I had a very strange 'cheating' situation this summer. It was Intro to
Psych and for the first time I gave a test which was short answers rather
than multiple choice.
Three students turned in nearly identical papers. These were international
students, from the same country. I wasn't positive which faces went with
the names, but all had been good students before this. I failed them on
the test.
They came to see me, swearing they had not cheated. I questioned them all
very closely, separately, and to make a long story short: it turns out
that they had never before had a short answer test, in several years of
college they had only multiple choice tests. They were concerned about
language difficulties and wanted to do well. They hired a tutor to help
them study for the test. They came up with a set of notes based on the
tutor's review, and they (I'm not kidding) memorized the entire notes!
That's why all the wording was identical. They even showed me the notes.
When they came to see me and I saw who they were, I knew for a fact that
one had sat by himself during the test, in fact, I was sitting next to him
in the back row, watching the room, so this helped their credibility.
Anyway, my point is sometimes it looks like it had to be cheating, but be
sure to hear the whole story if there is one.
Erica Klein
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of Houston
