Back in my day, you didn't need to cheat to get an F!

"E90M3" (e90m3) 05/01/2020 at 08:37 • Filed to: None

0

30

Looks like some students at my alma mater !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

It’s got to be rough to be a college student now, especially with distance learning. I know for me, actually attending class and paying attention helped a lot. Well, maybe not in phy sics where I got my F the old fashioned way:

Cash Rewards > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 08:46

1

Mine was sophomore circuits that I tried to take as a freshman. Dumb idea.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:04

0

I got a B in Physics I, but got my only F in Calc III.

My bird IS the word > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:04

4

This post sponsored by nord vpn

Sovande > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:06

0

It’s weird that one would cheat in college. It goes against every single reason you are at college in the first place. I’d boot them all.

E90M3 > Sovande 05/01/2020 at 09:14

2

I’d say almost everyone cheats at some point in college, it really all comes down to what extent. 

E90M3 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/01/2020 at 09:15

0

Calc II was the class I struggled most in, I got a C on my third attempt. 

Michael > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:16

0

Thanks for that, now my next four nights will be spent dreaming I’m failing some class again.... Despite the fact I’ve been out for 7 years.  

TheRealBicycleBuck > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:16

7

In this new day, professors will really have to step up in order to prevent cheating. My major exams were always take-home because of the nature of the subjects I was teaching. They required the students to use software that was only available to them in our lab, so I gave the students plenty of time to get their work done. Unfortunately, it also meant they were in there collaborating with each other on the answers. I knew this for a fact because I would visit the lab in the evening and could hear them talking before I walked in.

So, I changed my approach. Every person received a unique exam. Every question was pulled from a database of questions and the order was randomized. Every question had at least four variations and the answer to all four variations were on the exam. I took the extra effort to make it so that an error on one variation could lead to one of the other answers which was a valid answer for a different variation.

While that seems like a lot of effort, it would take an equivalent level of effort for the students to figure out which was the correct answer for the version they had if they were trying to cross-reference their exam with someone else’s. That led to a better understanding of the material which is exactly what I was trying to achieve.

By the time we reached the final, the students realized it was better for them to do their own work and discussions in the lab were about how to approach the problems instead of asking for the answer to a specific problem. I consider that to be the best outcome.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:19

1

I herped my derp in Calc II for a D the first time, and somehow squeaked a C the second time... in my final semester. Who was stupid enough to almost not graduate because “Nah, Calc II is easy the second time”? Me, that’s who.

E90M3 > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/01/2020 at 09:24

0

That is a very interesting approach, seems like it also worked out. There was one class I had, transport processes  II, where my professor made her own homework in lieu of using the ones from the book. A few students had the solutions, a few did not; I was in the have-not group. As a result, a fraternity brother and I actually had to spend the time doing the homework. It was at least 6-7 hours a week just on the homework. When it came test time, I did better than the average. Her class was brutal, but we both ended up getting Bs where 25% of the class got a D. 

E90M3 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 05/01/2020 at 09:29

1

If I had studied for the final in Calc II the first time, I might have gotten a C. The second time I took it was summer 2009, and I dropped the class because I knew I was going to fail otherwise. I looked back and like half the class got a D of F. Third time around was Fall 2009 and I studied pretty hard for it and eked out a C. For ChBE, you had to get a C to take the first ChBE class.

My class that almost caused me not to graduate was process control; I got a D in that class my final semester and needed an exemption from the school to graduate.

Nom De Plume > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:29

1

I can tell you are an educated man by how that was phrased.

Sovande > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:30

0

I don’t buy it. I didn’t cheat in college, what would gave been the point?

Generally, I would say college is a giant waste of time, money, resources and formative years for most students involved, myself included. Cheating to pass a test you are paying to take in order to impress those who will someday scan your resume to see when you graduated from Generic State University seems really dumb. Nobody in the 20-some years since I graduated has ever asked me what classes I took, what my grades were, what my GPA was, or frankly anything about my college experience. They all say “so, you got a history degree, were you planning on teaching?” Nobody cares. Because it doesn’t matter. And if they do care, don’t work for them because they are full of shit.

Though giving students who cheat a second chance is even dumber.

E90M3 > Michael 05/01/2020 at 09:32

1

You’re welcome. I still have those dreams as well. 

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:35

0

All my calc agonies weren’t a total waste, as I was then, years later, able to tutor my nine-years-younger brother when he was taking it. Hooray?

I think t he only major class I absolutely stank at was the engineering programming class my first semester, though I seem to recall not doing that well in... dynamics, maybe, and having to drop it the first go-round.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:37

1

Based on my experience as a recent college student I can tell you that if the answers are on Chegg at least 80% of the class knows they are there. Word spreads alarmingly quick through college communities. It’s going to be a bloodbath if they are able to find everyone who used the Chegg answers and actually want to follow through and not just make an example of a couple students.

