If you saw someone cheat on a test in grad school, would you report them?

cheat detector wrote:

Tonight I took an accounrting exam and one of the students definitely appeared to be cheating. Would you report them?

/

"definitely appeared". In other words, definitely might have.

You need to not snitch

WTF, man wrote:

LaughOutLoud wrote:

cheating on tests in grad school just makes you worse at your profession and can get you kicked out of high school.

Cheating on tests in grad school can get you kicked out of high school. Interesting.

What is your problem? Cheating on tests warps the space time continuum

Sad commentary of how most kids feel today. Essentially that cheating does not warrant the traditional consequences for cheating. Social norms are changing apparently. When I was in school cheating was a serious issue and a very risky endeavor. Not so much anymore.

It is your responsibility to report it in my view, but don't expect the Professor to do anything about it.

I can't understand why people are defending the cheater here. If you cheat you are aware you are taking a risk. If you tell the professor he most likely won't be able to prove it. At worst he will contact the student in question and ask her point blank, and she will most likely deny it. She won't get kicked out of school. But she probably won't cheat again (at least not in that class).

Why would you allow others to cheat? Just like the other poster said about PEDs and Enron.. this is where these people come from. They cheat their whole lives and then they get into a higher position in life and really abuse it.

No shame in reporting someone.

It's hard to find a job these days. What if that cheater gets the last job in your field? Are you willing to be unemployed? But.... You don't really have much proof, just some suspicion. Don't know if it's worth the risk. Maybe you should ask them if they are cheating to be sure.

[quote]NOOOO wrote:

NOOOOO. Do NOT turn them in.

They will most likely be kicked out of school. This could really ruin their life.

quote]

Don't turn them in it may ruin their life??? OP said this was an accounting class. So will you hire this person who cheated her way through school as your personal accountant who potentially/obviously doesn't know the material which will provide her with the skills to do the job...which may be manage your finances? She may ruin YOUR life by losing all of your savings/retirement etc!!!

I may have a bit of a skewed perspective as I am a college professor who has to deal with cheating regularly.

Dr. G

Errrrr 2.0 wrote:

It's hard to find a job these days. What if that cheater gets the last job in your field? Are you willing to be unemployed? But.... You don't really have much proof, just some suspicion. Don't know if it's worth the risk. Maybe you should ask them if they are cheating to be sure.

If somebody is dishonest enough to cheat on an exam, what makes you think that they'd tell the truth, if you asked them? Definitely agree that you should give the prof a heads up. He almost certainly won't do anything about this test, but he'll keep his eyes open next time around, so if the person is really cheating, she'll get what's coming to her.

If you're running a race and the guy who beats you cut the course, you wouldn't say anything? Why, Because you have the satisfaction of having run the full distance? Bullshit

exactly, turn that stupid broad in. cheaters suck. i can't stand them, they lack integrity.

This girl is obviously studying to get into accounting on Wall Street. How are we going to train the next generation of Wall Street kleptocrats if you turn them in while they are practicing for their profession?

I don't think u shd do anything. Its okay to cheat. Everyone does it. No one talks about it. That's all. Cheating is what made this country great. So if you report her, you are being an unpatriotic un-American.

Well, you didn't actually see any cheating, but you should feel free to tell the professor what you did see (pencil writing, ipod, etc...) and let them draw their own conclusions.

Your complaint might not be appreciated by the authorities. These days, dept. chairs and deans get credit for the number of warm bodies they can put into grad classes and they don't want to be put in a position of having to reduce that number.

areusure? wrote:

Don't turn them in it may ruin their life??? OP said this was an accounting class. So will you hire this person who cheated her way through school as your personal accountant who potentially/obviously doesn't know the material which will provide her with the skills to do the job...which may be manage your finances? She may ruin YOUR life by losing all of your savings/retirement etc!!!

I may have a bit of a skewed perspective as I am a college professor who has to deal with cheating regularly.

Dr. G

I was unaware that I would not have access to notes or text books in the real world.

If you are a college professor, I highly suggest allowing books/notes on tests. Otherwise, tests are an exercise in memorization and recitation, not any actual learning. That's my biggest pet peeve in the education system. It rewards memorizing and repeating, not learning and applying.

reallllly? wrote:

you've got to be kidding me. Telling on someone for cheating? how old are you 7? It's not a competition for one degree shes only hurting herself for cheating and if she does get away with it then good for her. She took a risk by cheating and she may very well have found a better way to get a good grade than you did. It's called beating the system and its what life's all about

This is exactly wrong, and the poster is perhaps the world's weakest clitoris.

All of these posters are wrong. Blackmail for sex, get what you can out of it. Then decide if it's worth it to turn her in based on her performance on her oral exams.

snitches get stitches

keep your mouth shut and bury your head in the sand, telling on people solves nothing

and to the alleged importance of whistle-blowers: they aren't listened too until its too late and often suffer the most harm

I'll echo the already-posted sentiments of a few.

I'm not sure how your administration at your school works, but I'm sure it doesn't differ too much from mine. If you tell your prof, he can't do ANYTHING about it - he didn't see anything and if he asks the student if she did cheat, she will deny it at the very least. At worst, she can file an academic complaint saying the accusation "interrupted her academic progress" or some other BS excuse which the Faculty and/or university administration will have to take VERY seriously.

The benefit of telling your professor what you saw or suspect is that he/she can keep an eye out the next time. The prof will more than likely not say anything to the student in question as it will result in either the situation above, or the student won't cheat anymore. What the prof will do, however, is keep a keen eye on that student the next time and try to get other eye witnesses of her future behavior, if possible.

Trust me, having gone through a few academic misconduct proceedings, the set-up is very much in favor of the student unless the prof has TONS of eyewitness accounts in writing. So, you just saying to the prof "this person cheated, I saw them" is kinda useless in the immediate term. She'd have to be really dumb to do it again, but if she does, at least the prof can watch/prepare appropriately for it.

In grad school, I saw someone cheating. Never did anything. It depends.

You can drag yourself into something that could get you in hot water with another student. Besides, if you get them kicked out, what do you think they will do to you?

What if you see them off campus? What if they go to another school, and you two end up working at the same place?