Forum Home | Log in | Signup | My Page | Rules | FAQ | Boards | Members | Search
« POPE 5 Home | Email msg. | Reply to msg. | Post new | Board info. Previous | Home | Next

Ah, final exams! What fun.

By: Decomposed in POPE 5 | Recommend this post (0)
Wed, 29 Apr 20 5:24 AM | 64 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Pope 5 		Msg. 60145 of 62138
Jump:
Jump to board:
Jump to msg. #

Remember college finals? They're actually beginning already at UVA. For some classes, anyway.

Joey sweated profusely before taking his Linear Algebra exam. He took it on-line, of course. [Update: He actually downloaded it then scanned and submitted the finished work. So it wasn't so "of course" after all.] The instructor gave his class of 12 an hour to do the exam, with the start any time between 5 and 6 p.m. Joey started just after 5 and finished in 40 minutes. "It was by far the easiest of the class's three tests!" he said. He talked about it a bit then went into a bedroom.

At 6:40, he came back out. "You won't believe what just happened," he said.

Around 6:30, he called up a buddy who is in his cryptography class. The guy is a real whiz in both computer science and math. Joey just wanted to know how he was doing, but the friend, Spencer, said he couldn't talk because he was helping another friend, Muhammed, study for his Linear Algebra final.

"What?" Joey asked. "Muhammed's in my class. He's got less than half an hour to finish taking the test!"

Muhammed must have been on the same wavelength because he abruptly said goodbye and terminated the Skype session with Spencer.

Spencer said, "That's right. You're in the same class. We were just discussing this problem" ... and he read problem #3 from the exam. Joey told him that the problem was on the test and Spencer's jaw must have hit the floor. "That's an honor code violation!" he said.

"Maybe it was just chance," Joey said. "Some of the exam questions came from the book. Do you remember any of the others?" Spencer described another... this one NOT in the book, and Joey confirmed that it was indeed on the exam.

At this point, Spencer was beginning to panic. After all, if it was cheating, his neck could be on the line too.

Joey said, "I've still got the exam questions. I'll send you the ten True/False problems." He did, and Muhammed had reviewed seven of them with Spencer - and in the same order.

Wow. That's pretty damning. Spencer drew up an extremely nice e-mail to Muhammed explaining what had transpired and that he was very hurt by it. He said that he was sending the professor a letter to describe the situation. He needed to make it clear that his (Spencer's) involvement was unknowing. He also asked the professor to please let his friend file a "conscientious retraction" - an opportunity to admit guilt and not be kicked out of school. It's essentially a "I did it, I'm sorry and I won't do it again" admission. However, this has to be done before anyone else knows - which is what makes it "conscientious." Others clearly do know. In fact, Muhammed's replies to Spencer so far have been vehement denials and protests of innocence, even claiming that the professor gave him those problems to study during office hours. He seems to be quite far from issuing a legitimate conscientious retraction, in my opinion.

A second type of admission is called an "Informed Retraction," in which the student also says he did it, he's sorry and won't do it again . . . and takes the following year off.

Hey, these are both better than denying it, fighting a losing battle and getting expelled.

I wouldn't be surprised if the professor (or the school) contacts Joey... This is about as serious as it gets in the college world.









Avatar

Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


 - - - - -
View Replies (1) »



» You can also:
« POPE 5 Home | Email msg. | Reply to msg. | Post new | Board info. Previous | Home | Next