How do you feel about the Maths forum?

If you use the report reason
Illegal content > breaching copyright
Then the CT are usually a bit quicker and better at responding.

Going back to the thread topic, this is a big problem with the maths forums that hasn't been mentioned yet. Students will often make accounts just to try to cheat in their mocks by getting e.g. last years paper or a locked mock paper.

I can't count the number of users who have tried to get the locked Edexcel GCSE mock papers over the last few months. I had one student who PMd be nearly every day once they found out I was a teacher. And here's a quote from someone else I got yesterday:

"Don't worry, my friend just found a copy. Now I can cheat and my teacher will have no idea."

Apart from Mr M who does a great job, I don't see anyone else closing threads or deleting links. I don't know if all the maths moderators are aware of the exam papers that are unavailable to students but they really should be. If it keeps going on then I can see TSR gaining a reputation in schools (if it hasn't already) as the place to come to cheat.

I always report them but sometimes they don't get deleted. I found one the other day with a list of topics from the secure mock and it had been on here undetected for three weeks.

Personally I don't think we should have official or unofficial mark schemes either. However, TSR is not the ony website flouting the 'locked paper' rules. I can usually pick it up in school from the methods the student uses ... then they have to resit after school which the parents love [not].

How about students who are asking for these papers. Can they be reported? What should be the reason?

There are students everyday asking for these papers which is encouraging others to upload the papers. For example, there is a user who just posted this a few mins ago in 'Maths Exams':

"Can you take a picture of your paper or send me a copy of paper3. I've done my exam so I'm not looking to cheat. I just want to know how I've done"

They are the same user who admitted to me via PM that they were trying to cheat. Can I do anything to report them?

This is an issue that we're aware of, and the Support Team have been in contact with exam boards and Ofqual to find out exactly what can and can't happen on here. These threads should be reported rather than just closed so a moderator or the CT can deal with them. It's our policy to bin them rather than close them and allow the redirect to still be visible in the forum - this may be why you haven't seen anyone other than Mr M closing them, as when we deal with them there is no trace left. This happens over all areas of Study Help, not just Maths, so it's a really massive task for a team of 10 volunteer Support Team members and the CT who have the rest of the site to deal with too. I do regular searches for threads mentioning the 2016 exam series, and all of the SH STs have been rebriefed again recently about what shouldn't be on the site as January is mock exam season.

Apologies that we can't get rid of them all as quickly or thoroughly as we'd like, but we can only do our best with the resources and people we have

Yes this would make sense why I only notice Mr M closing threads.

I do appreciate all your efforts but It would really help lf the Support Team reply to or contact members who are asking for these papers. There are threads that have literally pages and pages of students asking for these papers so it's not surprising when a link eventually appears. Just a reminder in one of these threads to stop asking for the papers would probably be enough.

Going back to the thread topic, this is a big problem with the maths forums that hasn't been mentioned yet. Students will often make accounts just to try to cheat in their mocks by getting e.g. last years paper or a locked mock paper.

I can't count the number of users who have tried to get the locked Edexcel GCSE mock papers over the last few months. I had one student who PMd be nearly every day once they found out I was a teacher. And here's a quote from someone else I got yesterday:

"Don't worry, my friend just found a copy. Now I can cheat and my teacher will have no idea."

Apart from Mr M who does a great job, I don't see anyone else closing threads or deleting links. I don't know if all the maths moderators are aware of the exam papers that are unavailable to students but they really should be. If it keeps going on then I can see TSR gaining a reputation in schools (if it hasn't already) as the place to come to cheat.

The people who are asking for the papers are given posting tips/reminders depending on the situation, and we avoid posting in the threads as this will make a thread entitled 'Summer 2016 maths paper????' appear on the latest discussions tab and any new members seeing that (regardless of whether we had actually posted in it to say it's not ok) would just assume that they could post threads like that too

There is a member who has a post count of 233 and since a few days ago, 100% of her posts were her asking if anyone has a paper that is locked for students. This started last November.

I reported one of her posts and was told that her posts did not breach the guidelines so nothing would be done. I thought there was no point trying after that.

So you can see why I've had to bring this up. If she's been given posting tips / reminders then they haven't worked.

Apart from Mr M who does a great job, I don't see anyone else closing threads or deleting links. I don't know if all the maths moderators are aware of the exam papers that are unavailable to students but they really should be. If it keeps going on then I can see TSR gaining a reputation in schools (if it hasn't already) as the place to come to cheat.

I've been closing and/or reporting these posts and threads a lot recently. It's a pity I wasn't around in the mock season before Christmas though! Most moderators seem happy to take my word for it about whether a paper is secure although occasionally they don't act on my advice and this can be frustrating.

Similarly, once in while, I ask for a maths thread to be moved to F38 from elsewhere and my request is refused. I find this irritating as I am trying to help to get the right things in the right place and I know a thread that ought to be in F38 when I see one.

I'm finding @Gothic Kitten particularly helpful in both regards.

What sort of threads is this happening with? If this happens a lot, you can pass threads onto me and I'll discuss with CT why they should/shouldn't be moved in more depth rather than them potentially slipping through the report system, as mistakes can happen

It happens rarely. I don't know how to pass the thread to you (unless you just want me to quote you in the thread). When you make a report a yay or nay comes back and there is no opportunity to query the decision.

I've been closing and/or reporting these posts and threads a lot recently. It's a pity I wasn't around in the mock season before Christmas though! Most moderators seem happy to take my word for it about whether a paper is secure although occasionally they don't act on my advice and this can be frustrating.

Similarly, once in while, I ask for a maths thread to be moved to F38 from elsewhere and my request is refused. I find this irritating as I am trying to help to get the right things in the right place and I know a thread that ought to be in F38 when I see one.

I'm finding @Gothic Kitten particularly helpful in both regards.

Hi everyone

I just want to say a massive thank you for replying to this thread - the level of detail and ideas for solutions is really outstanding.

The main problems I've picked up on are:


Some of this is projects for the Support Team, some for the Community Team, and some for Dev/Tech. I'm going to have a long chat with my partners in crime @The Learn Ranger and @Gingerbread101 about this and hopefully we can make some changes

Also, I think having specific Maths CAs would be a great idea. If anyone fancies themselves as one, or wants to recommend anyone, please PM or tag me!

did anyone mention about how question pictures are always rotated 90° anticlockwise ? that is annoying.

@Fox Corner or to the point above, for example if you upload an image to imgur it is uploaded right way up no matter how the silly orientation thing happens when you save it on your pc or device. Maybe a feature like that would be useful site-wide.

Also when you attach more than one photo (as I see from time to time in maths) and only the first one is in the post, the ones that follow are just in the attached small thumbnail which is quite inconvenient to flick back and forth.

did anyone mention about how question pictures are always rotated 90° anticlockwise ? that is annoying.

It was. And it is.

Would be good if mods (or the OP) could rotate images, but we can't.
@Fox Corner

@Fox Corner or to the point above, for example if you upload an image to imgur it is uploaded right way up no matter how the silly orientation thing happens when you save it on your pc or device. Maybe a feature like that would be useful site-wide.

Also when you attach more than one photo (as I see from time to time in maths) and only the first one is in the post, the ones that follow are just in the attached small thumbnail which is quite inconvenient to flick back and forth.