You see a student next to you cheating on an exam.

Vous voyez un étudiant à côté de vous qui triche lors d'un examen.

Again, say or do nothing. Move your own paper but don't bother about the student. If they pass this exam from cheating, they may not pass the next. They will learn their lesson in due time.

Confront the student after the exam.

Disapprove in my mind but do nothing.

Essentially they are only cheating themselves, so I would hope that one day they get their due but I wouldn't rat them out.

Finish my exam and stop staring. Consult the TA after the exam.

I ignore it.

I ignore the cheating and pretend like nothing happened.

I move my paper furthest possible away from the person cheating and cover it, so at least they aren’t stealing my answers. And let it go. It will catch up on them one day.

I will mind my own business - in reality people cheat, and few things can be done about that.

I would be angry and hope the student did poorly on the exam anyway.

I would be annoyed, but wouldn't say anything as I know this action will eventually catch up with the student.

I would cover my paper so he/she didn't cheat off me as well.

I would ignore him or her, it's not my problem.

I would not do anything during the exam except make it impossible to cheat off of my paper. I know I should do something, but I probably would not tell on them.

I would probably be angry, would try to catch the person's glance.

I would speak up about it.

I would think that some people have no integrity.

I would think they are dishonest but not report it

I'd ignore it, unless they're cheating off mine, and then I'd cover mine up better.

Ignore it.

It is only hurting them. If they wish to cheat, it is not my place to tattle.

Not sure. Would not say anything though, I think

nothing.

Try to make eye contact to make him/her stop, if not, report.

Ca dépend de l'importance de l'examen

il fait ce qu'il veut.

Je fais rien. Je m'occupe de mon examen

Je l'ignore.

je me sens fière de ne pas tricher

je ne dis rien mais je n'en pense pas moins

je ne fais rien de particulier

je ne fais rien, je baisse ma tête et je continue à faire mon examen

Je trouve cela ridicule, surtout s'il risque l'exclusion.

Je vais rien faire mais j'espère que le prof va le voir.

pas discret !, faut que je lui apprenne

rien, c´est son problème

tant pis pour lui, ce n'est pas moi que ça dessert...

Discussion

En general, les francais feraient rien (sauf deux exceptions ponctuelles). Parmi les americains, il y a pas mal de reponses qui ne veulent rien dire, c'est-a-dire, on ne repond pas vraiment a la question posee et on se limite a donner ce qu'on pense a ce moment-la.
Il y a peu de reponses qui expriment une reaction passive ("je ne ferais rien") et il y a un certain nombre de reponses qui indiquent une attitude plus active.
Ces reactions m'etonnent parce que c'est normalement chez les francais qu'on trouve des reponses qui essayent d'entourer la question, alors que les americains donnet normalement des reponses plus directes.

I agree with David that overall, the French responses generally converged around not doing anything, whereas the American responses seemed to indicate an inclination to act in this situation. I also noticed that sometimes even when American students said they would not do anything, they still indicated that they would be angered or annoyed by the actions of their peer's dishonesty. I agree that this is one situation in which the Americans seemed to have a very direct and frank response to the question at hand. I do think the responses might be slightly skewed from the general American perspective, however, considering that we are students at MIT and have worked extremely hard to get where we are--in general, we didn't get here by cheating and thus we probably don't really appreciate those who do try to get ahead in that manner. I have the feeling that if the general American public was polled about this issue, there would be many more passive responses.

I agree with both of you in that, although the attitude towards it was similar, the French responses were much more like not doing anything, whereas the American responses demonstrated annoyance. I do agree with you, Elizabeth, that especially those in high school for example, the responses would be more passive. The other noticable quality is many of the Americans saw telling on the cheater as tattling. Do the French have the same idea about it?

Pour Elizabeth. Même si les américains trouvent ça genant, ceci ne veut pas dire qu'il n'y ait que les américains qui éprouvent ce sentiment... En effet, j'ai vu pas mal d'étudiants tricher lors d'un examen et, même si je ne ferais absolument rien, je peux avouer que ça me gene enormément de voir comment quelqu'un peut avoir des résultats similaires aux miens alors qu'il n'a quère préparé l'épreuve.
Pour Renee. D'abord je dois m'excuser devant mes camarades français pour répondre à cette question, car je ne suis pas français. Je vais répondre quand même. Moi, je ne trouve les actions passives devant cette situation ni mal ni bien. Simplement je ne fais rien parce qu'en Espagne c'est un comportement plus proche des enfants ou des adolescents, pas d'un universitaire. On a la tendance à penser que si cette personne réussit un examen en trichant il ne réussira certainement pas la prochaine fois.

It seems to me that the difference between French and American responses, where Americans seem to be more likely to do something about someone cheating near them, is due to the level of concern with others. It seems the French stick more to a "live and let live" philosophy: whereas if the cheating is not hurting them personally, they won't do anything about it, as it is almost like it is not their business. Americans create much more hype about the situation, making it almost seem that they are tragic victims in this cheating situation, and that the perpetrator must be stopped. In my opinion, the optimal response lies somewhere between these two responses. It's not that nothing should be done (as in the general respones of the French), but at the same time, a huge deal should not be made of it. Perhaps confronting the cheater afterward would be a good solution. This applies, of course, mostly to the case of a test where competition is not a factor; if it were, then the more extreme American response would likely be emulated by the French as well, and is expected. A question to the forum: how many people have experienced this situation while at Ecole Polytechnique or MIT?