Sovande > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/01/2020 at 09:37

0

It sounds like you put a lot of time and effort into making certain that your students don’t cheat. That’s a real shame. I wouldn’t go through the trouble, were I you.

Let em fail. Let em pass. The real world will sort it all out in the end.

TheRealBicycleBuck > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:43

0

There’s no substitute for doing the work and it sounds like you really got your money’s worth out of that course.

A lot of people fail to understand that a 12 hour course load is considered full time because for every hour in the classroom, students should be spending 2 to 4 hours outside the classroom studying or doing homework for that class. It sounds like your professor was pushing you as one would expect for a college-level course.

Thomas Donohue > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 09:43

1

I don’t think I ever failed a college course.

( Don’t ask me how many ‘withdrawa ls’ I had. I think I dropped so many classes I was listed as a part-time student a few times!)

Nom De Plume > Sovande 05/01/2020 at 09:49

0

TheRealBicycleBuck > Sovande 05/01/2020 at 09:51

0

While it did take a lot of time and effort the first time around, once the method was established and the pool of questions created, it was fairly easy to implement. I found that the exam for the private pilot’s license was much the same. They have a pool of over a thousand questions (so they say) which are administered randomly by computer. Come to think of it, GIS Professional exam was the same, the Graduate Record Exam was the same, and I hear that the Architecture licensing exam as well as the Professional Engineer exams are the same too.

At a bare minimum, a professor is paid to present material to a group of students. I felt it was my job to make sure the students learned the material. T heir abilities would be a direct reflection of me and my ability to get them to learn the material. That, in turn, was a reflection of the quality of the university and our program in particular. I take pride in my work, both as a professor and a professional. If I taught a student, you can be damn sure that they know what they are doing.

nerd_racing > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 10:08

1

I still have dreams that I forgot my locker combination... 

Bandit > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 10:25

0

In some of my engineering classes, professors realized cheating was inevitable given the material and the ability for some students to have access to previous semesters’ exam keys and they decided to roll with it. Exams and work became collaborative with the reasoning “you’re never going to have to do anything alone with no resources once you graduate.”

In a nother class my professor used examples and exam questions out of his college text book from the 1980s, something so old none of the answers could be found online. He was great at teaching though so the material was easy to learn.

My biggest win is hovering between a D- and F in organic chemistry where the prof was known for failing huge swaths of students every year and was on the boundary of being put on probation.... again. He made a deal with the class of if our final grade score was higher than our current cumulative score in the class, we can take whatever we got on the final as our final class grade. I thought I was a goner anyways so I put in a 10 hour day studying at my favorite campus bar haha. I ended up getting an A.

DipodomysDeserti > E90M3 05/01/2020 at 10:48

1

I’m 33, work two jobs, have kids, and am taking a full course load of graduate level credits. I’ve never cheated in college. I’ve always gone to school in order to learn, not get a job. During my undergrad, the kids there on their parent’s dime were more likely to cheat. Especially the ones there just to get a job rather than learn.

My bird IS the word > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/01/2020 at 10:50

0

My stats proffesor told us to take the solutions from the homework (which were given) and plug them into an excel spreadsheet. Then use that spreadsheet to do the online exam for us. In fact, there was no way to complete the test by hand in the time allowed.

I didn’t learn more than the basics. Frankly, I don’t really need more than the basics, as I am not a math major.

Why they didnt just teach us how to use stats software, something I could actually use, is beyond me.

Overall a grand waste of my time.

DipodomysDeserti > Sovande 05/01/2020 at 10:50

0

I’ve been able to get several jobs because of the knowledge I gained in school. But I always looked at it as a learning experience, rather than job training.

DipodomysDeserti > Bandit 05/01/2020 at 10:56

1

During my second semester of o chem, the average on the final was 32%, with some kid getting 100%. The professor was really good, but wrote very hard tests.

TheRealBicycleBuck > My bird IS the word 05/01/2020 at 11:04

0

We used both Excel and R in my first stats class. What killed me was my second stats class. The professor had different expectations for major students and non-major students, both on the homework and on tests. It’s the only  time in my life a 30% got me a B.

My bird IS the word > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/01/2020 at 11:12

0

I dont know if its a good thing or a bad thing that my experience isn’t unique...

TheRealBicycleBuck > My bird IS the word 05/01/2020 at 11:34

0

Mathematicians think differently from the rest of us. I’m not sure they really understand how to get other people to understand how to work with numbers. A lot of it is the language barrier. You have letters representing numbers and they aren’t consistent in the use of those letters since they are really just a placeholder, then you have big words with little meaning to people who aren’t mathematicians like Integral and Modulus.

Some people get it, most people don’t. I struggle with some of the concepts, but working the problems out the long way, instead of grabbing a formula and running with it, helped me a lot.