<p>Think about this situation: You studied for the test and know the person next to you is looking at your paper. You do not want to be considered a cheater when a grader sees two very similar tests. Would you really jeopardize your own reputation/life so you won’t ruin someone else’s life?</p>
<p>The problem becomes when certain classes there is a restriction on how many people get A’s, while the rest are distributed respectively. Unfortunately, some don’t use a strict measurement (90+ = A, etc.) and have quotas they fill to up the competition of the class (ala Stanford).</p>
<p>So then, either you sacrifice your moral compass and cheat or you give up the cheaters to give yourself a fairer shot. </p>
<p>And our job is to be prepared for real life. If you take everything passively and assume others will take up the charge, then unfortunately that’s not how real life works. Many times, you’ll have to be the one that draws the line and report to the authorities because others won’t.</p>
<p>Still at a crossroads.</p>
<p>While I do not condone it, it could really have dramatic consequences for the person. Think of someone jay walking across the street, it’s illegal but I’m sure not going to report it to the police. Also, if they are cheating, it’s not as if they will ace the test because someone who knows the content well enough does not need to cheat. Thirdly, doesn’t the distribution of grading become normal given a big enough class size so it’s not as if cheating has a statistically significant impact?</p>
<p>Just remember the consequences for yourself also well:</p>
<p>How well does your conscience do under the fact that you ruined somebody’s life when it doesn’t help anyone. </p>
<p>It won’t help your grade since the really smart kids don’t cheat.
It won’t help them because they’ll get kicked out/fail/not get anywhere with life and blame you.
It won’t help the school’s reputation.</p>
<p>Instead, solve the problem at the core. Talk to that student and make sure they understand you caught them and they need to change etc :D</p>
<p>… and if they threaten you with physical violence?</p>
<p>talking to the cheater and asking him/her to change is a naive idea imo lol…</p>
<p>Naive kids.</p>
<p>You have two choices: report the cheater or don’t. Talking to the cheater after the exam and expecting him/her to change is a complete waste of time. The cheater would simply deny any wrongdoing and dismiss your comments. Think about it, why the hell would anyone openly admit to cheating on an exam after getting away with it? If a cheater is caught in the act by a proctor or students or a proctor reports the suspected cheater after the exam to the student conduct committee or whatever, then the person will have to go through a hearing and all that jazz. However, if you confront the person after the test, it’s your words against his. And if all it took was another student’s accusation, then who’s to say that he won’t report you for trying to cheat off him? I mean, you were staring at him during the test.</p>
<p>Just report the moron. We’re all adults and we’re all expected to take the responsibility for our actions. He cheats, he gets caught, and gets thrown out of the school. Boohoo, ain’t that a b*tch. He should have known the consequences, and if he didn’t, then he doesn’t belong in academia anyway.</p>
<p>I mean, do you really want a doctor who cheated his way through college to operate on you? Chances are, he has always been a cheater and he will never change. If he cheats in undergrad, he’ll cheat in med school, and just maybe, he’ll cheat you on the operating table.</p>
<p>It’s better than to report the cheater and ruin his life. It’s totally myopic and won’t actually solve anything. </p>
<p>And if the cheater had to cheat to go through college, then he would never make it past med school. Just how far can you cheat anyways?</p>
<p>How would you like it if somebody reported you for every wrong doing ever.</p>
<p>I’m sure everyone has at least one song that’s pirated or gotten from a friend without paying etc. Do you go around reporting everyone who does so?</p>
<p>No, because it’s common decency.
If their teachers notices, too bad. If the music inudstry notices, it’s too bad.
