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Is it unethical to memorise and redistribute an exam?

Hi,

First post in a few years, I hope I see familiar faces :smile:

Anyway. In my university, the school uses the same exams in May (finals - 75%) for the next year to sit in Jan (class - 25%).

The good thing is this gives students a realistic expectation of what to anticipate in their finals.

The questionable thing is that often students will memorise the exam and then redistribute it to their peers in the year below... which is clearly a major academic flaw.

I was discussing with my friend whether this act of handing papers down was unethical; everyone in the year below would have access to the papers (so no one would be unfairly disadvantaged), but is it still be unethical? (As students will be bound to get a good chunk of the 25% overall without actually revising).

What are your thoughts?
Indigo.
(edited 5 years ago)

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Reply 1
I think the flaw is with the university, you are just exploiting it. In reality you guys should sell it to the year below, it is something they clearly want and something that you clearly have. I think its more to do with laziness on the universities part not to write a new exam, you are doing nothing wrong here.
Reply 2
Grades are usually distributed like a bell curve (a normal distribution), if the majority of the class cheats the bell curve will be highly skewed to the right. This should be an immediate indicator that there is mass cheating going on or the test is far too easy (common sense level). Most likely it indicates mass cheating. If the university is too lazy to monitor grades, then again, it's their fault.
Reply 3
My thoughts are that it would be... problematic. I don't think every student would want to cheat in this way, but if the exam counts for so much and everyone else can cheat, maybe they would feel pressured to (in order to 'keep up')
What kind of backwater university do you go to?
Original post by indigobluesss
Hi,

First post in a few years, I hope I see familiar faces :smile:

Anyway. In my university, the school uses the same exams in May (finals - 75%) for the next year to sit in Jan (class - 25%).

The good thing is this gives students a realistic expectation of what to anticipate in their finals.

The questionable thing is that often students will memorise the exam and then redistribute it to their peers in the year below... which is clearly a major academic flaw.

I was discussing with my friend whether this act of handing papers down was unethical. Given that 100% of the students in the year below would have access to the class paper before hand (so no one would be unfairly disadvantaged), would it still be unethical? (As students will be bound to get a good chunk of the 25% overall without actually revising.

What are your thoughts?
Indigo.


25% of an actual grad? Wouldnt surprise me if they disciplined such a person for collusion. That advice to sell it to the year below is terrible but lolsome advice.
Reply 6
Getting hold of papers is hard as well, my university wouldn't let you remove papers from the exam hall for this very reason. Taking pictures of papers is not easy as well as you are under exam conditions in exam halls.
Reply 7
Original post by 999tigger
25% of an actual grad? Wouldnt surprise me if they disciplined such a person for collusion. That advice to sell it to the year below is terrible but lolsome advice.


If the uni is lazy enough to reuse exam papers, you have the right to sell it to the year below. They bring it upon themselves. If anything, the person in charge of that module should be sacked for gross negligence and laziness.
Reply 8
If it maximises the good for the largest amount of people involved, then you might be able to crudely justify it.

Of course, I think it's idiotic and defeats the object.
Reply 9
Original post by gjd800
If it maximises the good for the largest amount of people involved, then you might be able to crudely justify it.

Of course, I think it's idiotic and defeats the object.


It defeats the purpose of the exam to separate the more able candidates from the less able. What happens is, everyone gets a 2:1 or 1 from this university and it devalues the degree. Something only has value if less people have it and it's in demand by employers.
Reply 10
Original post by ma_long
It defeats the purpose of the exam to separate the more able candidates from the less able. What happens is, everyone gets a 2:1 or 1 from this university and it devalues the degree. Something only has value if less people have it and it's in demand by employers.


Quite, I have never seen an exam reused in this way before.
Original post by gjd800
Quite, I have never seen an exam reused in this way before.


