Il est très rare qu'un étudiant triche déjà...Mais si je voyais un
étudiant entrain de tricher lors d'un examen, je ne dirais rien comme
tout le monde je pense car un étudiant qui se fait attraper sur le fait
prend une peine de 5 ans d'interdiction de passer des examens (permis de
conduire par exemple). Il faut donc réfléchir à deux fois avant de
tricher...

If I understood correctly Henri, you are penalized for cheating on a
test by not being allowed to take tests for five years? This I find
extremely interesting, and quite rash...could you, or anyone at Paris
II, explain a bit more on this topic? What is the protocol that must be
followed in such a case that you are caught? If you can't even take a
driving permit test, I imagine that some sort of record must follow you
for this time period that indicates you were caught doing such an act -
does the law somehow come into play? This is very interesting, since I
know not of any such regulation here in the US that oversees such a
case. Please respond with more information on this topic.

I found it to be very interesting on how French students allow (or don't
care) about classmates cheating on an exam. I don't know about in
France, but in the United States cheating on an exam is an extremely
severe breach of ethics, and as you go up the educational ladder, the
more severe the rules against cheating get. In grammar school, cheating
can get you in light trouble. In high school, it can get you to the
Dean's office, a phone call to your parents, or suspension for a week.
In college, it can get you as far as being expelled from the
institution. And I guess Americans have an attitude of rejection toward
cheating because Americans always champion the achievements of the
INDIVIDUAL; if you succeed, you did so because your individual skills
helped you succeed.

So my question is, why are French students cool about letting classmates
cheat?

Nous sommes aussi cool vis-à-vis des tricheries des autres parcequ'en
fait elles ne nous pénalisent pas. La plupart du temps, il ne s'agit pas
de concours mais d'obtenir une moyenne minimum fixée. A partir du moment
où cette moyenne est obtenue, l'examen est validé, quel que soit le
nombre de personnes qui l'ont déjà aétteinte. Nous ne sommes pas en
compétition dans nos examens, il n'y a pas de nombre de places minimum
où de critère de rapidité.

Je pense que la différence entre les réactions des français et des
américains s'explique par le fait que les français sont condamnés à
avoir de bonnes notes (rapport à l'élitisme), que les cours sont
théoriques et ne demande finalement pas temps de production personnelle
et en découle directement une solidarité efficiente entre les élèves.
Alors qu'aux Etats Unis, le mode de pédagogie est très différent, et
privilégie nettement la production personnelle.

Personnellement, je ne regarde jamais la feuille du voisin, alors je ne
me sens pas coupable... "NON Monsieur, c'est ne pas moi, j'ai juste
démandé l'heure, non, non, je vous jure que je lui ai pas demande la
réponse 4.."

Very interesting responses from the French students. I can try to
hypothesize what's going on in the American side. General American
culture (at least from my point of view, which is the view of a
foreigner) is very individualistic: it centers around the individual,
and not society as a whole. Therefore, everyone just worries about
themselves, and try to do the best they can for themselves. Therefore,
when any American becomes succesful, he/she is very proud of their
achievement and the way they arrived there. So, in a test situation,
when you see someone cheating, you feel like it's not fair because 1)
it's a threat to your own success (they will probably get a higher score
than you), and 2) it defeats the whole sense of individualism.

Moreover, not just in school, but in every situation in life, Americans
tend to be very competitive. Everything is about showing who is "the
best" at anything. And to show who's the best, one must do things alone.
That's why many of us responded "they are only hurting themselves,"
because cheating on a test shows that you don't know the material, and
that you are therefore not fit to have the same level of success I'm
having. Errr... I hope that made sense.

Also, the nature of the tests. Tests in the US are very time-centered,
very conceptually challenging, so that one must concentrate on the
problem at hand. Even if someone wanted to cheat, there is no time to
cheat. Just an interesting off-track question. What do you guys think
about tests with multiple choice questions? Tests in the US (at least in
grammar school and high school, and even to some extent in college) are
FULL of multiple-choice questions.

Like you said, Edgar, when you take an exam here, you have no time to
cheat, so instead you concentrating on writing as much as you could. But
also, i think academic honesty is a big deal. I've taken a few exams
here where the professor walks out of the room, and still no one cheats.
I was on an exchange program in England last year, and there were 10
invigilators (dressed in black gowns) during every exam. They also
checked your calculators to see that you havent stored anything in them,
and your pencil cases etc. I (and all the other American exchange
students) were very intimidated by this. What is taking a test in France
like?

I agree with my American classmates - cheating is a very big deal.
Besides getting in a lot of trouble if you are caught, I would think
cheating would bother my conscience a lot. However, when I see a fellow
classmate cheating, I tend to "look the other way." I'm not exactly sure
why this is, but I think it has to do with a sense of individuality. I
feel that this person makes his/her own choices, and I am not going to
interfere with his/her decisions. I guess what I'm saying is, if it
doesn't affect me, I do nothing about it. I know this is a morally poor
choice, but there it is. It is ironic that Edgar believes we hate
cheaters because of our individualism, yet I do not stop cheaters
because of individualism.

I also find it odd that Edgar pointed out that, if a person is cheating
off of you, they may do better than you. The reason why some Americans,
and maybe the French, don't care or point it out is that they are not,
in fact, going to do better than you. If this person is cheating, then
obviously they do not know the material, and thus do not know nearly as
much as you (assuming that you do know what you're doing, or that you
yourself are not cheating). Overall, this person will not do better in
life than you (which is a real threat to one's individualism) since they
will not be able to understand what they are doing, and prove to be
incompetent. So it can't be that they threaten your individualistic need
to succeed and be better than everyone else, but that you have worked
hard to learn and understand the material, and would not appreciate if
someone got your answers and thus have done no work themselves to
receive a similar grade. Just my point of view...

To Jorge: you're right; I may be wrong in saying that the person
cheating is going to do better than you, but man does my experience tell
me otherwise. It just so happens that in most of my academic experience
the person cheating is cheating off a really smart person (I mean, come
on, if you're going to cheat, DO IT RIGHT).

A question for the French students: don't you think cheating is morally
wrong? In addition to reflecting American individualism, I think our
responses represent America's puritan origins. People are expect to work
hard and be honest. Also, in the workplace in France, is teamwork and
collaboration common? I am just wondering because Gregory mentioned
pedigogical ideologies. My major, at least, emphaisizes teamwork because
they find it is a skill students need to develope to function in industry.