- #1
TheCanadian
- 367
- 13
I am currently enrolled in an upper level Physics course and our prof has seemingly used the EXACT same midterm from each of the past two years. Now some of the students knew this would be likely, while others had no idea. (The class is only 15 people.) The midterm was only a few questions long and all of them could be found from one of the textbooks we reference, but the students who knew about this professor literally memorized solutions to these specific 3 problems since they knew which ones it would be.
Now besides me disliking that some of my peers had a very unfair advantage over others in the class, I don't plan on reporting them since I think it was the professor's fault for using the exact same exam from previous years. The students who did this were simply making the best of the information they had, and they didn't do anything wrong per se...although it seems like borderline academic dishonesty to me. With that being said, I do plan on at least hinting to the prof to at least change up the final exam so that everyone is back on fair ground again in the future. If you have any advice on how to approach my professor and mention this fact to them to ensure the final is different from previous years and/or reweigh the midterm, that would be greatly appreciated!
Just some more things to add: the midterm was quite tricky and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few fails. Unfortunately, with such a small class, the people who did poorly may not get adjusted accordingly. Secondly, I am also wary that I will be put in a bad position by bringing this up. That is, I may be put on the spot to identify the people who I know did memorize answers, otherwise I'll be punished for something I never did. Maybe I'm just paranoid, and I do plan on just feigning ignorance and saying I heard this in passing, but any advice you have to make sure future assessments are fair and that students are not punished for the instructor's laziness would be greatly appreciated.
Now besides me disliking that some of my peers had a very unfair advantage over others in the class, I don't plan on reporting them since I think it was the professor's fault for using the exact same exam from previous years. The students who did this were simply making the best of the information they had, and they didn't do anything wrong per se...although it seems like borderline academic dishonesty to me. With that being said, I do plan on at least hinting to the prof to at least change up the final exam so that everyone is back on fair ground again in the future. If you have any advice on how to approach my professor and mention this fact to them to ensure the final is different from previous years and/or reweigh the midterm, that would be greatly appreciated!
Just some more things to add: the midterm was quite tricky and I wouldn't be surprised to see a few fails. Unfortunately, with such a small class, the people who did poorly may not get adjusted accordingly. Secondly, I am also wary that I will be put in a bad position by bringing this up. That is, I may be put on the spot to identify the people who I know did memorize answers, otherwise I'll be punished for something I never did. Maybe I'm just paranoid, and I do plan on just feigning ignorance and saying I heard this in passing, but any advice you have to make sure future assessments are fair and that students are not punished for the instructor's laziness would be greatly appreciated.