<p>Maybe cheating is too strong a word, but yes, it is certainly unethical.</p>
<p>Some years ago, after assigning moderately difficult homework problems from a well-known textbook, I found that many students had about the same very good answers to certain problems. It wasn’t too hard to find the answers they were using on the internet. After that, I didn’t give them homework problems from the book.</p>
<p>Anyway, did the students learn anything by copying answers from another source? That is why it is unethical. Cheating? It is asking a lot for a student in that situation to resist the temptation of publicly-available material.</p>
<p>I would send an anonymous message to the teacher with a link to the tests saying that some students know about it and that it would be wise to make up the tests differently in the future. I would save a copy of the message for future reference.</p>
<p>If she’s in AP Bio she’s obviously intelligent enough to make her own choices, so let her. I face the EXACT same dilemma in my AP Gov class once a month, the teacher gives “take home tests” where the questions and answers are posted online (he has no clue that we know this), some choose to cheat, and some, like me, choose to put in an extra 45 minutes of reading and have a clean conscience and an equally high grade. Well, for me at least, I’m at the top of my AP Gov class, I can do fine without cheating, but anyway, I’d leave it up to her, life’s all about choices.</p>
<p>I agree with this. The possibility that it was a hacked site had not occurred to me.</p>
<p>I would point out that the key to not being accused of cheating would be to tell the teacher about it BEFORE the test. Although from the sounds of it this particular teacher is fully capable of taking revenge against your D anyway. There are some loose screws out there, and my S had a couple of them over the years.</p>
<p>It is also very true that the wise student will actually do the work, because that is how one learns. A student who copied the test answers all year is not likely to get a 5 on the AP Bio exam in May.</p>
<p>As I’ve mentioned here in other threads, my H taught a college math course as an adjunct which at least 50% of the kids routinely failed, year after year. (Not just when H was teaching it. But he was required to follow the usual format and methods.) The students were given credit for homework, and the problems were assigned from the text. The text also included the answers, in the back of the book. It was obvious that most of the “students”–I use the term loosely–in the class simply copied the answers, rather than making any attempt to work through the problems. Then they failed the final, despite having a review session that covered PRECISELY the same problems as on the test, but with different numbers subbed in. Then they blamed the teacher and claimed the material wasn’t covered in the course! They were, frankly, a bunch of idiots who didn’t belong in college and were being ripped off by this fourth-rate school. But that’s another story…</p>
<p>I could see my daughter being very upset about this sort of situation. She would have searched the web looking supplemental info and stumbled upon these handy tests but struggled what to do with them. There are some teachers that I would have encouraged her to approach immediately with this info, but one that copies them from the internet at the AP level no less, I feel the teacher would use it against my D. I think I may have to intervene and just send a quick email to teacher, GC and principal saying daughter found this site and noticed the AP tests from teacher similar and wanted to make everyone aware. Period</p>
<p>Ten years ago, two top students from a selective Prep school heading to Harvard and MIT entered some science contest. They discovered partway through the thing that they had already taken the tests that they found on the internet. They finished up very early and left. It was discovered that they did not bother doing the lab part of the competition but answered the questions anyways because they already knew the answers. </p>
<p>I don’t know if they reported the situation, kept mum, laughed and talked about it with friends, but there was a huge stink about all of this. In the end, they were stripped of their awards (including their win in this contest) at the school, and they had to write their colleges and tell them the situation. Some local newspapers did pick up the story and the families involved were mortified. I don’t know if the kids had to defer a semester , but I know the Harvard one did not go that fall, but took a gap year. </p>
<p>I believe the official verdict was that they had not cheated, but their conduct was considered unethical. The talk, jokes and reputation for cheating was what really hurt, as you can’t bring up those kids among those who knew them then without the story coming up.</p>
<p>Perception of dishonesty can hurt and harm even when it is not true. I would advise my kid who found such a site to tell the teacher immediately. Not worth getting a bad rep/rap for this.</p>
<p>One of my friends who teaches in a very competitive school district got a huge drop in test grades when she stopped using the tests in the teacher’s edition. She puts together her own tests since then.</p>