<p>A little background: today during an exam there were a pair of people in front of me cheating. One of them was actually taking the test, but periodically he would show his answers to the person next to him while making sure the professor wasn't looking. I wasn't really sure how to handle this. It didn't seem like it would be possible to tip off the professor without creating a scene, and I didn't really have any evidence anyway. If I report them now (I don't know their names, so this would be pretty difficult) then it's basically my word against theirs.</p>
<p>So what would other people do in this situation? I'm curious too how others feel about people cheating in their class, particularly when grades are curved and one person doing better than they should essentially brings down everyone else's grade.</p>
<p>Lol. Honor code? I don’t know anyone that follows those, I’d say people are much more motivated by their own sense of “honor” than anything a school tries to force upon them.</p>
<p>I would stay out of it. Mostly because I don’t care that much and I’m not a snitch. I’m not one to blatantly cheat on tests like that but if I were doing something that could be reported and someone saw me, I would hope they would do the same.</p>
<p>You don’t have to do the professor’s job for them. I wouldn’t bother, it’s too much of a headache. If these kids are doing a major worth anything they will be weeded out rather quickly.</p>
<p>I had a class where there was more than a little cheating going on. Someone emailed the professor that it was occurring, without mentioning anyone, and the prof announced in class that he was aware of it and was going to be looking for it. </p>
<p>You could do that since since you seem bothered by their cheating. A “shot across the bow” might put an end to it without ruining anyone’s day. </p>
<p>Of course a cheater disregarded the professor’s warning and was caught cheating a mere 15 minutes later.</p>
<p>How do people even know that others are cheating during the exam? I don’t even look around at other people because I don’t want the proctors thinking I’M cheating.</p>
<p>And even if I knew someone was cheating I wouldn’t say anything. I really do not care about strangers enough.</p>
<p>I can’t believe you guys! This is college! I would definitely bring it to the instructor’s attention (maybe not during the heat of the moment, just depends on the situation). But this is college and you are in college to learn and be intellectually and academically challenged. If you’re cheating, then you should not be there! And I would be ****ed if I caught someone cheating during one of my exams, since I’m putting in the time to study and learn the material while someone else is cheating their way through!</p>
<p>Wrong. If you are cheating, there is something wrong with the way you’re taking the class. Remember that this is CollegeConfidential. People here go to serious schools.
The consequences for academic dishonest are very extreme. If you tattle on that person and they actually did cheat, you could potentially ruin his life, forever. You don’t want to do that unless you’re an *******. But you can let the professor do that, since then it would be out of your hands. What you need to do, if you’re REALLY sure about it, is if you don’t care: leave it alone, or if you do care: somehow let him know that you’re aware of it. Tell the professor that someone (you don’t know who it is) cheated. If you really care, send a message to him that will make him change, preferably through facebook or QQ. If you could report the guy without him receiving extremely severe punishment, you should always do it to get them back on track. For sure, some people rampantly cheat and don’t belong at a school, but others don’t, and you don’t know the circumstances.
Remember, cheating doesn’t necessarily mean that the person didn’t work their ass off in class. They could easily have had, and just had a bad day and resorted to shady means. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t learn the course, and it doesn’t mean that they won’t succeed in their career afterwards. It is undoubtedly unfair, but they aren’t evil, and based on how critical gpa is to a future under certain circumstances, you could even sympathise.
You might want to invite him out for coffee and interview him. Based on what you gather, you can choose to report him or not.</p>
<p>“You might want to invite him out for coffee and interview him. Based on what you gather, you can choose to report him or not.”</p>
<p>…really? Think about what you said here. Who would go to coffee with someone who wants to potentially ruin your life? </p>
<p>I think if you care enough, you should send your professor an email, maybe not even from your school email. Just give him enough evidence that you were really taking that test, then say that you saw people cheating…it will probably be enough to get the profs attention and you won’t destroy lives.</p>
<p>Yeah, how would you even get that coffee thing in motion?</p>
<p>“Hey, I saw you cheating, so can we get coffee so I can evaluate your character?”</p>
<p>That’s if you want to tell the truth. Or you could lie, though that’s not much better -</p>
<p>“Hi stranger, want to get coffee at the end of the year for no apparent reason?”</p>
<p>Also if for some reason he said yes, I doubt you could glean much of his character from simply chatting with him. I generally only allow people I’m comfortable with to see my moral flaws.</p>
<p>If it’s a smaller class I’d guess the teacher probably knows. At my college the teachers are rather vigilant about catching cheats and it happens often - but there isn’t much punishment for a first offender (certainly not ruining their life - MAYBE a 0 on their test MAYBE). </p>
<p>Even though a good teacher would also curve tests (if they curve them) so that outliers are ignored, I really don’t like the idea of my hard work being showed up by some ass cheating. </p>
<p>Still, it’s going to bite them in the butt eventually. They’ll have to get a job someday, and when the employer finds out they have a 4.0 GPA and no ability to do anything, they’ll get fired, the school will look bad, and then they might have real consequences to face .</p>
<p>I think it’s none of your business. If it doesn’t affect you, which it doesn’t, there shouldn’t be a problem. I never understand people like you who think they’re superhero because they ratted on someone cheating. And that weak excuse of “my grade is going to be affected if they get really high grades” is lame. Like someone mentioned, if you actually studied for the test, you shouldn’t need a curve.</p>
<p>If the person cheats, let him or her cheat. If the student gets caught, that’s their problem and their fault. The truth will out eventually.</p>
<p>I have an idea on how to deal with the person who is copying answers. </p>
<p>After the test, I’d go up to them and be like, “so, what was that?” And if they pretend to be innocent, just be like, “well, whatever, it’s your integrity in danger…” And walk off. Just so they know that people have noticed. And when they get high scores, waggled your eyebrows at them like you don’t believe they did it by themselves. And if you have questions on homework or something, never ask that person. Always ask the person near them (and if the person you ask is like “why don’t you ask (the cheater)?” say something like “I don’t think they’d know, considering…” and trail off). </p>
<p>:/ issues like this are settled without a teacher, usually. At least in my school (we have a pretty strict honor code… and people who cheat are looked down upon). If you really, really want to get the teacher involved, I’d say leave an anonymous note.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say anything about it unless this person was trying to cheat off of your paper. Then, I’d suggest writing a few answers that are completely wrong, and then going back and changing them when the cheater isn’t looking. =P</p>
<p>Really though, if somebody is cheating on tests, they’re either doing it on very rare occasions, or they’ll learn from it the hard way somewhere down the line without your help. Maybe it’s “unfair” for cheaters to get good grades, but think of it this way: they may have good grades, but you have good grades, integrity, and nothing to hide.</p>
<p>I also wouldn’t tease them or blackmail them to get them to mend their ways. Maybe they’re in a difficult spot in life and you don’t want to be the ***hole who makes it even worse. People do bring on consequences themselves, but nobody is asking for harassment.</p>