<p>I was browsing some Psets of 18.01 and 8.01/8.02 and I saw on a few of them the disclaimer that notes from previous semesters should not be used. Is that referring to the so-called "bibles" of the class or your own personal notes of a previous class (say you are in 18.02 and you forget something from 18.01, are you allowed to look at those notes from 18.01?) The former I can see being dishonest and not allowed, but to ban the latter seems ridiculous.</p>
<p>They mean notes on the same classes. They discourage you from using your friends’ old 18.02 psets when you’re working on your 18.02 pset, not you refreshing something from 18.01 to do better in 18.02</p>
<p>Well, there’s no standard honor code at MIT, so those disclaimers aren’t standardized or anything. I would assume they refer to answer sets for past psets/tests.</p>
<p>At any rate, I don’t think it’s dishonest to use past problem sets or tests to get hints for current psets or to study for tests. If professors don’t want students to be able to use them, they should write new test questions that don’t rely on past tricks.</p>
<p>Many classes provide old tests as study materials. I’ve actually never run into a disclaimer like the ones you’re describing – they’re certainly not universal at MIT.</p>
<p>Thanks all, I saw it on a few of them, but not others. I had to assume it was against using the so-called bibles. I do think that using past tests are a good tool, although I can see the argument against using old psets. Although, like you said mollie, a prof really should try and make new material! :D</p>
<p>7.05 states that you’re not allowed to bring in course bibles to the open note exams. But they don’t check what you bring in either, so I’m not sure what is the real policy, haha…</p>
<p>A general note about this - classes at MIT get to set their own honesty policies. Some classes expect you do to problem sets in groups. Some forbid it (the old 6.170 comes to mind). Some classes allow and even encourage the use of “bibles” and other material from past instances of the class (like OCW). Some classes absolutely forbid it (I know of one class that even forbids you from discussing problem sets with people who have taken the class previously, or at least it did a couple of years ago).</p>
<p>I sat on the Committee on Discipline as a senior. Some of the academic dishonesty cases that we got were people assuming that what was okay, or at least accepted, in one class, would be accepted in another class. Or people saying “Oh, this class’ policy is so much more strict than my other classes’ policies are - that’s silly, I’m just going to adhere to the policies of my other classes.” Guess what? That’s a bad idea. Find out each class’ academic honesty policy. If you are confused about it, ask the prof. If the prof doesn’t give you one, <em>definitely</em> ask the prof.</p>
<p>And yeah, there is no “honor code”. But if you break a class’ policy, you could end up before the COD, which you don’t want (you could also just end up with a stern talking-to from the prof, but do you want to take that chance?).</p>
<p>Edited to add: Also, anyone with questions relating to disciplinary policy at MIT, feel free to poke me.</p>
<p>Why would anyone discourage from using past psets/exams?</p>
<p>I mean, I’m not even at MIT yet, and I’m already using ocw resources, does that mean I’m in violation? Who knows, I might even take the same class when i get there.</p>
<p>Because if the professors are too lazy to make up a new problem set each year, past years’ problem set answer keys would also work as the present year’s answer key.</p>
<p>They’re not asking you to do anything unreasonable – I mean, if you’ve seen them before, you don’t have to scrub them from your memory. They’re just asking that you don’t copy the published solution directly to your problem set.</p>