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Back in the mid 90s, the Regents exams weren’t required. Now they are and the passing grade has been moved up. It’s two decades later, your experience isn’t really relevant anymore.</p>
<p>If this was a cheating conspiracy, it sure was a dumb one. Putting aside the question of whether it made sense to take any risks for these particular tests:
- If the scheme was for this guy to answer the questions, and then photograph the pages and send them to a bunch of other people who were taking the test at the same time, its obviously moronic. If even one of them is caught looking at the phone, they are all caught.
- If the scheme was that he had copies of a stolen answer sheet on his phone, the stupidity was leaving a message trail to other people on the same phone.
- If there was no cheating scheme, and this guy was photographing the test pages for some other reason–well, I can’t imagine a non-stupid reason for that.</p>
<p>So however you slice it, this guy, at least, doesn’t belong at Stuyvesant.</p>
<p>Very rich people steal, even though they don’t need the money. They do it because they can and, well, they’re special–the rules don’t apply to them. The fact that Stuyvesant students shouldn’t need to cheat on the Regents exam doesn’t mean they don’t think that they’re entitled to cheat.</p>
<p>(Full disclosure–Bronx Science grad)</p>
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<p>They were actually required to graduate with a Specialized High School Diploma. </p>
<p>If you didn’t pass all the required Regents…you technically didn’t graduate from a Specialized High School.</p>
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But now they are required of EVERYONE, which means that the whole process and perception have changed. It’s not possibly to compare the two eras and you shouldn’t try.</p>
<p>I keep reading this, and none of it makes any sense. I don’t see any evidence of “cheating”. I see copying of “answers” (whose answers - his own?) sent to students at the very time they are taking the exam, for reasons unknown (what -is he a total genius, finished the exam in half the time, then sent the answers to his friends so they could copy them before time was called?)</p>
<p>If it was the actual answer sheet, did some teacher sell it to him, on the understanding that there would be kickbacks from the other 50 students? But then why not distribute the answers in advance? These are Stuy students - they could have memorized? Did any money change hands?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if he was sending his answers to other people as a favor. The administration of the Regents exams is so lax that it would be totally possible. There is a range of 3 hours for the test and you can leave when you want and mostly do it at your own pace, so if he started early and friends finished at the end of the time period, it would be a snap to pass the answers. And not even for money, just to get them over with.</p>
<p>Or he just did it because he is a photographer, and he wanted to do some daring journalism? Or he wanted to be able to brag about it? Several people (biased, I grant) in the support website say he is a really nice kid. I am mystified too.</p>
<p>It could be as simple as an impulsive, thoughtless act that is against the rules.</p>
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<p>That wouldn’t have changed a thing at the Specialized High Schools as their students would continue with the same requirements for taking such exams. </p>
<p>If anything…requiring all NYC high school students with a wider academic ability/intelligence/work ethic spectrum was probably a reason why some old teachers and classmates who currently teach in NYC high schools have all said the Regents exams have been more watered down in the last decade or so. </p>
<p>In short…it makes even less sense why this kid cheated in the way he did…the tests seem to be regarded as more watered down…especially by veteran teachers and classmates who are now current high school teachers.</p>
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<p>Kids steal the tests, then work out the answers so that they can either remember them for the test, or copy them. One guess is that he stole/aquired the test, worked out the problems on the tests, uploaded pics of the completed tests on his phone phone and then distributed the test with answers to classmates. Then used the pics of the tests with answers on them during the test. </p>
<p>However, that is all speculation. I am sure much more info will come out.</p>
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Well, your statement makes it appear that you do belittle cheating and don’t think the cheaters s/b held accountable.</p>
<p>‘Charging one kid’ sounds like at least a start on the path to addressing the problem. </p>
<p>I don’t see how anyone can conclude that a kid who purposely took pictures of the exam and sent it to 50 other kids should ‘not’ be kicked out of the school and basically be given a free pass on it. (assuming all the allegations are true)</p>
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I think it’s generally accepted that showing your exam answers to others and viewing the answers of others is considered ‘cheating’. That’s pretty basic.</p>
<p>If he photographed his answers, and showed them to others after the test, that would probably be against the rules, but it wouldn’t exactly be cheating. It’s possible that this is essentially what he did–if the other kids didn’t look at the message while they were taking the test.</p>
<p>Since the facts as stated don’t really make sense, perhaps better facts will come along.</p>
<p>^^ Hunt - I agree that just showing answers after the test wouldn’t normally be considered cheating and discussing tests/answers after taking it is pretty normal and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that. If they have a rule against using a cell phone in the classroom then that’s an infraction but as you describe it, it wouldn’t be cheating.</p>
