“Also, I was wearing long sleeves and long skinny jeans. The faded formulas on my arm weren’t visible to anyone. And the ones on my ankle were literally only visible at the end to the proctor and me AFTER the test was done.”
Uh, what? I’m really not buying this story, sorry.
I don’t know what to tell you. The proctor that stopped me before leaving literally said “Can I see what’s written on your ankle? I couldn’t tell from far away.”
Also the “formulas” on my arm were literally so extremely faded. You cannot make it out and I was literally wearing a jacket. It’s the truth. Why would I be lying on here, with an anonymous account?
Regardless: I never looked at it at all. The proctor testimonies will prove that, and the people who I spent my break time with also verified that I was with them the whole time.
Can I post proof on here?
Again, your fate is with the proctors. If they filled out an Incident Report and sent it back to College Board, you wouldn’t know until College Board reaches out to your school or to you directly.
Here’s the manual for what proctors have to do in case of suspected cheating. Starts on page 83.
I’m not sure if you can appeal the ban. I had to get in contact with college board once and they stretched the issue over months. It’s not going to be very efficient. College Board is also not very keen on reversing their policy, if they say something they usually stand by it.
Thanks for all your help. I’m so terrified and I think my life might be over because of my carelessness and stupidity. I can’t even focus on studying for my CSA exam tomorrow. : /
It’s odd that it didn’t occur to you or your sister while you were writing on yourselves in Sharpie that the test would be the next day. Also, how do you quiz each other with no materials while walking around? You hold all the potential questions and answers in your heads?
I’m not saying that you cheated. But that does strike me as a very inefficient way to study. Hope things work out for you to take the test again.
Edited to add that I am sure this is not the end of the world for you. Block this out and study! Best wishes.
Again, the “formulas” we wrote down were basic things we had to memorize. Literally the trig derivatives. They weren’t multistep equations that were solved on my skin. It’s like vocabulary questions.
Just saw your edit: Thank you. I hope you’re right. This is the first time this has ever happened to me.
This is a learning opportunity, not a “life is over” situation! You’ve gotten some good advice, and at this point you should just go ahead with your day and hope for the best. Plenty of successful people have had problems in high school that didn’t affect them later (and some of the most successful people definitely did actually cheat!)
Take a deep breath, log off CC, and focus on doing your best tomorrow. After that, you can look for a calm, reasonable friend or family member to talk it out with – it feels SO much better to know you have someone who will be in your corner no matter what. You are going to be just fine!
But how could you use the formulas while you were walking around? Were you trying to memorize them and using the Sharpie writing to remind you if you forgot something?
That’s still bad, and maybe worse. Essentially you’ve placed a formula sheet in a easily accessible place. If it was some specific homework problem or something things would be different.
Also, why Sharpie? A ballpoint pen would’ve been enough.
Yes! That’s exactly what I’m saying. I wrote them down before walking-- and i recited stuff like “what is the derivative of sin(x)” and if I remembered it, I didn’t look down. If i forgot it, I looked down at it and then left. There’s also a lake beside our house that my sister and I sit down next to, and there’s no chairs so we sit criss-cross and we just write down things on exposed skin to reinforce the information.
That’s awful, then. I guess the only thing that really matters is that I never attempted to look at it, and proctor testimony is going to have to make CollegeBoard give me sympathy. And honestly, my skin is darker and sharpie stands out most-- and it was also the closest thing.
Hope for the best. Don’t let this issue haunt you, and don’t get too overwhelmed.
Reading into what the proctor said, it sounds like they will be reporting it to the CB. They can’t take the risk of not reporting it because it could put their position in jeopardy, especially if another student had noticed and reports it to the CB (I doubt your peers would do this though). I would try to find out as soon as possible if this might mean you’ll be hit with an academic integrity violation mark on your school records, as that might be worse than whatever the CB throws at you.
