So my teacher used a quiz directly off sparknotes...

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>So my teacher used a quiz directly off sparknotes...reformatted it minimally, but with everything still verbatim, and then added two short answer questions at the end. I have an issue with it because
1. It's wrong, and he's essentially rewarding those who haven't even read the book, supplementing it with sparknotes
2. I'm pretty sure it's illegal. This is copied from sparknotes' terms and conditions:</p>

<p>
[quote]
H. Ownership Rights.</p>

<p>The materials provided on the Service may be downloaded or reprinted for personal use only. You acknowledge that the Service contains information, software, photos, video, graphics, music, sounds or other material (colle ctively, "Content") that are protected by copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or other proprietary rights, and that these rights are valid and protected in all forms, media and technologies existing now or hereafter developed. All Content is copyrighted as a collective work under the U.S. copyright laws, and SparkNotes owns a copyright in the selection, coordination, arrangement and enhancement of such Content. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale, create d erivative works, or in any way exploit, any of the Content, in whole or in part. You may not upload, post, reproduce or distribute Content protected by copyright, or other proprietary right, without obtaining permission of the owner of the copyright or ot her proprietary right. SparkNotes, SparkNotes.com and its logos are trademarks of SparkNotes. Other products, brands, company names and the like are trademarks of their respective owners.
I. No Copying or Distribution.</p>

<p>You may not reproduce, copy or redistribute the design or layout of this web site, individual elements of the web site design, SparkNotes logos or other logos appearing on this web site, without the express written permission of SparkNotes, Inc. Reproduction, copying or redistribution for commercial purposes of any materials or design elements on the SparkNotes web site is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of SparkNotes, Inc. Images and descr iptions of products may be supplied to us by third parties, who reserve all rights in those materials.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Am I correct in thinking that what he did is illegal? Also, I'm wondering exactly how to approach him about it -- any ideas?</p>

<p>Thanks :]</p>

2

<p>my teacher did this with catcher in the rye quizzes. Every quiz was off this little website I found, but why would you tell him? Better grade for you, screw morals.</p>

3

<p>Yeah one of my tests … er… well a big one was pretty much a multiple choice test and short answers copied directly off Sparknotes. I thought I did them for practice the night before to get extra review but saw the exact same ones the next morning haha.</p>

<p>Well better grades for me :] Just gotta learn to take advantage of incompetency.</p>

4

<p>Is it legal to copy and paste sparknotes’ terms and conditions?</p>

5

<p>My teacher did too. We confronted her, she denied. We then wrote a petition to the principal on basis of her lack of dedication or just plain teaching skills in general. She resigned, and is now learning to be a faith counselor.</p>

6

<p>My English teacher did the same thing!
And on the first day of class, she had said, “please do not go on sparknotes! It’s my biggest pet peeve!”</p>

7

<p>Not sure if it’s in your best interest to point her out on it. I’m pretty sure you’re well aware of the ethical dilemma you’re in. In any case, keep it on the down low.</p>

<p>Your teacher fails at life.</p>

8

<p>My English teacher a few years ago did the same thing. Apparently, he found out that we knew about it all along because some students in my class told the other teachers in our grade level about him printing out Sparknotes tests. The teachers tried confronting him, but I heard they were pretty blunt with him (which I don’t blame them for). He basically held a grudge against us throughout the whole year and repeatedly pounded us with ridiculously hard tests as “punishment.” He really hated my class…</p>

<p>Yeah, the whole ordeal was pretty nasty…</p>

9

<p>Part of the problem is that the quiz off of sparknotes was REALLY difficult – I read the book and still probably got 10/25 incorrect. And then he even left the little bubbles next to the answer choices…</p>

10

<p>My English teacher did this, the day after she told us not to use Sparknotes. lol.</p>

11

<p>Lucky!:slight_smile: .</p>

12

<p>My teachers always ripped stuff off the internet. Most notably, my teachers took the test questions from the student portion of the online textbook sites. Awesome. I aced those classes.</p>

13

<p>^Wait, what? I must know about this lol</p>

14

<p>Darn it, I just looked up all of my textbooks online and I had no luck:( They have random sample questions, but none of them were test questions.</p>

15

<p>Old school, not Keystone. But if you Google the stems of the multiple choice questions (the question parts), most of the questions are asked and answered on Yahoo! Answers. Not that I would know, of course.</p>

16

<p>Lol, yes, I know about AP biology haha(that’s the only one I know about though:/ Why o why could there not be APUSH?), and of course not;)</p>

17

<p>I definitely used that technique in APUSH. Definitely. But you should know that I didn’t do very well in APUSH.</p>

18

<p>Is it more ethical to put someone’s job in jeopardy than to accept their plagiarism?</p>

19

<p>

</p>

<p>Would it be more ethical for a teacher to a put a students college potentential in jeopardy than to accept that student’s plagiarism?</p>

<p>Would it be cheating to study off of sparknotes and then ace the tests?</p>

<p>It goes both ways.</p>

<p>If it were me I would use it to my advantage til the end of the year then report them near the end of the semester. I mean it is their JOB.</p>

20

<p>I don’t want to change the topic of this thread changed because its quite interesting, but just stating my two cents:
I personally believe the education system in america is a joke. It doesn’t ask for the most intelligent students to succeed, it asks for the trickiest students to get away with it. </p>

<p>So you know what? Get away with it.</p>