The Gray Line Between Academic Integrity and AP Exams

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>Yesterday I had quite an interesting incident.</p>

<p>I (or, I should say, my mom) received a call from my APUSH teacher saying that I was a "cheater" with no "academic integrity." (that is literally how it came across) The incident he was referring to was a homework assignment which I had, in a sense, BSed. Let me explain more:</p>

<p>In my APUSH class, we do something called CIDs, in which we are given a set of definitions and have to scour the chapter (sometimes chapters) of our book for Definition, Examples, Historical Significance, and General Significance. On May 2nd, we were assigned our 35th CID. On May 5th, we were assigned our 36th. Now, for those of you paying attention, you may notice that these are RIGHT before exam day. Interesting how a teacher wouldn't give us time to study and would force us to focus in on 10 years of history a week before the test? (and, by the way, it was a student teacher at the time, to make matters worse) </p>

<p>Being the studyaholic I am, I decided to do half of both the CIDs, copy that half to make it seem "full," and instead study for the AP Exam. I figured that US History in general was a higher priority than Nixon. My teacher (a turnitin.com freak) decided this was cheating and gave me a 0 on both assignments, bringing my grade from a 90% to a measly 82%. </p>

<p>I am not the only one. From my projection, about half of the APUSH students face the same circumstance.</p>

<p>From this whole thing, my mom was SHOCKED. How could her Stanford-hopeful who is a full-on NHS member be accused of cheating? She is actually taking this to my APUSH teacher, along with several other parents, to argue that higher priorities override poor planning and unfair assignments.</p>

<p>BUT, on the other side of the argument, people who believe copying oneself is cheating also said that this sort of behavior is never allowed, no matter what the situation and what priorities belong where. Cheating (or copying yourself) will always be exactly that, and is never justifiable. </p>

<p>While I want to believe that, this incident has clearly led me to walking the gray line. To me, the AP Exam is the purpose of the class. To my teacher, apparently not. (or at least, that's what it seems like)</p>

<p>The teacher does have a right to do what they want, but to me (and my mother), this was over the top and the punishment was too narrow minded. </p>

<p>So, what do you guys think? Is cheating copying yourself? Should I have gotten all credit taken away and received the same punishment as those who didn't even do them or those who plagiarized?</p>

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<p>So by copying yourself you mean that you just wrote the answers for the second half the same as the first? I think you should’ve just gotten the second half wrong and that should be the end of it. In no way does it seem like cheating at all, just a partially incomplete/incorrect assignment.</p>

<p>The teacher possibly thought that you were dumb and attempted to copy off of someone else by copying them completely wrong or twice (I’ve heard this accusation before). I think you should fight to get your A back and the credit you deserve.</p>

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<p>Yeah…I pretty much copied my first definitions to my second definitions. I’m with you on the that I consider this a poorly done assignment, not as dishonest as he says. I don’t mind getting 5 or 10 of the 25 pts knocked off, but ALL of them is over the top for me.</p>

<p>That’s an interesting argument…I’ll look into that. Thanks!</p>

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<p>Your teacher is stupid… they actually call your parents in your school? How the hell is that cheating? I’m a firm believer of prioritizing. You can’t fulfill everything in life. Some classes and assignments you blow, some you don’t. And plus it’s the end of the year. In my APUS class, we don’t even have finals. Just a stupid 6 minute presentation.</p>

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<p>I"m not giving my opinion here. But, I think this teacher might bring you down and let it get known to other teachers (possibly including those who will write your recc. letters) of this. And, that might really hurt you.</p>

<p>Rationally talk to your teacher YOURSELF about what happened. Just tread carefully.</p>

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<p>Well, my mom told me to keep quiet about this (wouldn’t be too great if I became a revolt leader at my school would it?), and that she will go to the teacher as well as administration, if necessary.</p>

<p>I believe this is going to get my a warning, something which she will surely fight against. </p>

