<p>This is my first time posting on this website. I think I may have posted in the wrong section but I really needed to write this. My teacher thinks that I cheated on my AP Statistics test and gave me a zero. My grade is about to drop from the 97 it originally was to around 60 due to only one test being in the grade books. This is what happened. I have been practicing previous exams that were accessible through the college board AP central website. These are the test that were used the previous year. I have been going through each open-ended part of the exams and getting a better understanding of them since February. The day of the test I notice that the open-ended part of the test is AP exam questions from previous exams. I write in the format that is acceptable to the college board people. He gives the students extra time to take the test the next day. I go through the previous exams and make sure that I have the wording write within the answers. I then proceed to go to school and finish the test. On Monday the teacher, before I leave for another class, asks me if I wrote the answers on my test. I said yes and he tells me that they are exactly like the answers on his key. I begin to have a slight mental breakdown when he tells me that I cheated and will be giving me a zero. The questions were exactly like the ones I did at home and I just wrote what I thought was correct. He says that he will call my parents and give me detention also. What do you think I should do. I did not cheat in class or steal the test. I am freaking out because finals are in a week and this will destroy my grade. Opinions?</p>
<p>Why not show the teacher what you’ve been practicing with?</p>
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<p>You are dancing on the line of cheating</p>
<p>First I want to say thank you for your comments and opinions. I, my mother, my father, my teacher, and my guidance counselor are going to talk tomorrow and get this resolved. This is the first time I have ever been accused of cheating. I was just studying for the official exam and noticed it. I am bringing my exams, practice book, and any other material that will help me. My teacher is a by the book sort of teacher, so I am really worried. My parents support me and want to understand what the teachers problem is, in their words. I am trying not to make this an issue because my parents are acting like its about to be a court case. I do not want to be look upon as a cheater in any teachers eyes. That is what is getting to me. Either way this event goes, I will still be seen as a cheater. I am a senior in high school about to graduate taking 5 AP classes and 2 honors currently. I have all As and just need to get out of this class. I just want my points back on my test.</p>
<p>I also wanted to add that in this class, he tells us that we must memorize the correct format. We must write the correct paragraph or get points off. I will bring this up at the meeting. My parents also wanted to add that he is lazy in putting exam questions on regular tests instead of putting his own original ones. Memorizaiton is key and I used that to answer the question correctly. These are just some of the topics we will be discussing in trying to change my teacher’s mind and getting this matter resolved.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the story you have written here.</p>
<p>I think the OP is saying that her AP teacher is giving an in-class exam (not the actual AP exam), and he took questions from an old AP exam that the OP has studied from. He gave them time two days in a row in class to take his in-class exam, and the OP looked on the first evening at the old exam questions again to make sure she had the wording just right for the answer. She used that wording, and now the teacher is accusing her of cheating.</p>
<p>One question for the OP: did the teacher give any instructions for that night between the test days? Were you told NOT to look up answers/look for more information between days (or is there some kind of honor code or something at your school that clearly states this)? If you were told not to, then you did cheat.</p>
<p>If you were not given these instructions, I would take in the materials you are studying from and show them what you have. Print off what you can see on the AP website and take it in, and tell them you have been studying from that. What you need are the exact questions he also used on his test. The teacher may not be aware that the same questions he is using are available to you.</p>
<p>Note that just because finals are in one week does not mean that a grade he gives you today will stand long term. HOWEVER, having your parents go in and accuse him of being lazy or asking “what his problem is” will probably NOT help your case. Hopefully they (and you) can be calm and tactful, not nasty and accusatory. You seem to have some strong evidence on your side, so have confidence in the evidence and present it calmly.</p>
<p>Compmom, I had a hard time to understand the OP but here is what my take. Her test has a question that is on the college board practice exams. She basically copied the college board’s answer key as if it were her own on her test. That’s why the teacher accused her of plagiarizing. OP, correct me if I am wrong and for that, apology in advance. We’ve just had a hard time understanding you.</p>
<p>I don’t think you deserve a score based on your test nor a zero, but I think you deserve a one time, one sitting retake. I completely sympathize with you studying past FRQs. I do the same in my AP classes. I think it is partly the teachers fault for allowing further work on the test in 2 sittings rather than 1. I do think it’s not completely honest to go home and look up the answers and study them carefully, but I don’t think you deserve a zero.</p>
<p>Your parents shouldn’t accuse your teacher of being lazy. It’s a very common practice for AP teachers to use old AP questions on their test and why blame them? What better way to give students a feel for solving the AP questions during the actual test later on than to give them old questions from released exams?</p>
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If those questions are indeed available to anyone using AP Test prep then your parents are correct. But the teacher probably won’t want to hear it.</p>
<p>I think the idea of a one-sitting re-take is quite fair.</p>
