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Plagiarism in my open book end of year exams

Hi,

I had three five hour exams for my end of year assessment. In my last essay of the last 5 hour exam, I panicked and I looked at a student from the year above's essay. I looked at the points she used and the reports she mentioned, and then I went and read summaries of the reports and looked for notes i had on those reports. I wrote up my essay, making sure I don't actually use any of her work and if i did, I made sure to rephrase and quickly scan GoogleScholar and find alternative sources besides hers.

However, in the heat of the moment I did not realise that doing it like that would have made it really easy to plagiarise. A few weeks went by and I was fine, but one day the anxiety just got too much and I double checked our essays line by line and yes some stuff is going to be similar since both of our essays were about glaciers and the IPCC report but there'S ONE LINE THAT'S IDENTICAL TO HERS.

I don't know what to do - should I report myself? I don't know what I'll do if I get kicked out of uni or if I get a plagiarism note on my uni transcript. I know what I did was silly and risky but I really regret it and don't know what the consequences will be - it ranges from a mark capping, mark deduction to explusion.

For context I have been depressed and anxious throughout the year and I got diagnosed with ADHD and uni was too much for me - I'm not using this as an excuse - what I did was likely very wrong. I just want to know if there's any way I can not get kicked out of uni. This is my first time, and I'm a first year student.

Reply 1

Admit-One

Universities Forum Helper

@gjd800 might be able to offer some advice.

Reply 2

gjd800

Ooft not ideal. But I think I'd keep quiet. One line is probably not going to be a major issue, or at least I'd be surprised if it was picked up on.

As a first year there is next to no chance of you being withdrawn, even if you get caught out. More likely there's a grade of 0 and you complete an academic integrity course.