Would you report someone you saw cheating in exams?

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'Bell curve' and all that, yes, I do know that grade boundaries are calculated on other people's results. But think about it for a second. How is that one person cheating, out of thousands of students in the country, going to affect your results? And is their 'cheating' actually going to give them an advantage? The girl I noticed spent most of the exam hiding the note from the invigilator. That probably caused more stress than the time she could have spent learning the info in the first place. I doubt she'd have got a good answer down anyway, being that stressed she was going to be caught.

And anyway, you report that one person, you potentially mess up their whole university/college application. No they shouldn't be cheating, but are you seriously going to be the reason that someone doesn't get into university just because you felt you wanted to report it?

A-Level grade boundaries don't follow a normal distribution.

Reply 81

TimmonaPortella

Original post by EllyJelly

What does it matter whether they're getting an advantage? They clearly think they're getting an advantage.

Personally I wouldn't lose a minute's sleep if it messed up their university application. They did it to themselves.

Reply 82

EllyJelly

Original post by TimmonaPortella

Personally I wouldn't lose a minute's sleep if it messed up their university application. They did it to themselves.

Yes, but why do you feel the need to do that? What are you, the results police?

Reply 83

username2130115

Original post by EllyJelly

Yes, but why do you feel the need to do that? What are you, the results police?

yep, if you universalize the "what is 1 person gonna do to the grade boundaries, no point reporting" logic, all the cheaters would get away with cheating and the grade boundaries would be ridiculously high and fair players would not get into university.

Reply 84

TimmonaPortella

Original post by EllyJelly

Yes, but why do you feel the need to do that? What are you, the results police?

I'm someone can do something about it. Why are you so quick to shift the responsibility onto someone else?

If you look out of your window and you see someone burgling your neighbour, do you report it? I assume you do. Why? What are you, the police?

Reply 85

EllyJelly

Original post by TimmonaPortella

If you look out of your window and you see someone burgling your neighbour, do you report it? I assume you do. Why? What are you, the police?

I think someone burgling my neighbour's house is a bit more of a serious issue than someone sneaking a formula into a maths exam, but you know, each to their own

Reply 86

TimmonaPortella

Original post by EllyJelly

I think someone burgling my neighbour's house is a bit more of a serious issue than someone sneaking a formula into a maths exam, but you know, each to their own

Right, so we're not arguing about principle here. We agree that it's proper to take action if you see someone doing something wrong, even where that doesn't damage your personal interests (even though it does in the exam case).

You don't feel bad if you ruin a burglar's life by having them sent to prison, but you do feel bad if you ruin a person's university application by pointing out that they're cheating. I don't see the logic in this distinction.

Reply 87

EllyJelly

Original post by TimmonaPortella

Seriously? Burgling someone's house is going to affect their whole lives... The burglar could steal some really personal things, they could steal really valuable things, they could trash that person's house and mean that they don't feel safe in their own home again for a long time (one of my best friends was burgled, and this is what it does to people, by the way.)

Contrast that with someone sneaking a note into a maths paper. It's not going to ruin anyone else's life, it's not going to really affect you or anyone else at all - that person 'cheating' in that one exam has so little significance to your life. How you can compare that to burgling someone's house is actually a bit laughable.

Reply 88

DylanJ42

some of the cheating methods are so bloody good, a few years ago in a music exam a guy in my class wrote the whole orchestra on the yellow parts of one of these, I was so impressed

Reply 89

TimmonaPortella

Original post by EllyJelly

I think you need to learn how an analogy works, but I don't have the energy to explain it to you right now.

Reply 90

DylanJ42

Original post by Jack Ball

Awww, thanks Dylan.

not you, you would never think of something this clever m8

Reply 91

tazarooni89

Original post by ozzyoscy

if you saw someone murdering someone else and could identify the killer, you wouldn't tell the police. it's wrong and they should be caught, but we have the police for that. And, without wanting to sound arrogant, the murderer has no reason to kill you too, so it's not your problem.

But the police rely on the public to report crimes to them, they're not constantly keeping an eye on everyone to notice when crimes are committed. The same is not true of invigilators; they aren't (or shouldn't be) reliant on other exam candidates to report cheating, because they're all busy writing their own exams.