Again, I am not explicitly saying that you cheated, but with only the evidence at hand, I want to give you a hypothetical train of thought that administrators at the College Board or your school might take that would lead to them thinking you are guilty. Pretend for a second that I am an admin:
Say I’m presented with the evidence that a student had writing on their body, and although it was unclear as to whether or not they looked at it during the test, it is still explicitly against testing rules to have this. I might think that you wrote these notes on your ankles in case you needed to look down and recall a formula that you forgot as a last resort, and the fact that you didn’t look down might just mean you didn’t need to recall a certain formula, and hence didn’t need to make use of these notes. Or, you could have done this as a discrete way to cheat during breaks–rather than take the conventional way of having a notecard in your pocket or a notebook in the bathroom, you wrote on your skin, so if you wanted to check a formula during the break, you could have gone to the bathroom, and look at your ankles to check your notes, or roll up your sleeves on your arms while in a stall to look at the writing there. Hence, that may have been why you wore long sleeves. You still had access to an unauthorized aid during testing, and even if you didn’t need to need to utilize it during the test, that’s still a breach of testing integrity.
If I were to look at it from angles such as these, I’d be hard-pressed to say you are innocent. Your excuse for why these were written on your skin seems really far-fetched, as I have NEVER heard of that study practice, and almost comes off as some sort of detailed alibi you had in case you needed to use these notes and got caught.
Even if the reason as to why the writing got on your skin in the first place is legitimate, I still would have a very, very hard time believing you didn’t notice writing on your ankles from the day prior. Did you not put your shoes and socks on in the morning and notice the writing? Something still doesn’t add up for me.
I understand that this is probably quite a stressful thing you are going through, but to help quell some of this unease, you need to be honest to yourself–was there ANY ounce of you that may have tried to use these notes to cheat if you needed to? Only you know the answer to that. But, from an outsider’s perspective, I might suggest that some of your paranoia you are expressing here is somewhat indicative of some kind of guilt–albeit, I am no psychologist. Even if it’s not explicit guilt, the level of negligence you would have to display to not notice the writing on your ankles from some bizarre study practice is…unusual.
I amend my previous comment. If I had to bet, it’s more likely than not you’ll face some sort of repercussions. Just hope this isn’t reported to colleges.
There isn’t a single ounce of me that even believes I would be accused of cheating. The ONLY reason I am paranoid is because of that line from their ‘misconduct’ list on their website- I am truly, and completely innocent. I’d swear this under oath.
And moreover, this is my 2nd test of this AP exam season. I knew how the tables were set up. I knew how the proctors would move around. There is no possible way I could have used my ankle to cheat.
AND what’s more, I never used the bathroom- there is proof of that.
I understand that it’s a breach of testing integrity, but it’s unintentional, which is why I am fine with this singular test being cancelled.
Also, I’d rather not lie about the explanation. I don’t know how else to put it, because that’s the truth.
I AM desperate because this is literally a nightmare scenario. Being accused of something I didn’t do, especially something this heinous, is so terrifying. Also, the long sleeves thing-- the formulas were so beyond faded. There was vague dark markings if there were any.
But it is what it is. I don’t know how I can convince you. The only thing I am totally and utterly sure of is that i never, ever, ever wanted to or attempted to cheat.
Even when I proctor our measly (by comparison) state assessments to middle schoolers, I would have to report this.
I know they reported it. I just don’t want this to ruin my life because I never attempted to cheat.
Sorry, but I don’t think your intentions matter.
Yes. But there’s actual evidence from the proctors running the exam that I never was alone to see the markings, and that I never looked down either. That is what I am going on. That, and the fact that I knew how the room was set up, and therefore would know that cheating by using an ankle would have been impossible. If there was any intention to cheat, it would not have been done like this.
The proctors did not watch you every second of the test administration.
There were 8 proctors. The amount of contortion that would have been needed to look at the notes would have made it obvious-- I don’t think people are understanding this part. The angle at which it was written and the way we were all seated makes this utterly impossible. And even during the 10 minute break, there is evidence from peers that I never used the bathroom. I will ask if there is security camera footage.
EDIT: I’m sorry if this is annoying. My life will be ruined because of an extremely stupid mistake while even my proctors admitted that they never saw me look at it. I don’t know what else to tell you.
Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I am so far from the type of person that would do this. My whole reputation is that I am a rule following overachieving student. This is why I am so baffled and torn. My stupidity has led to my entire reputation being ruiend.