But it’s not your job to go around being the vigilante.</p>
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<p>And why won’t he make it past med school? If you can cheat your way through high school, cheat your way into college, and cheat your way past college, then you’re fully capable of cheating through med school. Cheating is pretty much a cardinal sin in academia. It’s a serious offense at any educational level. It’s not like people start to seriously crack down on cheating in med school.</p>
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<p>Most things that people do wrong are mundane. Today, I drank straight from the juice bottle. Yesterday, I ate my roommate’s food when he told me not to. And last week, I went to Safeway and ate 2 pieces of gummy worms without paying for them. Sure, go ahead and report me, see if anyone gives a flying f@ck.</p>
<p>Cheating, on the other hand, is taken seriously in academia.</p>
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<p>No, because it would be a waste of time and it neither harms or benefits me.</p>
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<p>What is it that you’re actually trying to solve? The cheater’s lack of ethics? That’s not my problem and I don’t really care. That’s something his parents should have dealth with. But, I do care that he is getting an unfair advantage on an exam that I took the time to study for. Since almost all the classes I’ve ever taken are curved, I would indeed benefit from reporting a cheater. It is hence in my interest to be the vigilante and secure the grade that I deserve in the class.</p>
<p>Besides, cheaters know what they’re doing. They know they’re not supposed to cheat, but they’re willing to take the risk. And guess what, sometimes bad luck catches up to them and they get caught. Tough $hit. Get over it.</p>
<p>This is the same idea as reporting a criminal in “the real world.” If you saw a person stealing, it is your civic duty to report the info to the police. Well in this case the person is stealing a grade they don’t deserve, and if the test is curved, that grade could be yours.</p>
<p>Absolutely agree with Tasty and Locke. Simply put… Don’t cheat. If you DO cheat, don’t do it around me. I have no problem with turning a cheater in and will feel no pangs of guilt about it at any future date. Why would I turn in a cheater? In a nutshell – it pi$$es me off. This is an institution where we use intellect to advance and succeed. Cheating subverts this process… end of story.</p>
<p>I dont understand why people always play the bystander, aside from the fact that it’s the easier way out. I also think there’s a deeper underlying pattern of fear, judging by the responses I’ve read-mainly the fear of being obligated to something, perhaps honesty and integrity over the victim’s feelings as opposed to the rest of the class being wronged. and a more subtle fear of failure projected from the source and onto the victim. </p>
<p>do you actually think you maintain your own integrity when you see someone cheating, yet decide to do nothing about it? Kinda sad as this type of response reminds me of the majority of the people’s response to the holocaust atrocities.</p>
<p>If you are the kind of person who likes to report your fellow students, then the best profession for you is a prison guard. I don’t want to hang around with the kind of people who stab their fellow students in the back. I suspect that you won’t have many friends at Berkeley if you are out to get the other students.</p>
<p>how can you prove that the alleged cheater was taking what the OP suspects he was taking? it’s not like adderal has its name scrawled in huge letters on the pill. even if it did, the cheater could easily deny the accusation, claim that it was just a vitamin (if anything at all), and the OP would be end up looking like a huge jerk…not only in the eyes of his peers, but in some ways, also in the eyes of the administration. </p>
<p>no one likes a snitch. get off your high horse and get over yourself- nobody stole your grade. its not your “duty” to report cheating, all that you’re going to do is make someone’s life difficult for about two seconds, and make your life difficult for much longer.</p>
<p>there’s a reason why whistle-blowers always end up getting the shaft…because as noble as the act of uncovering an injustice is, the sneaky, self-righteous, and conniving means that a person has to go through to shed light on the problem- makes the whistle-blower just as bad as the person committing the crime. (i.e. Linda Tripp)</p>
<p>have fun!</p>
<p>I agree completely. </p>
<p>Some of the people on this thread look as if they are going to come to Berkeley looking for ways to take down other students.</p>
<p>I hope most of those attending Berkeley are more respectful of their fellow students than the majority of posters on this thread.</p>
<p>deadbear: "I always hoped I would find my own niche of students where I would fit in, but after four years and on the verge of graduating I am still alone. I’ve been a part of a close-knit student organization since freshman year and have met a lot of different people each semester, but I find myself still having virtually no friends. I am a normal person. I am social and I put myself out there and meet different people but no one seems to like me or want to be my friend.</p>
