Comments on: 7 College Cheating Scandals

By: Steelheadfan

Steelheadfan — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:47:25 +0000

re: Sarah in Ca

You may spell well, but your grammar needs help. “Alot” is actually two words, i.e. “A lot”. Hope your biceps aren’t sore from patting yourself on the back!

By: Chris E

Chris E — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:29:56 +0000

I wrote papers of hire for exchange students at a Florida university for several years. When a student thought he could stiff me on my fee for a paper he had already turned in, I let him in to the little caveat that by circling the first letters of the words in the opening paragraph my whole name could be spelt out for all to see.

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:38:35 +0000

We had a huge scandal last year at the school where I teach. A student used a teacher’s keys to finish something for yearbook (with permission), then used those keys to get into the guidance counselor’s office (without permission) where the AP tests were kept. The student was the president of the student council, so he knew where the guidance counselor kept her keys and broke into the cabinet where the AP tests were kept, then stole several tests. He apparently felt terrible remorse after the fact, and was going to return the tests, but his mother cleaned his room in the meantime and threw them away… It was a really big deal, the College Board came and did an investigation, and there was a point where they told us it was a possibility that ALL of the scores from our school would be invalidated, parents were in an uproar. Eventually the College Board told us that since the school acted appropriately and quickly, and the student came forward of his own free will, they would allow the other students to keep their scores. (the school had to buy a safe and put a few measures in place to prevent it from happening again)The student, though, had his SAT and AP scores all invalidated, and the university he had been accepted to revoked their letter of acceptance. We (the school) allowed him to graduate, but stripped him of all titles (he had been valedictorian). As my mother always said: “cheaters never win.”

By: Lynley

Lynley — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:07:43 +0000

When I was teaching English 101 when I was in grad school, I had a student who turned in a paper on Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” that was about a B-level paper – until I got to the conclusion, which was spot-on. It just didn’t flow with the rest of the paper. So I typed a sentence from the conclusion directly into Google and found the girl’s paper from which he’d lifted the paragraph (it was posted on her personal school website). His excuse? “I was drunk.” Nice, kid. Good luck pulling up that 0.

By: CapitalCat

CapitalCat — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:17:09 +0000

@Sarah
Some teachers require students to hand in rough drafts of work handwritten with the final product produced on computer. Thus the kids get to retain the knowledge of facts and spelling while still able to submit clean copy.

By: Yams

Yams — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:33:23 +0000

You get suspicious of a high school student using the word “apocalyptic”?

Also, Sarah, what’s worse: writing down a word that’s spelled incorrectly and not having it corrected, or typing it and the computer automatically correct it for you so you can see how it’s properly spelled? It’s not like people stare at the keyboard and are totally oblivious to their words being changed on the screen.

By: Jon.

Jon. — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:18:40 +0000

@anaximander – My wife, who is a college instructor, does exactly the opposite. The cover page of all her exams says that there are three different versions of the test, so don’t bother trying to cheat. Of course, there is only one version – much less work for her!

By: izzi

izzi — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:47:04 +0000

I apologize for nitpicking, but some people are concerned about their children using spell check – perhaps you may want to use it yourself.

alot is not correct. A LOT is the correct spelling.

Sorry but this has always been a pet peeve of mine.

By: P. Esh

P. Esh — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:03:44 +0000

I don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but turnitin.com stops people from cheating on essays. You upload it on to their site, an it lets you and the teacher know how much was plagiarized.

By: Sara in Al

Sara in Al — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:52:48 +0000

My English/Lit teacher in the 9th, eleventh, and twelfth grades always said “I’d rather get an honest “F’ than a dishonest ‘A’.”