OMG-Falsely accused of cheating, Senior student

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I've posted some stuff about university/SAT before on CC, but I never imagined that i would post anything about this incident - being falsely accused of cheating. I'm a senior student in high school and gonna graduate in June.</p>

<p>This is how my school works - We are doing International Baccalaureate (for those who don't recognize this, just simply think this is like an AP course) and I'm taking the real IB exam on May. And we started our mock exam last week, and it's gonna end on this Thursday. My school uses the past paper for the mock exam. Last week, I took my history paper and thought i did well this time (i usually receive low 5 out of 7, which is average or low-average). But then today, I was told to go to my history teacher's classroom, and I had a conversation with my history teacher and IB coordinator. They are all nice people and I really like them. We were never in any arguments before, and we had good student-teacher relationships. </p>

<p>However, my history teacher insisted that I had seen the past paper/markscheme before the exam because my answers are too similar to the markscheme; but no way that's gonna be happened. History paper 1 is a source-based questions, so all I did was writing quotations from the source. For example, "Sources A and B agree that ~. Source A says that "source quotations". Also, source B says "source quotations" like this. However, my teacher said that four of my answers out of five question (the last question is an essay question that combines the source and my own knowledge) are too similar to the markscheme and insisted I cheated by reading the past paper or markscheme beforehand. I wanted to prove my innocence by comparing my answers with sources and markschemes, but he didn't let me. He just moved on. He asked me "is it likely to be happened that your answers and markscheme are similar by coincidence?" I replied "I had read the markscheme, I would have changed the wording to avoid the suspicion." they both didn't say anything one that.</p>

<p>In history paper 2, you are supposed to write two essays out of several choices, and that's what i did. One of the essay question looked familiar to me; My history teacher once uploaded this essay on this topic on our school online website, so I memorized it as a sample essay and used it on last December exam. Although the topics are not exactly the same, because they are similar, I re-used it. That is how i study for my history paper 2: writing essays on possible topics, memorizing them, and using them on the exam. Funny thing is that according to my history teacher, the markscheme of this history paper 2 has something like an outline that says what what we need to write, and the orders of points made in my essay and in the markscheme are similar. For instance, my body paragraph 1 is about A, P2 about B, P3 about C, and P4 about D. And markscheme says: A, B, C, D (I've never seen this markscheme paper so I'm not really sure how it looks like - that's what my history teacher said).</p>

<p>Of course I kept insisting that I didn't, but they didn't seem to be trusting me :( my Ib coordinator&my history teacher said this is a very serious academic honesty problem and say "keep denying the truth" wouldn't be beneficial for me. What they already decided is 1) not to count this paper for everyone 2)write "disclaimer:don't agree with this exam grade" on final transcript unless i or somebody else comes out and say something (they say other students are also suspicious). They also say that "not only for yourself, but also for your classmates, it's better to tell us the truth." And what they want to hear from me is "sorry, I cheated". They even said "once we uncovered the TRUTH while you are denying what you've done, you are gonna be in a serious problem."</p>

<p>I really don't know what to do.. I don't think it's gonna be just ended like "hey, did you cheat? you didn't? hmmmm. I'm very suspicious of you but alrite. prove yourself next time." I think it's gonna be very seriously undertaken. I seriously don't know what to do. I didn't cheat. But teachers don't trust me and they are not gonna move on. they didn't say we are gonna retake the test, but "disclaimer on transcript" forcibly makes me feel guilty even though I didn't do anything. What is worse, because they want to keep this conversation confidential, I have no one to discuss this. I've been accepted to several universities and I need to submit my final transcript. But if there's 'disclaimer', of course that university would pick up on me and my teacher wouldn't answer in favor of them because they are not even trusting me right now. I don't want to worry my parents with this issue, and I don't to make other teachers/principals get involved in this thing because I'm so confused right now.</p>

<p>Please help me&give me advice on how I should behave. I have history paper 3 tomorrow, but I can't focus at all...before this conversation, last week, I emailed my ib coordinator if I could move my business paper 1 exam date from this thursday to wednesday morning because in the wednesday afternoon i have an important soccer match and it's stressful to take two business papers on thursday. (and my ib coordinator is one of my soccer team coach.) What he replied to me is "we will talk about this on next monday." but what we actually talked about is getting falsely accused of cheating. Should I ask my coordinator if i change the exam date, or is it gonna sound suspicious?</p>

2

<p>Talk to your parents. Get their help. If you did not cheat, and the school is insisting you did, you will need their help.</p>

3

<p>the thing is that i’m attending international school where everyone speaks english. my dad who speaks fluent english is living in my home country alone for his work, and i’m living with my mom who doesn’t speak english…</p>

4

<p>Do you have another relative or family friend that could either interpret or advocate for you? I worry about a HS student facing this type of “investigation” and accusation alone.</p>

5

<p>my sister works in my home country and has never attended this school… since my teachers directly told me to keep this just among us since they have private conversations with other suspicious students, I’m just gonna wait until then. may be then, I can have a chance to talk about this with other students. So i guess i can’t take any actions right now :(</p>

6

<p>btw, i did mention that i used the sample essay that he uploaded on online but he didn’t say anything about it.</p>

7

<p>So did you write your own essays? What do you mean by “use” the sample essay?</p>