<p>Likewise, someone on the receiving end of the text but who didn’t use the cell phone while taking the test didn’t cheat and followed the rules. You can’t stop someone from sending you a text. But if they looked at the cell phone text while taking the test then it’d be cheating although I can see that some might have looked at it but didn’t know it’d be an answer provided by the (purported) cheater.</p>
<p>Regardless of why or how he did this it was wrong and he broke a rule or more as I presume having your phone out and turned on is not allowed during an exam. Whether the tests are easy or beneath these students is not relevant. It doesn’t matter. I tend to agree with GladDadGrad. It doesn’t matter whether someone shoplifts something small and has the money in their pocket, it is still shoplifting. It doesn’t matter if someone is employed and refuses to do something because they feel it is beneath them they can still be fired. Nothing matters other than this kid broke rules and there are consequences to breaking rules. You don’t get to drive 90 in a 55 mile per hour highway just because you have a car that can go 90. These kids are not so special that they should be ‘above’ the rules. Perhaps some of our children do not understand this fundamental concept which is perhaps evidenced by some of the comments by students on the article. perhaps the mayor of NY instead of focusing and campaigning against supersized food items should start a campaign on morality and ethics.</p>
<p>Stuy kid here. And I’m not even clear on all of the details. As far as the number of kids involved in the ring, I’ve heard numbers as low as 30 and as high as 90. All of the kids involved are being disciplined in some capacity, but their names and number are not being released. What happened was that the kid in question took a cell phone picture of his completed scantron during the test and then texted or emailed that picture to everyone on a certain contact list during the test - which is indisputably cheating. Somebody told the principal, who then caught him in the act during another regents exam and searched his phone, finding the contact list the pictures had been sent to and disciplining those involved.
What I can say for certain is that even though I think what this student and those involved did was wrong and unfair to those students who did study and work hard to receive lower grades, to some extent I understand the motivation. The regents exams are easy for most Stuyvesant kids. Teachers know this, and they expect us to get 98+ on them and say that they’ll judge you badly if you don’t. Most teachers use the regents exam in their subject as a final exam, but even those who don’t end up seeing your scores and a bad score may affect their perception of you. Some teachers put an extraordinary amount of weight on the regents exams, even going so far as to make that grade your grade for the class. And while the tests are, for the most part, easy, one or two confusingly-worded questions can bring a perfect score down into the low 90s, which for some kids is horrifying. Also, it’s kind of the luck of the draw in a subject like physics, which uses so many concepts and expects you to know all of them. You may take practice tests that don’t really stress, say, magnetism, because the tests don’t equally address concepts, and then the real test might have more magnetism than anything and you’d end up with a lower score. I’ve known students, most of whom were very good students, who got 79s and below on regents exams in subjects they were good at because of one misunderstood concept.
When you hear stories like that, you start to understand why even the brightest of the bunch in our school would cheat on a supposedly easy exam. When there’s so much pressure to do it perfectly, it can be really tempting to cheat your way through it. What those kids did was undoubtably wrong, and I’m just as angry as anyone, since I studied for weeks for a test that some people just copied answers for. But I know that the only thing that will change is that the admin will be stricter about cell phones and will start to monitor facebook etc. before the regents exams. This won’t change the culture that puts so much emphasis on one test and therefore encourages cheating on it to get a good grade.
That said, I counted at least 3 camera crews outside my school today long after school was dismissed. At least 3, maybe 4, and I was stopped by a reporter or two on my way out. I do think the coverage is getting ridiculous, especially since the crews weren’t actually talking to anyone and the reporters were just asking for comments and opinions and the facts aren’t even straight yet. Blowing a story up to scandalous proportions before the facts are in order does not responsible journalism make.</p>
<p>So was the kid so brilliant that everyone would want HIS answers?</p>
<p>^^ It doesn’t matter mini, it’s still cheating. I’m sure you’ve taken exams before where some students were copying off of a neighbor for whatever reason, whether that neighbor was brilliant or not. There aren’t many classes, if any, where the teacher would freely permit people to copy answers from anyone else in the class.</p>
<p>It is kind of deserving though if the copying kid copied from someone who isn’t so brilliant and didn’t really do well on the test. It would have been funny if the alleged cheater in this case took photos of a different scantron where almost all the answers were wrong (except answer ‘C’ of course) and sent them to others to be copied.</p>
<p>Oh, I’m just curious as to why so many folks would want his answers - this is Stuyvesant, remember, and everything thinks they’re brilliant (or at least I did - since proven wrong of course ;)). </p>
<p>When I was that age, I might have been easily corruptible, but it would have taken a lot of convincing for me to even want answers from anyone else (and I was only 121st in the class of 713).</p>
<p>^^ I agree mini. It doesn’t make much sense unless this guy is known to be far superior to the people using the data he sent or unless some of these people didn’t study some sections as ‘macey123’ indicated could be possible.</p>