<p>Hey guys, so here's my situation.... not sure if this is the correct forum to put it in...</p>
<p>Me and a couple of friends from class found this test bank online for the textbook that was currently assigned for class. So we all chipped in a few bucks and bought the test bank. We studied it the couple days before the exam, along with other class notes too. However, someone in the library saw us studying from it and informed the professor about it. He has called each one of us in to question us about it. So far everyone has denied it but today apparantly someone had confessed to the professor we were using the test bank. </p>
<p>So I'm not too sure if this is actually cheating or academic dishonesty. We did not steal the test bank and merely found it online. The exam had about 10-15 multiple choice questions from the test bank.</p>
<p>Cheating.</p>
<p>If you studied the test bank with full knowledge that’s where he got the multiple choice, you cheated. It’s very simple. It does not matter how you got it, you might as well have stolen a copy of the test out of his office. You cheated. </p>
<p>Now, if you were just looking for some extra test material (which I doubt since you said you denied using the test bank) and it turned up on the test, that’s not cheating. However, when you didn’t tell the teacher that you knew some of the multiple choice in advance (told him this after the test), that constituted cheating. </p>
<p>Either way you look at it, you used a test bank and a significant number of those questions turned up on the test, and you didn’t inform him immediately after. Despite how honorably you got the test bank, you still cheated. You had an unfair advantage.</p>
<p>If you studied the test best knowing that it is where the MC questions come from, then it would be cheating.</p>
<p>It kind of sounds like you cheated.
But that still totally sucks. Why would someone confess?
At least you learned a big lesson… Do not cheat! </p>
<p>Or at least be sneakier and do it solo :D</p>
<p>(JK. I do not condone or support cheating.)</p>
<p>Honestly, I lied because I was caught off guard. I didn’t exactly lie, i just said there was a lot of material being used by the group and I didn’t get a chance to see everything. I played like i didn’t know what he was talking about.</p>
<p>Also, I didn’t intend to use it because i knew it was going to be on the test. In fact, throughout the semester the professor would brag about his great ability to make extremely hard exams (this is an advance level class). However, i knew there was a slight possibility he could of used one or two questions.</p>
<p>There was a very similar incident that occurred at my school last year when several students got what they claimed to be “unintentional” access to a test bank used by a teacher. The administration got involved and officially deemed it an “academic dishonesty incident.”</p>
<p>Either way, it’s ethically wrong if you had full knowledge that the bank is where the questions came from (as other said).</p>
<p>Purchasing a test bank that is meant solely for teachers using the textbook is typically considered cheating; if you were using online practice test meant for students, the situation would be different. Is the test bank meant for anyone to purchase, or is it on a site focused on catering to teachers? </p>
<p>If you were truly just looking for another legitimate method to study with and didn’t know where the teacher got his tests from (if the teacher claims to write all of his tests, he is in the wrong for lying) then you aren’t at fault.</p>