I would like to add that in Greece, the responses to such a situation would be very similar to that of the French students. I think there are two reasons for which (maybe the Europeans in general, or at least the French) they responded to this question the way they did. First there is a greater sense of companionship between students, meaning that they act more in a group "against the teachers". I remember how impressed I was when during my first year at MIT, I was having a test in a class with 5 more people and the professor suddenly left the classroom and came back after 20 minutes. Of course, no one tried anything! That would have never happened in my high school in Greece.
The second reason I believe has to do a lot with the fact that no one wants to be "person to tell on someone else".

Another (minor) reason for the actions seen on the American side is that some classes at MIT are graded on some type of curve. In that case, cheating can affect everyone. So the "it's none of my business" attitude is a bit weaker than it might be if other students were included.

I found it really interesting that most French students would do nothing in this case. Many American students wouldn't say anything to the professor, but would usually talk to the person or to a friend, or at the very least be annoyed. Maybe it has something the do with the importance of the tests. When I went to school in Germany for a week this summer, everyone, even the best students, cheated. You pretty much had to do so to get along, and each test was so important that you really could not afford to do badly. Do you think this is why French students would not say anything, or do you think it is just because the idea of turning someone in is repulsive?

As Monique pointed out, one of the main reasons why you see that Americans are more likely to act is due to the curve grading that is established in most classes in MIT. But, I found it interesting that one response on the french side was that it depended on the test. Does this refer to tests that are affected by the results of other students like curved tests and college entrance exams, or does it refer to something else?

Pour répondre à la dernière question de Gleb, je n'ai jamais vecu cette expérience à l'X. Par contre, je l'ai vecue à Madrid et je peux dire que, lors d'un examen en Espagne, j'avais trop de problèmes sur ma copie pour être collé à ce que les autres faisaient.
Par rapport à ce que vous dites sur les contrôles dont les notes sont armonisées, normalement le classement est en fonction de différentes épreuves, ce qui fait qu'un élève qui essaye de tricher pendant tous les examens pour avoir un bon classement ait une probabilité non négligeable d'être sanctionné, voire exclu.
Pour répondre à la question de Rachel, je ne trouve pas ce comportement répulsif. Tout le monde a le droit d'agir comme ça. En fait, ce qui est vraiment répulsif c'est le fait de tricher. Mais je ne fairai rien d'abord parce que ça ne va pas changer mes résultats (sauf dans le cas d'un contrôle classant, mais c'est un cas déjà expliqué) et ensuite parce qu'une telle situation ne mérite aucune minute de mon temps.
De toute façon, je trouve très intéressantes toutes vos réponses et j'aimerais vous poser une question: supposons que vous décider d'agir soit en parlant avec l'élève à la fin du contrôle, soit en parlant avec un prof. Qu'est-ce que vous diriez et comment vous pourriez argumenter votre position par rapport à l'élève qui a triché?

Je suis etonnee par la remarque sur l'Allemagne, pour nous les Allemands sont plutot reputes pour etre tres serieux et pas du tout tricheurs. Sinon je suis certaine que le comportement depend enormement du type d'examen : si c'est un examen classant, je pense que les francais interviendront parce que la, ca peut leur nuire. Par contre, si ce n'est pas classant, on n'interviendra pas, et on prendra l'attitude "cela ne me reegarde pas!". Je trouve que c'est une remarque qui se generalise assez facilement pour beaucoup de commentaires : les francais ont plutot tendance a rester discret et a preferer ne pas se faire remarquer que les Americains. Qu'en pensez-vous?

Tout a fait d'accord avec la derniere phrase de Helene. Mais, par exemple, je ne peux pas dire pareil pour les allemands. Je pense que les tricheurs se trouvent un peu presque partout.

J'ai une question plus generale: si les Americains parlent plus direct ce qu'ils pensent, est-ce parce qu'ils sont plus 'naifs' que les Francais, ou les europeens? Cela m'interesse car c'est comme le theme des romans de Henry James.

David- I thought your perspective on it was very interesting. I feel that a lot of people even in America sometimes think that, especially because at one point it will most probably catch up with the person. For Helene-I think your comment about the classifying examinations was definitely an important one. I think also the points you make are very valid because often, there is that tendency not to tell on cheaters. What do you view this reason as being?

Cheng, interpreting 'naifs' to mean naive, I would argue that it depends on the perspective with which you regard the assertion. My intuitive answer is yes, Americans are more naive. I expecially sense this naivety upon hearing experiences of others in foreign countries, and even my own experiences traveling with my family. As it relates to cheating, however, I think Americans are not so naive, as immature, persay. I think there is a tendency for individuals to hit one of two extremes: to exaggerate what is cheating, or to underestimate the cheating value of a certain behavior. For example, responses to the questionnaires show that Americans are more likely to react to someone cheating off them, but may not feel so bad about copying or allowing to be copied their own homework. I've seen this problem in high school, where even the "best" students occasionally copy homework to keep up with deadlines. Here at MIT, it's almost as frequent; though here the tests are weighted much more heavily and copying problem sets doesn't necessary help an individual very much.