I know lecturers who did this sort of thing, especially for specialised postgrad modules where the classes are usually smaller. They do it on the assumption there is no way in hell you know the people in the year below you and that you wouldn't suspect such a thing to occur. It is laziness on the lecturer's part to do such a thing. Some lecturers even recycle papers in periods of years. So the paper from 5 years ago, would be your paper now and they would keep recycling them. This is a safer strategy, but still flawed if exam papers leave the exam hall.
Original post by indigobluesss
Hi,

First post in a few years, I hope I see familiar faces :smile:

Anyway. In my university, the school uses the same exams in May (finals - 75%) for the next year to sit in Jan (class - 25%).

The good thing is this gives students a realistic expectation of what to anticipate in their finals.

The questionable thing is that often students will memorise the exam and then redistribute it to their peers in the year below... which is clearly a major academic flaw.

I was discussing with my friend whether this act of handing papers down was unethical. Given that 100% of the students in the year below would have access to the class paper before hand (so no one would be unfairly disadvantaged), would it still be unethical? (As students will be bound to get a good chunk of the 25% overall without actually revising.

What are your thoughts?
Indigo.


My friend does this. It's their fault for making such an exploitable method of assessment. If you want to do well I'd just go with it. Make sure you're learning the concepts you need to anyway though because at the end of the day they are skills you need.
Original post by Elastichedgehog
My friend does this. It's their fault for making such an exploitable method of assessment. If you want to do well I'd just go with it. Make sure you're learning the concepts you need to anyway though because at the end of the day they are skills you need.


The thing is, it's the universities fault, but if they catch you exploiting a loophole created out of their ignorance, they will still try and get you kicked off the course for exam malpractice. So you can exploit it, but don't get caught. The other problem is, if you don't exploit it, someone else will and that will skew the grade boundaries further to the right. You have to cheat, because everyone else is cheating just to be on a level playing field. A bit like doping in the Tour de France.
Original post by ma_long
The thing is, it's the universities fault, but if they catch you exploiting a loophole created out of their ignorance, they will still try and get you kicked off the course for exam malpractice. So you can exploit it, but don't get caught. The other problem is, if you don't exploit it, someone else will and that will skew the grade boundaries further to the right. You have to cheat, because everyone else is cheating just to be on a level playing field. A bit like doping in the Tour de France.


Depends how consistent your marks are I guess. Suddenly jumping up to the mid 90's after scoring consistently below that is bound to look a little suspicious. I guess they've no real way of validating that you're technically cheating. I don't think it's unethical to answer OP's original question though.
Original post by ma_long
If the uni is lazy enough to reuse exam papers, you have the right to sell it to the year below. They bring it upon themselves. If anything, the person in charge of that module should be sacked for gross negligence and laziness.


Ofc you. I can see you trying to argue that in a disciplinary hearing. You are attempting to interfere with university examinations.
OP, you should see what happens in places like India, papers are leaked weeks before the exam. If you don't have the paper, you won't pass since grade boundaries get pushed to the extreme right since everyone basically has the paper.
Woah, I didn't anticipate so many replies~

Original post by ma_long
I think the flaw is with the university, you are just exploiting it. In reality you guys should sell it to the year below, it is something they clearly want and something that you clearly have. I think its more to do with laziness on the universities part not to write a new exam, you are doing nothing wrong here.
Wouldn't exploiting the system even more by profiting from it only exacerbate the situation? I feel like this may go beyond trivial academic dishonesty...

Original post by ma_long
Grades are usually distributed like a bell curve (a normal distribution), if the majority of the class cheats the bell curve will be highly skewed to the right. This should be an immediate indicator that there is mass cheating going on or the test is far too easy (common sense level). Most likely it indicates mass cheating. If the university is too lazy to monitor grades, then again, it's their fault.
I completely agree, this uni is incredibly lazy. Thing is, they are actually AWARE of this. During the christmas exams, one numpty in 5th year brought the past paper (and homemade MARKSCHEME to the exam.... and got caught :s He didn't face any overt admonishment, so we don't know if he faced any repercussions at all

