Being isolated in college and injustice exam

[warthdog]

Hi,
I study in Asia. I am isolated by the physics society in my college. Its because i go out of the lecture room immediately to library to study. I eat alone all over my college life. No friends at all.
Sad thing is the physics society keep the pastpaper secret and not let me take a look. This term the professor of stat.mech is so lazy that he copied the 2008 pastpaper to make it an exam paper.
The worse thing is the members of physics society knew! They were so happy and smile wickly after the exam.One of them said to another,"the same as 2008". So i believe nearly all of them get full marks(they just recite the solution). Although i study hard i cannot get full mark so i got a D in this course(because i am in the bottom).
I always got C/D in physics courses though i study hard. Now i seriously believe that those professors are coping pastpaper in other physics course as well, and the members of the society hugely benefit from this. As all but one(me) of the 2012' physics class students get those pastpaper and solution, i am in a very dangerous position.

Although i just got 1 and a half yr left, i want to take action now! Actually, i ask them for the pastpaper after knowing their "secret", but they refuse. I beg them and even offer money but they still refuse in afraid of i will expose this secret. I swear i will not but they still refuse.

What can i do?? I hate what they do but to get good grade i have to get those pastpaper! But its too late as they regard me as a lone wolf for 2 years already and they don't trust me anymore.

 

[hikaru1221]

Hi,
I'm not expert in handling these kinds of situation, though the same thing happens very *frequently* and is nearly *the norm* in my country. Anyway, a bit to share:

1. Forget the fact that going to library everyday helps. That is, your studying method is just ineffective. I mean it. It doesn't make sense when on one hand, you go to library everyday studying and on the other hand, you never complete and get full marks in any exam. Keep that old attitude in mind that everything is just unfair, and you get to nowhere.
The reason I say so is that assuming the exams are repeated, then the patterns in the teaching, the books used, etc must also be repeated. Those patterns cannot come from anywhere else other than what is provided. Try looking up problems similar to the exams in the books in the library. If you find something out, you know you missed something.

2. Try to approach someone and make acquaintance. Don't ask for the *taboo*; instead, ask for things like studying experience. You listen or not, that doesn't matter, as long as that person WANTS to talk to you. Express as if you listen, as if you don't understand and you need help from that person, not from the library (but don't try to be not understanding all the times; people are not very patient to strangers). Typically in the environment where exams are repeated, the content of the exams frames one's knowledge and understanding. So you may get a hint of what you will see in the exam.

3. Try approaching seniors or professors or academic counselors, or anyone who has been through / knows pretty well the situation in your college but is now already out of the shoe.

Anyway, I believe attitude is the first thing to change, though it will be quite negative in the sense of integrity, but it's better to get adapted to the real world now or it will be too late, as you have realized.

 

[warthdog]

thanks for the reply.
However, i talked to nearly every people in class to ask for the pastpapers, even those girls, but they refuse and now they stayed away from me. They walked away whenever i approached them. To add little more detail, my look is quite ugly, my voice is with some defect, and i thought people are scared of me. This is also why i always go to library to study myself because they don't want to be with me.
If i keep asking i think the situation will be worse, i don't know what they will do to me. I always want to be a scientist but this dream disappeared because of my poor grade.
Also as i have no idea what the questions style is because i cannot get the pastpaper, i do not know what reference i should look. I just read the textbook and notes but the questions just different from the practice questions in the textbook and have not been mentioned in notes at all. Like in stat.mech, we need to write an essay about fermi energy level but when others have pastpaper to copy, i don't and i write with the memory of textbook and notes and end up only scoring 70% while others scoring 100%.

I ask the professors as well but they also refuse to give me the pastpaper. They said physics is about understanding not reciting. They said they don't want student to recite pastpaper! But actually everyone but me is reciting! Should i tell the professors the truth? Should i tell them the physics society have the pastpapers and everyone is reciting?

If i keep UNDERSTANDING physics i can at most get 70% in essay(maybe better in numerical), while others keep getting 100%. And i will end up with C/D in every courses.

 

[Pengwuino]

Yes, report them to the department. Having a shoddy department makes everyone look bad.

 

[Ashuron]

70% for D..?
phew..seems your department very competitive..

 

[Vanadium 50]

There is reason to believe that things are not exactly as described in the first post.