8

<p>for the essay that my teacher was talking about, i edited it some parts of the sample essay that my teacher uploaded and memorized. And the essay prompt is similar but asking different answer (for instance, sample essay is about “how did ~” while the essay question asks “how much was ~ achieved”). So i would say the main ideas/contents of my essay response and this sample essay are like 80% same. of course, i didn’t memorize it word-to-word, I paraphrased it into my own words.</p>

<p>I wrote this essay last december exam but teacher didn’t pick up on me. so i memorized this again and wrote it again.</p>

9

<p>You need a parent or someone to help support you. I would be wary of the fact that they want you to “keep this to yourself”. You are a minor and not in the position to be alone next time you are questioned about this, since they are hinting that they are going to put a statement on your final transcript pointing to the fact they think you cheated. My thought is that they are trying to wear you down or trip you up and force a confession. A 17-18 y/o is no match for adults and I would NOT meet with them again until your parents are called or you have counsel since it seems like they are basing their case on suspicion versus proof. Talk to someone you trust today and get an adult involved.</p>

10

<p>Thanks marybee333. Yes, I think they are trying to force a confession, that’s how they usually did. ex)some guys did something wrong &got caught->their friends were also suspicious->the school didn’t have any proof so they asked->their friends denied->the school said they were gonna record the final answer->their friends confessed.</p>

<p>I’m not really so sure about writing on my final transcript, because IB diploma students need to do CAS (like ECs but have to meet the standards) and they threaten students by saying that they are going to write on the transcript that this student is lacking in CAS. But they never did - only warning/threatening. I’ve also seen other guys getting caught academic honesty violation(they did it for real) but the school didn’t say it’s gonna be on their transcripts. However, because this case is very different and extreme, maybe they are really gonna do that.</p>

<p>I agree to the point that they are basing their case on suspicion versus proof. They say my answer papers is the evidence and they have enough evidence (idk what that is, but that’s what they usually said before), but i can rebuke their claim by comparing my answer papers to the source and showing them how i quoted the source. </p>

<p>Thanks again marbee333. obviously, because my mock exam is not done, i can’t ask other teachers to get involved because they are marking my exam paper or sth like that. But i will keep looking for other people. Thanks again.</p>

11

<p>Plagiarism is about using the ideas of others without attribution. It sounds as if you did plagiarize, albeit unintentionally.</p>

<p>It also sounds as if the blame is partially on your teacher for putting you in a situation where this could occur.</p>

<p>I understand your frustration, panic, and dismay, but I would request a meeting with the principal and the teacher and come with a written statement of what you have done and why, and state that you understand how it could appear that you had copied this answer, but that it was inadvertently done, and you have come away with a new understanding of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it in the future.</p>

12

<p>my teacher uploaded a sample essay without any reference. he just stated that this essay has great details but lacking in analysis. when i was memorizing and writing it for my exam, i didn’t realize that it would be an issue. when i was writing this post on CC and when seahorsesrock pointed out, i was like 'this might be another issue." however, in this case, i admit that this is my careless behavior and if im to get punished, i will get so.</p>

<p>Thanks you for your advice on sakacar. i suppose by the time i was memorizing the uploaded essay, i didn’t really care about plagiarism because my teacher didn’t give any reference. Thanks again.</p>

13

<p>Memorizing material and reusing it is plagiarism. Is that what you did? I don’t find your story entirely clear. Can you call your father, even if he is in your home country?</p>

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<p>btw, would it be fine if i ask if i can change the business exam date to ib coordinator or not?</p>

15

<p>@hunt
alrite. here goes a brief summary.</p>

<p>Paper 1: source-based questions.
-I quoted the sources for my answers. ex)source A says “~”.
-according to my history teacher, the markscheme has very similar answers to my quotation parts.
-i tried to explain and prove my innocence but they didn’t let me.
-my history teacher asked me “is it likely that your answers gonna be very similar to markscheme by coincidence?” i answered “if i had read the markscheme, i would have changed the wordings to avoid the suspicion.”</p>

<p>Paper 2: essay question.
-In last november, my teacher uploaded a sample essay without no reference but comment that says “has great details but lacks in analysis”
-i memorized it.
-same topic came up on december exam, so i paraphrased it into my words and used the main ideas. my teacher didn’t say anything about it.
-similar topic came up on this mock exam, so i used it again.
-this time, my teacher pointed out that the outline or the points made in the markscheme are written in the same order with my essay.
-i told him that i memorized the essay that he uploaded online.</p>

<p>What teachers say:
-you are in a big trouble.
-there are others who are also suspicious.
-this test scores have been cancelled for everyone.
-if you keep denying or if others don’t come out and explain what happened, disclaimer will be written on the final transcript; so not only for yourself but also for your classmates, make a wise decision.
-keep this conversation among us. we will have this type of conversation with other students as well.
-if you keep insisting that you didn’t while we uncover the truth, there will be a serious consequence.</p>

16

<p>I think what you should do is insist that you didn’t see the markscheme–if that is correct. You should admit that you have memorized source material that was made available to you for use. And you should tell your parents about this immediately.</p>

17

<p>Just to be clear, did you see the markscheme?</p>

18

<p>@hunt/sherpa: i didn’t see the markscheme, and that’s what i told the teachers. </p>

<p>@hunt: when my history teacher was suspicious of my essay, i told him that i memorized and wrote what he uploaded. but he didn’t say anything about academic honesty violation. if he’s gonna deal with it, of course i will admit it.</p>