Original post by Sataris
My thoughts are that it would be... problematic. I don't think every student would want to cheat in this way, but if the exam counts for so much and everyone else can cheat, maybe they would feel pressured to (in order to 'keep up':wink:
That's how my friend and I feel currently, it would create an unfair disadvantage if students decided not to cheat :v

Original post by Haviland-Tuf
What kind of backwater university do you go to?
A rather lazy dental school. Perhaps this unscrupulousness serves to highlight the lack of questions they ask (because some of the topics are very... narrow?), but this should not really be an excuse

Original post by 999tigger
25% of an actual grad? Wouldnt surprise me if they disciplined such a person for collusion. That advice to sell it to the year below is terrible but lolsome advice.
Yup, 25% of the year, you only need 40% to pass overall, so really you could get 15% in the finals and be gucci.

Original post by ma_long
Getting hold of papers is hard as well, my university wouldn't let you remove papers from the exam hall for this very reason. Taking pictures of papers is not easy as well as you are under exam conditions in exam halls.
I agree, but we have photographic memory XD

Original post by ma_long
If the uni is lazy enough to reuse exam papers, you have the right to sell it to the year below. They bring it upon themselves. If anything, the person in charge of that module should be sacked for gross negligence and laziness.
not sure that's how liability works....

Original post by gjd800
If it maximises the good for the largest amount of people involved, then you might be able to crudely justify it.

Of course, I think it's idiotic and defeats the object.
I concur

I agree with you, but I think this raises an interesting point on what constitutes cheating. For instance, if I'm simply telling one of my peers how my exam went and say something along the lines "this question was difficult because of this", then are they advantaged for knowing that? When does it become unethical? When it's written down?

Original post by ma_long
It defeats the purpose of the exam to separate the more able candidates from the less able. What happens is, everyone gets a 2:1 or 1 from this university and it devalues the degree. Something only has value if less people have it and it's in demand by employers.

I agree, although to be fair it's still quite difficult to get a 1st, because you need 85% overall.

Original post by Elastichedgehog
My friend does this. It's their fault for making such an exploitable method of assessment. If you want to do well I'd just go with it. Make sure you're learning the concepts you need to anyway though because at the end of the day they are skills you need.

I don't think it's for me, but I see where you're coming from~

Original post by ma_long
OP, you should see what happens in places like India, papers are leaked weeks before the exam. If you don't have the paper, you won't pass since grade boundaries get pushed to the extreme right since everyone basically has the paper.
XD That's terrible. I mean it just completely undermines the value of educational attainment :s
Original post by indigobluesss
Woah, I didn't anticipate so many replies~

Wouldn't exploiting the system even more by profiting from it only exacerbate the situation? I feel like this may go beyond trivial academic dishonesty...

I completely agree, this uni is incredibly lazy. Thing is, they are actually AWARE of this. During the christmas exams, one numpty in 5th year brought the past paper (and homemade MARKSCHEME to the exam.... and got caught :s He didn't face any overt admonishment, so we don't know if he faced any repercussions at all

That's how my friend and I feel currently, it would create an unfair disadvantage if students decided not to cheat :v

A rather lazy dental school. Perhaps this unscrupulousness serves to highlight the lack of questions they ask (because some of the topics are very... narrow?), but this should not really be an excuse

Yup, 25% of the year, you only need 40% to pass overall, so really you could get 15% in the finals and be gucci.

I agree, but we have photographic memory XD

not sure that's how liability works....

I concur

I agree with you, but I think this raises an interesting point on what constitutes cheating. For instance, if I'm simply telling one of my peers how my exam went and say something along the lines "this question was difficult because of this", then are they advantaged for knowing that? When does it become unethical? When it's written down?


I agree, although to be fair it's still quite difficult to get a 1st, because you need 85% overall.


I don't think it's for me, but I see where you're coming from~

XD That's terrible. I mean it just completely undermines the value of educational attainment :s


There aren't many dental schools in the UK, you sure you don't want to name names?
Original post by ma_long
There aren't many dental schools in the UK, you sure you don't want to name names?


Lmao, I don't wonna get in trouble, but nice try~

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