I would tell the police if I saw someone committing a crime, but I wouldn't feel it's my duty to do anything if I see someone cheating in an exam.

Reply 92

tazarooni89

Original post by RVNmax

Totally opposite for me. Why would you bother with unofficial tests; they would 'only' be cheating themselves. I normally didn't care for these types of tests and just used them to reflect my learning until teachers started using them for other motives such as predicted grades, deciding on the exam entry levels and judging your capabilities before you've had a chance to learn the material. Your last sentence seems pointless, highest marks for what? do you win some money? You and the person themselves knows they are cheating so there is not much other benefit.

Actually yes; in my school, people who collected three distinctions in end of year exams (for getting the highest mark in the class or one of the top 3 marks in the whole year) would actually win money. You'd then spend it on books or similar things which would be presented to you at the founder's day ceremony.

For a proper exam, you are competing. Besides the grade boundary phenomenon that others have mentioned, some recruiters and unis compare candidates' grades with people from the same institution and class to take into account the context in which they were achieved.

I know technically you are competing, but to me personally it would feel like less of a competition. Because when it comes to public exams, my aim was always simply been to get an A* in every subject, which I managed to do. It was never about beating anybody else. And I used to get my grades so comfortably, that reporting someone else cheating or not wouldn't have made a difference between one grade and the next, or getting a uni place or not getting it, for me personally - especially singe hundreds of thousands of people across the country take these exams.

In school exams, where the actual raw marks were published for all students to see, and where you were rewarded not just for getting a number of marks worthy of a certain grade, but for getting more marks than the 20 or so other people in your class, then it felt to me like more direct competition. I'd care not just about how well I did myself, but that I did better than the person next to me.

Reply 93

DougallnDougall

I would have really mixed reactions to this. On one level I'd be 'what a chancer' on another I think I'd never be able to respect that person again. I wouldn't report them because in the first instance it wouldn't affect my paper and secondly I think grassing on someone would make me feel small. I have experienced cheating in the D of E programme. A bit of me was angry and resentful but on the whole I just thought I was able to collect my award with head held high knowing full well I had achieved it not just by following the letter but the spirit of the scheme too. When this other person eventually collects hers, all of us in the 6th will have the same thought in our head and our congratulations may be a bit hollow.

Reply 94

ozzyoscy

Original post by tazarooni89

So the police need help, but invigilators shouldn't? How does that even work?

Cheating in an exam is a crime... do you not get how serious qualifications are? Shoplifters get let off, that doesn't mean it isn't a crime, and that you shouldn't report any theft you may see in future.

So far nothing you've said is consistent. You disagree morally with everything to do with cheating in an exam, expect the actual act of cheating in an exam.

Reply 95

tazarooni89

Original post by ozzyoscy

No, I morally disagree with murder, shop lifting, cheating in an exam (including the act of doing so).

However I think with crimes, it's my civic duty to report them when I see them because that's what the police rely on to find out about crimes. If nobody ever reported crimes to the police, there'd be hardly any point in having police, because they can't practically be expected to have such a presence everywhere to witness all crimes for themselves.

Whereas it's not my duty to report cheating in an exam, because invigilators are not reliant on other exam candidates to find out about it. Other exam candidates are busy writing their own exams to worry about what anyone else is doing. If a person is visibly cheating in an exam, an invigilator should catch him without the need for another candidate to report him, because he's standing right there in the same room, and it's his job to watch everyone to make sure they're not cheating.

All these actions are wrong and people who do them deserve to be caught out and penalised. But whether it's my personal duty or in my personal interest to report them is not the same in each case.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 96

ozzyoscy

Original post by tazarooni89

But they ARE reliant on other candidates, because you can see from all the posts in this thread that people do it. Plus, like the police, the invigilators are only in one place at one time (namely the exam hall or room during the exam), they can't know about any evidence before or after outside of their 'patrol'. Just like police.

If a policeman is standing next to you while an assault is taking place and the policeman sees it and does nothing, you obviously don't waste your time telling him what he already sees. If a policeman is walking about and you see someone stealing something, you tell the police, because they don't see everything.

Reply 97

Alfissti

Absolutely.

Put it this way, both of you are applying for UCL or LSE, the cheater cheated and got himself that A* instead of the A, guess who will be going to UCL? Yup it won't be you because the one who cheated beat you to it.