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

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

Advise the professor in private after the exam is finished.

clear my throat, and hide my test from his view.

cover your exam.

curse in a different language

I don't care.

I hope he or she gets the right answer, having done all this work to not get caught. Why should it bother me that someone else is cheating? In fact, and at the risk of sounding completely selfish, I could care less what others do or do not do.

I may ask TA to deal with the situation.

I would hope they do poorly.

I would let it happen.

I would think less of the student, but I would say nothing (either to them or to the instructor).

I wouldn't do anything at the moment. After the exam, I might confront him.

Leave her alone.

Not do anything, they are cheating themselves.

Nothing.

That is not ok, cheating on an exam is unfair to other students, the teacher and the cheater by misrepresenting the knowledge and success of everyone involved. Depending on situation I would probably want to complain anonymously.

à la fin de l'épreuve, je lui dis que cela ne se fait pas

c'est son problème, pas le mien

Ce n'est pas mon affaire.

J'essaye de rester concentrée sur ma copie.

Je cache ma feuille.

Je continue de travailler sur ma copie.

Je m'en moque. Je ne vais pas le dénoncer au prof.

Je ne dis rien mais je pense qu'il est ridicule.

Je ne dis rien, il sait ce qu'il risque.

je ne fais rien

je suis écoeuré car je travaille dur et je ne supporte pas la triche; je fais du bruit pour que le surveillant remarque quelque chose

je vais voir le directeur à la fin

tant pis pour lui, il n'ira pas loin de toutes façons

Discussion

Je remarque dans les réponses que les étudiants français comme les étudiants américains, "cache leur copie" ou alors "sont énervés" mais pourquoi ne voulons-nous pas dénnoncer celui qui triche?

A mon avis dénoncer quelqu'un qui triche c'est un comportement qu'on associe au comportement d'enfant, ça ne parait pas très sérieux pour un adulte. Mais autrement ça va dépendre aussi des conditions de l'examen. Par exemple, si c'est un examen-concours où le nombre de place est limité, le candidat dénoncera peut-être celui qui triche car son futur est en question. Mais si c'est un examen de fin d'année, par exemple, qui se passe en classe où tout le monde se connaît, je ne pense pas qu'à la fin d'heure on ira dénoncer au prof notre camarade qui a triché. Qu'en pensez-vous?

Je suis d'accord avec toi, la personne qui triche finira par en subir les conséquences ! En France les conséquences sont lourdes, il me semble que nous ne pouvons pas repasser d'examen avant 5 ans comme le permis de conduire par exemple c'est peut être aussi un facteur qui nous dissuade de dénnoncer nos camarades.

Quels sont les conséquences si quelqu'un triche à un examen au Etats-Unis?

Je suis d'accord avec Alexandra: si c'est un concours, c'est très différent, car les places sont cheres; à la fac, c'est plus du contrôle de routine, alors on laissera peut-être tomber.

Et puis, dénoncer, c'est prendre le rôle du délateur, et c'est très mal vu; peut-être que cela remonte à la guerre où les collaborateurs dénonçaient les résistants et les juifs?

The consequences for cheating on an exam in the US are different depending on situations, from receiving a zero to being suspended or expelled.  For the SAT I believe scores are just cancelled, there is definitely no 5 year waiting period!

 

I am very against cheating, but my response if I saw someone cheating would probably vary depending on the seriousness of the exam, as Alexandra said.  I believe it is the duty of the professor not the other students to prevent cheating.

 

"Tattling" on a cheating student may be a childish behavior, but I also believe that cheating itself is a childish behavior - if you have not done your work and cant be successful on the test honestly, then you deserve to face the consequences.

I also found that the responses were very similar. The most common response seemed to be something along the line of "I don't care". I feel like cheating isn't always "childish behaviour". There are times when you don't have time to study for an exam and will have time to learn the material before, say, the next test. Also, some people just freeze during exams and have trouble answering. I feel like the consequences of cheating are generally that you don't understand the material and don't benefit from the class. So if someone cheats but still understands the material from the class in the end and gets the same out of it that someone who didn't cheat on that one question on that one test, then being penalized harshly for that one thing isn't really warranted.

This must be a universal problem because the responses are very similar between the French and American students. I wonder if students in France or students in America have more incentive to cheat though. Thoughts?

Charlotte,

Usually, universities treat cheating very seriously. Depending on the incident, the student caught cheating might be given a failing grade, have a violation against their student record or even be expelled from the university. Most of the time, our exams are graded "on a curve" so if someone falsely increases their grade, it can hurt other students' grades. 

I completely disagree - if you did not spend enough time studying for a test then what gives you the right to bend the rules and take an advantage that others, who did manage their time properly, dont have ? If you have test-taking issues it is your responsibility to work through them.  If you will truly learn the material by the next test, then do so and get a great, well-deserved grade then, dont steal one now.

Thinking you can cheat 'just once' is a slippery slope. I dont think that cheating once on an exam is the worst thing a person could do but I do think that it should still be punished. Where did all of these corrupt and hypocritical politicians that we constantly complain about get their start?

I agree with Kirrah.  "Freezing up" on exams does not mean that it's ok to cheat.  In my opinion though, the act of cheating isn't so much unfair to the other students as it is to yourself.  I seriously doubt that one person cheating on an exam is going to skew the curve enough to appreciably affect other peoples' grades.  However, when people cheat, it's generally a sign that they don't have confidence in their ability to do well.  Then, when they go through with cheating, I would think that this insecurity would just be solidified, and, as Kirrah said, from there it's a slippery slope.

I also thought that in general, it seemed like the French answers were almost exclusively something like "je ne fais rien", while on the American side, there were a few more in which the person said they would confront the cheater.  Did other people notice this as well?

Sophie Weber

Oct 20, 2011

Sophie,

je crois que les eneux sont plus important pour vous que pour nous; ce que vous appelez "curve" n'existe pas vraiment pour nous, et ce n'est pas important pour nous d'^tre dans le milieu du classement; on voit bien a vos réactions que s'est important pour vous!

Je ne suis pas d'accord avec Claire, je pense que pour nous aussi, le classement est important, mais je ne suis pas sure de bien comprendre le mot "curve" et "skew curves", pouvez-vous m'expliquer?

"Curve" just means that the grades are detemined by the average or the median of everybody else's grade. It works well if there is a normal distribution of grades, but not so well when the grades are skewed. 

MIT treats cheating very seriously. Once a student gets two warnings, he/she is suspended from the institute. 

I think fair grading is important and students at MIT do try to catch cheaters. I know a grader for a class who got fired because he used to give higher grades (by not checking solutions properly) and his students complained to the professor.

Je ne suis pas d'accord avec Claire !

Nous sommes en IUT et je trouve qu'il est important de se démarquer dans la promo pour pouvoir avoir des écoles préstigieuses par la suite, il est donc important d'être dans le haut du classement.

Et si nous prenons l'exemple de la fac de médecine il faut avoir le meilleur classement possible afin d'avoir sa première année et il y'a beaucoup d'autres exemples comme celui-ci je pense donc que tu as réagis uniquement par rapport à l'IUT et pas en pensant aux autre étudiant (de médecine notamment).

engage