<p>Thank you for your comments. My parents are just upset that a teacher would accuse me of cheating. This test is just a regular test. I was suprised to find AP exam questions on it. The final exam is the in-class AP exam. I am currently trying to get my materials together to have a good argument and remain confident through the meeting. My parents are just looking out for me and I am thankful for that. My teacher is nice but is eccentric. I do not know what will happen tomorrow but I will stop worrying and just prove to the teacher that I am not a cheater, and hopefully never will be. My father printed out my grades for some reason to bring with us to the school and show that I am a high honor roll student. Any opinions before tomorrow are greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I don’t think what you did was cheating. I actually did something similar for a final exam in an AP class, where the teacher’s exam was identical to a practice test that collegeboard released. I made sure to intentionally miss a couple questions, although I wasn’t really cheating in the first place. Teacher’s fault for being lazy.</p>
<p>I do not think printing out your grades is going to help with this conversation (if I were a teacher who thought you really cheated, I would assume you cheated for those grades as well). Really, this is about (1) did he tell you not to look at old exams to study, and (2) were there instructions (either explicitly or someplace like your school’s honor code) saying you should NOT do additional studying between the two days of exams? You actually have not answered that second question.</p>
<p>It was supposed to be a one day test but no one finished. I, after talking to my parents, have only to convince one person, the teacher. I brought my guidance counselor because he can vouch for my actions, hopefully. I am bringing my Barron’s AP Statistics Book, the previous exams, and my parents. I hate to say that I was crying for a good portion of that day. I know grades are not everything but this situation is just horrible for me. I cannot work on anything because I am so overwhelmed by what is going to happen tomorrow. Will he change my grade? Will he give me a retake? will he keep the zero? Will I get into more trouble? These are all different situations with only one that I am hoping for. The teacher encouraged using college board and previous ap exams. He is like a closed book, having almost no emotion when he told me.</p>
<p>I did not answer the second question. We do not have an honor code and most of the students take advantage of that. He allows some people to finish tests days after the test was initially given. He is that kind of teacher. Some students wait two weeks before taking an exam they missed. This annoyed me because a teacher that allows students to do this is not the kind of teacher I want. That is why this situation suprises me the most. He is so lenient on when someone takes a test. I am starting to freak out again because I will wake up tomorrow knowing that I have a meeting to get to. I am sorry if I am rambling but this is the first time I have ever been accused in my high school career.</p>
<p>If you had reviewed the past AP test and were able to regurgitate the College Board answer on your test the first day, I would have no problem with what you did. However, seeing the test question, recognizing it as the same as a past AP test, going home and memorizing the College Board answer and then finishing the test the next day just doesn’t feel right to me. If there were no instructions forbidding you from doing that, then I don’t think you should get a zero, but I don’t think what you did was right. I’d be in favor of allowing a new test. I have no problem with the teacher using past AP exams and I don’t think it’s laziness - I think it’s preparing the students for what an actual AP test question is like. The teacher’s mistake was giving two days to complete the test - that’s not real smart when the tests are floating around out there.</p>
<p>This similar to an issue that came up at my D’s college. Students were turning in homework sets [in an upper level math-based science class] with problem solutions identical (even down to incorrect punctuation and variable names!) to answers given in the homework solution manual. There was no prohibition to having or using a solution manual, but students were told not to copy, but to use the solution manual to check the correctness of their answers.</p>
<p>The college convened an honors hearing to consider the problem and decided that mathematical solutions and proofs are as individual and unique as writing styles. Thus the students had actually plagarized and were therefore guilty of cheating.</p>
<p>Your situation appears similar. If you changed your answers to exactly match the structure/format of the solution on the old exam, or if you memorized the solutions from the old exam and simply reproduced them exactly without any changes/originality, then you’ve plagarized–regardless of where the teacher got the exam questions.</p>
<p>If you did memorizes the answers word for word, that is plagiarism, whether the questions and answers are available on the CB website or not. It’s like writing a term paper and finding sources online and copying verbatim. Just because it’s accessible, doesn’t mean you can copy word for word.</p>
<p>I do not mean to be rude but isn’t the nature of AP Statistics reproducing of the paragraphs. During this test the students are supposed to reproduce the same paragraphs explaining the problem. The teacher believes this is correct when everyone has the same correct answer. He does problems on the board and we are supposed to rewrite it exactly that way. On the test, students are forced to be closely relevant. We are forced to memorize the format of the problem. Any deviation from the problem will result in a loss of points. The reason that I had the exact same answer as the answer key was that I did the question two days before the test. I did not know it would be on there and the additional day makes matters worse. I am starting to become depressed instead of freaking out. Thank you for all your feedback.</p>
<p>I did not memorize the second day. I already wrote down the answer. I am sorry if I am not making sense but this is good practice for my meeting tomorrow. People saying that I was memorizing and reproducing the information should know that I already understood it before the test. I was already writing and rewriting days before the test to get a better understanding of it. I understand the question fully and every word that I put was important. I do not believe that I cheated, but the addition of the second day does not help me at all.</p>