<p>Pretty funny about this rampant cheating, after all the CC threads attacking the deficiencies of Chinese culture that make some Chinese students cheat for US college admission.</p>
<p>^^ touche, sorghum! We are all shocked, SHOCKED, elite American students cheat…</p>
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<p>Not everyone thought they were brilliant. One woman I dated who graduated around the time I did said she “felt dumb” for all 4 years because of the competitive atmosphere and the prevalence of students who were simply brilliant. </p>
<p>Personally, I leaned much more closely to her perceptions during my time there…this was where I hit a wall academically freshman/first-half of sophomore year so I knew the deal before going off to undergrad. </p>
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<p>High school version of me wouldn’t have cared considering the academic hole I ended up in freshman/sophomore year and being in the midst of a rebellious phase where antagonizing and having father/HS teachers/authority figures think poorly of me was a badge of honor in my 13-15 year old mind.</p>
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Comprehension problems cobrat? I said watered down. Which they are and which is why the tests aren’t taken seriously by people who expect to pass. Get it now?</p>
<p>Maybe it was not so in the 90’s but as far as my experience Regents always counted and were needed to graduate with a Regents high school diploma which was needed for college. Everyone took the Regents and it was always a joke. All you needed to do was buy the red Barron’s book and review the last 5 or 6 Regents in the book, there’s only so many ways you can cover the same material year after year after year. I believe the Regents have been around since 1864 and there has been cheating since then I bet. As someone else mentioned in 1974 the State noted that Regents had been stolen and canceled many, I got out of the English Regents back then which was given Senior year in high school.</p>
<p>They were also always pretty easy for many kids; any test that is designed for the entire state - suburbs, Salemanca, and the south Bronx has to be pretty watered down. Oh and there are still foreign language Regents, I think cobrat said they were no longer given, but they are. </p>
<p>As far as how they are counted, each school district decides on how much of an effect they will have on the kids grades. In my NYC high school if you passed the Regents you had to pass the class regardless of your grades during the year. Believe me, that was quite helpful to many of my friends! For some bizarre reason I do know a girl who failed the US History Regents 3 times!!! Three times might be a record, she finally passed on her fourth try which was just this month. She had already been admitted to college but she would not receive a diploma without passing the US History Regents so I’m not sure what would have happened to her college acceptance. It’s not a NYS college so I just don’t know.</p>
<p>Anyway, the benefits of the Regents is kind of irrelevant, this kid cheated and got caught. I’m not a believer in cheating but the Regents are for the most part, a joke. But then I’m not a big believer in standardized state-wide tests.</p>
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<p>Pot kettle black? </p>
<p>Somehow, it seems you missed how I said the Regents are more watered nowadays than than they were a decade or so ago. Pretty sad considering they were already widely considered a joke at the specialized high schools in the early-mid '90s.</p>
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<p>Someone else said that. </p>
<p>I did use my experience with the French Regents to illustrate how much of a joke the regents can be in some cases.</p>
<p>Wait, I just thought about a good think with the Regents - every kid who went to a NYS school has had to take them so I guess there’s some comraderie in that!</p>
<p>New question though (off topic mostly) - do NYC schools still have the 2 year and 3 year SP?</p>
<p>The Regents requirements have changed several times in the last six years or so. There is no longer a local diploma option and the grades required to “pass” have changed, as well. The required exams (living environment, English, global, etc.) have gotten much easier so as not to harm the graduation rates. Such as they are. The kids who expect to pass don’t take those too seriously. The kids who might not pass sweat these tests to high heaven.</p>
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<p>If Stuyvesant kids thought like you did, no way they’d be in Stuyvesant now.</p>
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<p>You do realize that Stuyvesant is 72% Asian?</p>
<p><a href=“https://reportcards.nysed.gov/files/2010-11/AOR-2011-310200011475.pdf[/url]”>https://reportcards.nysed.gov/files/2010-11/AOR-2011-310200011475.pdf</a></p>
<p>It must be those darn Indians and Chinese who are causing this mess…</p>
