<p>Doesn’t integrity feel good?</p>
<p>While it’s wonderful that the OP demonstrated integrity, the professor should have had the good sense to create a new exam after mistakenly uploading the real exam to Blackboard. The professor shouldn’t have assumed that no students had downloaded the real exam.</p>
<p>^agreed, hopefully he learned to do this in the future because I know many people who would’ve taken advantage of it.</p>
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Just knowing that the exam was posted there and that some subset of students downloaded it thus giving them an advantage should be cause enough for the prof to throw out the results of the test altogether. It’s not fair that some students who didn’t happen to download it almost certainly got a lower grade as a result.</p>
<p>^ I’d have to disagree. First it’s not certain that people who didn’t take the time to access the practice materials would score lower. That would depend on their own skill levels. Second, the materials were available to all the students. Some of them took advantage of that and benefited (more than they thought they would).</p>
<p>^^ Based on the OP’s statement that he ‘definitely benefited from downloading the exam’ and common sense that the ability to ‘pre-solve’ the exact same problems that would be on the test would I think most would conclude that scores would be higher for those who studied the exact test before taking it. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s fair to say the materials were available to all the students either unless they were all told to access the website beforehand and the test was there throughout the period up until the test was given. The test was taken off the site at some point but I don’t think we know when that point was. </p>
<p>If the prof was so unconcerned about the actual test being available then the prof should have just passed it out to the class beforehand. I doubt the prof would have done this.</p>
<p>Good going Pierre!! Integrity is not only descerning right from wrong, but it is acting upon what you think is right or wrong and the final element of integrity is saying something.</p>
<p>Now if we could get a 1000 Pierres on Wall Street…</p>
<p>The OP did the actual work by taking what he thought was the practice exam the night before, which is not cheating. Cheating would have been if he also had the answers to that exam. So, he ended up doing it twice. He rightfully earned whatever grade he got on it. </p>
<p>This actually seems like a pretty good educational model to me, if the point is for students to really learn the material. I bet Pierre really knows this stuff now. Anyway, good for you, Pierre!</p>
<p>Well done Pierre. I bet you got a good night’s sleep. You earned it.</p>
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I think it’s absolutely fair. All students had access to the information in the same way as the OP did. Each could have done exactly what the OP did. Just because some were not ambitious enough to go and look at the information is not the professor’s fault.</p>
<p>These are college students. They shouldn’t have to “be told” that the test was there. They were obviously told that study materials were there, or they could look around the site for information. Enough coddling; let the other students take responsibility for themselves.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe some posters think this is ‘absolutely fair’ that the test was posted for some short period of time and hence some students, but likely not all for a variety of reasons, were able to access it and study it. The prof apparently made an error that resulted in giving some students an advantage over others (not through any fault of those students) so the test results should be thrown out.</p>
<p>Nice job Pierre!</p>
<p>of course it isn’t fair…but i certainly don’t expect people on college confidential (for the most part) to recognize or acknowledge this. seems pretty much in keeping with the general train of thought that crops up here.</p>
<p>the prof should have rescheduled the exam while he took the time to create another test. seems like a lazy professor who didn’t want to take the time to make a new test, and who didn’t want to publicly acknowledge that he made a mistake in publishing the test in the first place. too bad for the students.</p>
<p>I think it is perfectly fair for the first test. OP didn´t know it was the real test when he was practicing on it. D1 gets practice tests for math or econ before many of her major exams. She is surprised how often the real test is so similar to the practice test. Some people would tell her how hard the test was, and she would tell me, “Too bad for him/her that he/she didn´t bother to do the practice test.”</p>
<p>It would be wrong if OP continued to study those tests AFTER he knew they were real tests.</p>
<p>^^ I’m not saying the OP did anything wrong, he clearly didn’t, my point is that due to the prof’s apparent error it puts some of the students at advantage which makes the test scenario unfair to all students. Through the prof’s mistake some of the students will likely score higher than others, which means the prof should fess up to the sloppy mistake, throw it out, and be more careful about how the class tests are handled.</p>
<p>The professor put those tests for ALL students to use/practice. If everyone was as diligent as OP, then they would have practiced on the real test, and they would have all been on equal footing. The fact some of them couldn´t bother to do any practice before a test is too bad for them.</p>
<p>well an argument in defense of my classmates is that they didn’t go look for the practice exams until last week at the earliest (as one would expect to). By then, the original exam would have been gone from the class site so it’s still not exactly fair.</p>
<p>^^ My point exactly. Thanks for helping to make it clear Pierre.</p>
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<p>No doubt the first exam was compromised and should not be counted as part of the course grading. Pierre had an unfair advantage. Wasn’t his fault, but it’s true nonetheless. </p>
<p>The real issue now is whether or not the rest of the course exams have been similarly compromised. </p>
<p>I think the professor needs to announce to the class that the first exam results will not be counted, explain the circumstances and emphasize whatever version of the honor code exists at this institution. He should anonymously thank the student that brought this to his attention and explain the importance of academic integrity and the concept of honor. </p>
<p>The professor should report this to his department head and surely rewrite whatever exams may have been available.</p>
<p>If I felt that the above were not happening, I’d ask the professor for permission to transfer to another Calculus section and explain my concerns.</p>
<p>Most versions of the honor code go something like this:</p>
<p>I will not lie, cheat or steal. (That’s the easy part, relatively speaking)</p>
<p>Nor will I tolerate anyone in my presence to do the same. (This is the hard part)</p>
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OK, if the test was removed from Blackboard a week before the exam, then yes, I agree that there was an unfair advantage. If the test wasn’t removed until after the exam, then there was no unfair advantage. Not all advantages are “unfair” ones.</p>