<p>I’ll definitely look into it-he’s the not the lowly type of person who would pass it on, but I’ll be checking.</p>

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<p>Bah, another self important public school teacher. That’s probably the most authoritah he/she/it will ever have in his/her/its lifetime, so he/she/it is taking it out on you.</p>

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<p>wow…that is incredibly strange.</p>

<p>first of all, if you did HALF of the assignment correctly, you should have gotten 50 for both…</p>

<p>and this cheating on yourself thing?! that doesn’t even make sense. would you have received a 0 if you had left any blank?</p>

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<p>the student teacher has to have a mentor who is, in most cases, your teacher…The question is whether he/she knows about this (and actually approved or suggested that you should have been given a “0”)…the only person I would speak to is your original teacher and then drop it…</p>

<p>FWIW, when I was a student teacher, there was no way I would have been allowed to give that kind of assignment, without teacher approval, right before an AP exam or a final…</p>

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<p>You Must Revolt, Academic Cheating Is Using Someone Else’s Work As Your Own.</p>

<p>Check Your Specific Guidelines, Because You Simply Copied Off Yourself And You Shouldn’t Be In For Cheating!</p>

<p>And One Day Colleges Will See That You Did Something Good For The Student Population.</p>

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<p>I agree a 50 is the best alternative. Also, I think it’s crazy weird that you have to turn in homework assignments to turnitin.com. I only use it for major papers.</p>

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<p>agreed. I don’t think it was cheating at all, and either way, the AP Exam is way more important.</p>

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<p>cheating (textbook definition) is an act of fraud. so technically what you did was “cheating”, but the teacher was definitely unreasonable, a more qualified teacher would’ve, as people said, just given you a 50. and the fact that 2 hw assignments can bring your grade down that much is ridiculous. it’s high school, most of my teachers don’t even look at the homework, for those who do, homework is never part of the grade.</p>

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<p>something very similar happened in my apush class. we used to do CIDs, just like the original poster, but when people weren’t reading the chapter and just scanning through for the IDs, my teacher changed to reading logs. Reading logs require that for each sub-heading (usually about 25 per chapter) you write a one paragraph summary of what happened. Unlike the poster’s teacher, my teacher postponed three reading logs that he was going to have due the week before and week of the ap exam until the second sunday after the ap ush exam. others still had exams going on that week, and the reading logs take a lot of time. students turned in the same assignment multiple times/did what the poster did (did half and copied the rest from another assignment) on turnitin.com. yes, i think it is crazy to turn in homework assignments but he had a big problem with cheating in his class last year (copying off the internet/others) and this saves him time when checking. this is cheating. you are not being honest in your work. was it fair he made you turn them in that week? no way. but he has the right to. nothing says he can’t. copying, even if off your old assignments, is cheating. My teacher, on the other hand, let the students who cheated turn in their assignments the next week for half credit. sure, they had less time to do the reading logs, but they still got credit if they did it right.</p>

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<p>yeah…that is so incredibly strange, ridiculous, and funny</p>

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<p>s/tfu bureaucrat</p>

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<p>Your teacher is an idiot. The purpose of an AP class is to pass the AP exam, not complete useless little assignments.</p>

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<p>actually, the purpose of any class is not an exam but to learn lol</p>

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<p>^ True, but I guarantee you can learn a lot more by studying yourself rather than doing a “teacher’s” BS assignments.</p>

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<p>I see this as a battle between strict-constitutionalists and loose-constitutionalists. Whoo hoo APUSH…</p>

<p>For more background, my real teacher was NOT in the classroom while the student teacher was teaching. (this was about 3 months I believe) I think he did help out to make lesson plans, but I hardly saw him, and feel like he was too laid back.</p>

<p>Additionally, another strange thing: we received more time to study 2 weeks before the test than the week before the test, instead of the logical vice-versa. Well, my mom approaches him 8:30 Saturday, we shall see how things go o.O</p>