<p>Up until this semester I pretended that everything was great and that I was fitting in, but one day I just woke up and asked myself if I was really happy. I’ve been compromising who I am for the sake of trying to get other people to like me. For example, as much as I hate alcohol, recently I’ve even started to drink more so I could fit in and join people at parties. I’ve also tried just being myself and I still get the same results. Sure these things take time, but it’s been four years too long.</p>
<p>I’ve started to internalize all these depressing feelings of being alone and I have even begun hating myself and thinking of just ending it all. I still want to get to know people, but now part of me is vengeful and wishes to destroy the happiness that other people have. There is just something particular about cal students that is terribly wrong. Maybe it’s the cutthroat competitive spirit that manifests itself in people’s personality. I meet a lot of students that I feel are fake, self-centered, and passive aggressive deep down inside. I don’t know how to describe it but they are just so fake…"</p>
<p>I saw you post this on anoncon too. Perhaps tattling on fellow students based upon unfounded evidence (i.e. you don’t know the medical history of the person you are accusing, something very private between the accused and his/her physician) isn’t the best way to make friends. Even the people who support you on this thread would most likely not want to be friends with you…why? Because they’ll be afraid of you tattling on them sometime in the future…</p>
<p>Stop reducing this to a simple caricature. There is no pure right/wrong, black/white sort of decision here.</p>
<p>I just hope that regardless of what any one person thinks, that they are mature enough to respect the ideals of others than denouncing them as “looking for ways to take down other students” or feigning some moral high-ground.</p>
<p>So please, grow up and respect what others think, regardless of whether it agrees with your thought or not.</p>
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<p>Way to generalize. Following the same logic, if you’re the kind of person who likes to let things slide, then the best profession for you is in dirty politics.</p>
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<p>Cheating in a curved class is basically stabbing EVERYONE in the back. Nobody cheats to score in the lower quartiles of the class. People cheat to get high scores, which consequently shifts the curve. And of course, cheating isn’t usually just an individual endeavor, so most times, many people cheat together. This yields a much more impacted curve than one that results from a single cheater.</p>
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<p>LOL</p>
<p>What are you, a fourth grader? Nobody likes a snitch, wah wah wah. Grow up. That sophomoric sense of brotherhood is idealistic and impractical in the real world… The truth is that people dislike cheaters more than hate snitches.</p>
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<p>You naive kids think it takes meticulous planning and insidious maneuvering to expose a cheater. Wrong. Nobody is sitting there plotting to catch a cheater; it just happens. You’re in class, you’re taking a test, the moron next to you has all his notes on the ground and reading them as he takes the test. How does this require cunning and conniving means?</p>
<p>Nobody is proposing you to go out of your way to expose a cheater. You don’t actively accuse everyone of cheating, you only do it when it’s blatantly obvious and obnoxious. It’s nothing personal, it’s simply against the academic rules to cheat.</p>
<p>^ Yea I agree with you.
But simply put, cheating is wrong. It is a violation of Berkeley’s academic integrity and standards. Cheating might get you better grades, but in the end it will get you nowhere. As a student to the nation’s best public university, you should be here to learn and to explore. Grades should be only a fractional of importance, it’s the learning that counts. If you want to cheat and get good grades, why you don’t just go to some other easier colleges?
If I see someone cheating the first time, I probably would just go up to him/her and talk about it. If I see that person again cheating another time, then I have no regret reporting him. I absolutely hate cheating, especially since everyone here is an adult, and to cheat at one of the nation’s best university is simply a shame.</p>
<p>“You naive kids think it takes meticulous planning and insidious maneuvering to expose a cheater. Wrong. Nobody is sitting there plotting to catch a cheater; it just happens. You’re in class, you’re taking a test, the moron next to you has all his notes on the ground and reading them as he takes the test. How does this require cunning and conniving means?”</p>
<p>How does it require cunning and conniving means? Because you don’t address that person directly, you go behind their back and report them to a third party without their knowledge. The OP doesn’t know the story of what really happened, all he/she saw was someone taking a pill (which, for all they know, could have been a vitamin or any other kind of supplement) and they are jumping to conclusions and plotting ways to get this person expelled for violating the time honored tradition of “not throwing off the curve”</p>
<p>I think that’s pretty conniving, don’t you think? And quite frankly, having your notes with you while you take an exam is a much more blatant example of cheating than what the OP is alleging…and that’s where I think a lot of people get mixed up. Taking a pill to help you concentrate isn’t the same as having the answers right in front of you.</p>