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<p>June 2011 was the last administration of the NYS regents exam in foreign language. Now in order for a student to graduate with an advanced regents diploma they must take a LOTE exam.</p>
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<p>Some might criticize the shoddy reporting, but the content and spirit of the above comment at the school speaks volumes about how deeply ingrained the problem is among a sub-culture of students. </p>
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<p>When it comes to cheating, why would anyone think it is a … chinese problem? Is it the fact that the cheating is not condemned and the results applauded? But why single out the Chinese when other nationalities are just as adept at bending the rules? </p>
<p>Chinese? Hardly! Asian? Perhaps? Global? That is more like it!</p>
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<p>That above statement really caused me to ROTFLOL due to its irony. Especially considering it wouldn’t be lost on some freshman teachers and admins who wished that statement was a fact.</p>
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<p>It was just a little over 50% in the early-mid '90s from what I remembered.</p>
<p>Some more updates, but much of it hearsay (from the father), FWIW:</p>
<p>[Stuyvesant</a> cheat-scandal kid Nayeem Ahsan’s dad said his son was acting out of desperation caused by stress - NYPOST.com](<a href=“http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/dad_son_had_cause_to_crib_pIInW64a4ViAJfupaK8EyI]Stuyvesant”>Stuy ‘cheat’ kid’s dad: Son had cause to crib)</p>
<p>As for Stuyvesant being “elite”, Sybbie’s comment that Stuyvesant is mostly Asian is less relevant that the fact that almost half of Stuvyesant students are poor enough to qualify for free/reduced lunch:</p>
<p>[Stuyvesant</a> High School, New York NY School Profile, Ranking, and Reviews - SchoolDigger.com](<a href=“http://www.schooldigger.com/go/NY/schools/0007702877/school.aspx]Stuyvesant”>http://www.schooldigger.com/go/NY/schools/0007702877/school.aspx)</p>
<p>It is, in no way, an “elite” school, the ravings of those who rant about rich kids affording expensive test preps notwithstanding.</p>
<p>Really, bringing race into the discussion …</p>
<p>It’s academically elite.</p>
<p>^^^ Yes that.</p>
<p>More updates from the New York Post:</p>
<p>[Cheating</a> scandal at Stuyvesant HS grows to more than 90 students; ringleader said to be a serial cheater - NYPOST.com](<a href=“http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/blows_stuy_high_jHTi1ILOJG6tql1eIqlNFK]Cheating”>Blows Stuy High! 100 kids in elite school’s cheating scandal)</p>
<p>This account seems to hang together better than the dad’s, in my earlier post.</p>
<p>Looks like the guy fancies himself a kind of academic Robin Hood?</p>
<p>And thanks, Macey123 (post #76), for the clarification. That explains well why one would bother to cheat on an exam most Stuyvesant kids can pass with their eyes closed (exaggeration). Acing the exam is much trickier than just passing; it just takes one poorly worded question or one careless mistake to miss 100. Though mini’s point is also well taken: for the purpose of acing an exam, why would anyone trust anyone else’s answers? That person can just as easily make a careless mistake or misinterpret an ambiguous question, thereby missing a perfect score, as oneself. Unless they hold a conference and discuss …</p>
<p>And, by the way, the Regents are really that easy to pass (for students of Stuyvesant’s caliber anyway). I just heard of a student who cried because her Regents Math score was in the 80s, while her peers’ scores were all in the 90s. And this is in MIDDLE SCHOOL.</p>
<p>sybbie719 - That’s why I didn’t know they stopped the language Regents - it just happened! My 2012 daughter took the Regents in 2010 and I’m on a “need to know” life so this was not relevant to me. Thanks for clarifying.</p>
<p>So, Macey…do you think cheating on the SATs also goes on at your school? Other tests, exams, also?</p>
<p>Some more “color” from the New York Times:</p>
<p>[On</a> Final Day of Public School Year, Stuyvesant Reels Over Reports of Cheating ? SchoolBook](<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/06/27/on-final-day-of-public-school-year-stuyvesant-reels-over-reports-of-cheating/]On”>http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/06/27/on-final-day-of-public-school-year-stuyvesant-reels-over-reports-of-cheating/)</p>
<p>The shocking news here: "Contrary to other reports, the student found with the cellphone was not expelled. " Even the father seems to think the student was expelled:</p>
<p>[Stuyvesant</a> cheat-scandal kid Nayeem Ahsan’s dad said his son was acting out of desperation caused by stress - NYPOST.com](<a href=“http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/dad_son_had_cause_to_crib_pIInW64a4ViAJfupaK8EyI]Stuyvesant”>Stuy ‘cheat’ kid’s dad: Son had cause to crib)</p>