<p>My daughter was using the internet to study for an AP bio test. She discovered a site where her teacher gets all the class tests. She a bit self righteous about cheating (among other things) so I know the discovery was unintentional. </p>
<p>In this situation, if a student uses the available online information to study for a class test, it that considered cheating? It certainly feels like it to me but on the other hand, I don't really see exactly what the student is doing wrong.</p>
<p>I am curious to hear other parent's opinions.</p>
<p>If your daughter feels comfortable asking the teacher about this, then it is not cheating. Just, in general, any time you feel as if you “can’t” tell them what you are doing, you are on shaky ground.</p>
<p>The best policy, when unsure, is just to ask.</p>
<p>I would say it is cheating. And… if she is being honest, she should tell the teacher she came across the web site so the teacher can start using some other source for test questions.</p>
<p>What she is doing wrong is having access to the test questions prior to the test that the other students in her class do not have. That gives her an unfair advantage. Some advantages truly are fair – the student who organizes their notes and materials better, studies harder, works with a study group, has gone in for extra help, has a better memory, or seeks out supplemental sources like books or free online videos from college courses. This is not that kind of “fair” advantage.</p>
<p>the teacher surely knows full well that if he is using material verbatim from the internet that students can come across it. In fact, he may be rewarding those students who are using the supplemental information on the internet.</p>
<p>I agree that the student should inform the teacher of her findings AND not to become too comfortable, for the teacher may use another source for test questions whether she says something or not.</p>
<p>It isn’t like AP Bio’s curriculum is any big secret, by the way.</p>
<p>If the site has the exact same tests, with the same questions, in the same order (maybe), I would say it is cheating. Regardless of how you twist it, it does not make sense that a teacher would want students to have access to the answers before the test so they essentially do not have to learn the material. The idea that there is no reason to learn something if you can succeed otherwise is a problem with education today.</p>
<p>Using old AP exams is different. There are a lot of old AP exams and the questions aren’t completely predictable.</p>
<p>It’s unfair to other students because they are putting more effort into their grades, or they are getting a lower class rank.</p>
<p>She should talk to her teacher and tell her what happened. If she doesn’t, it’ll just hang around the back of her mind and she won’t feel that she deserved the grade she gets, regardless of her performance. But if she speaks up, she has nothing to lose so long as she does it before the test. It will look like exactly what it is–an honest mistake–and she will come across as the honorable girl she no doubt is.</p>
<p>If the teacher is getting exams verbatim from a website that is easy to find and not protected, then I have no problem with the students “studying” from them.</p>
<p>What I do have a problem with is a teacher who is too lazy to even change the order of the questions on the exams, or not smart enough to realize that the site is publicly available. A good teacher, especially of an AP level class, should be making up his/her own exams, based on his lessons and the responses of the class.</p>
<p>Of course it isn’t cheating. The person who is cheating is the teacher, who isn’t doing their job. If a student studying for your exams and using internet resources to do so is going to stumble across your test questions, which apparently YOU are copying verbatim, then you need to put in more effort.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it would behoove your D to let the teacher know she found the resource.</p>
<p>Nope, it isn’t cheating. The internet is an open source of information. Surely a teacher would understand this. How would this be different from studying against tests given in prior years? That isn’t considered cheating. It’s called studying available information. Now, if your D ran across the actual upcoming test being given and studied that, then, yes it’s cheating.</p>
<p>^^I think that is the point-she probably will run across the upcoming test being given. She will not know for sure it will be given; only after the fact. </p>
<p>Be careful. Read the school policy on cheating carefully. The school or district might have some clause about teacher resource websites being off-limits to students. If she has mentioned her discovery to any other students, her story can get back to the faculty and open a whole can of worms.</p>
<p>I agree. It’s in the public domain, it’s research. Be warned, however, that the teacher could at any time find another source or (gasp!) write her own tests. So, your daughter should make she fully understands the details of the material being covered and does not just memorize the answers to specific questions.</p>
<p>I just want to add that my daughter is not using the test site but has not told the teacher about the find. The teacher is not well regarded because she contradicts herself, contradicts the textbook and gets oddly defensive when the students try to get her to clarify things. I have not encouraged my daughter to tell the teacher because I would not be surprised if she used the information to accuse my daughter of cheating.</p>
<p>It’s a shame because my daughter used to love biology and now she dreads going to the class. One of the parenting lessons I have learned as I’ve watched my daughter navigate high school is that it is better to pick a class by teacher, rather than subject. An unexciting subject taught by a great teacher trumps a favorite subject taught be a bad teacher.</p>
<p>To me, using the site to look at the tests certainly feels like cheating but in reality it isn’t violating any school honor code. That’s why I was curious to see how others felt.</p>
<p>When you say that your d found a site where her teacher gets all her classroom tests, do you mean that they are actual AP tests from prior years? If that’s cheating, then my kids’ old hs should lost its accreditation - it’s the way teachers have assigned kids to prepare for every AP exam in every class since forever.</p>
<p>If it’s a teachers-only resource - shouldn’t that be password protected? I agree with the poster above that teachers should realize that students use the internet to study for exams, and create their own tests if they don’t want students using online exams.</p>
<p>I also think that it depends on what exactly this website is. If it’s a site set up by somebody who hacked a teacher’s-only site and is republishing the material, then I think using it is unethical. But if it’s a collection of old tests that have been released, or a public site with suggested or sample questions, then I don’t think it’s cheating.</p>
<p>“One of the parenting lessons I have learned as I’ve watched my daughter navigate high school is that it is better to pick a class by teacher, rather than subject. An unexciting subject taught by a great teacher trumps a favorite subject taught be a bad teacher”</p>
<p>Truer words have never been so eloquently stated…</p>