude you need to take:</p>
<p>"Be extremely apologetic and reflect on what you have learned from this because trust me, even copying online notes someone made verbatim is indeed plagiarism. I'm assuming you're a high calibre student academically, given the schools you're applying to. You should use that and say I'm not someone who would cheat on purpose, I honestly didn't know I couldn't copy off of the online notes. I thought the purpose of the notes was to study the materials, and I thought I could study it best by copying at that time. Maybe add I thought it was more for personal use instead of submission for marks (as in notes for completion marks + timeline for quality marks), so it was a misunderstanding on my part and I'm so sorry that I misunderstood the assignment. Something like that, be defensive but acknowledge how your teacher feels. Get your other 11 students to say the same things? Oh yeah, voluntarily taking responsibility also helps, be like, I'll make it up to you in way X that doesn't involve an F on transcript, like redo the project or something. If your administration has a heart, they'll hopefully understand."</p>