Is it normal for professors to allow cheat-sheets in tests?

[Eclair_de_XII]

In some classes that I have taken in university, it's become sort of a common practice for instructors to allow students to create cheat-sheets that they can refer to while taking tests. They claim that the process of creating this cheat-sheet will allow students to help remember what they must in order to pass the test in question, even if they don't use it at all when taking the test. Some of the classmates I have had classes where this is allowed have made cheat-sheets containing entire solutions to homework problems, even. Although he/she discourages it because it will make it harder for students to find what they are looking for while taking the test, the instructor still allows it. And I wonder to myself why they are so lax when allowing students this privilege. Is my school not really serious about learning? Do my instructors expect the students to cheat anyway, which is why they want to supervise said "cheating"? Or maybe is this a new-generation college trend? Is it just my professors who have done this?

 

[nuuskur]

In some of our courses, we were allowed to write some formulae on an A5 (handwritten, not a printout) - the rule was that no words were allowed, just arrays of symbols. It was allowed, because there is a lot of material and we are discouraged to cram everything (not that it's useful, anyway).

 

[Rive]

Is it just my professors who have done this?

No. There are exams about lexical knowledge and there are about understanding and application. For the former, cheat sheets are usually forbidden everywhere. For the letter type of exams, cheat sheets are just making it more realistic - in real life you will always has a pile of books and the internet at hand, yet many people still can't use them properly to produce valuable results.

From the side of the instructors, it takes more work and care to set up exams where cheat sheets can't make a point. My humble opinion is that it worth it.

 

[SchroedingersLion]

Half of my courses here in Germany allowed cheat sheets, handwritten A4 on both sides. And this is good practice, as physics is not about remembering formulas but deriving them, understanding them and using them appropriately.
It usually means that you won't have any advantage in the examination, because the latter does not lean on remembering stuff.
There also was that math course where students were even allowed to bring an entire book into the exam. Everyone was happy at first, but it just meant that the exam would be harder.

 

[Borek]

Some of the classmates I have had classes where this is allowed have made cheat-sheets containing entire solutions to homework problems, even.

And what kind of advantage does it give if they are asked a different question?

 

[Orodruin]

I had a professor that allowed ”anything but devices enabling communication with others”.

It depends on what you are testing. I don’t want to test my students’ capability if remembering constants and exact expressions, I want to know if they understand what they mean and if they can properly apply that understanding.

Creating an aid sheet (it is by definition not a cheat sheet if it is allowed) can also be a very useful learning aid. If you want to negate that by just cramming in solutions to problems that is your perogative, but it is likely not the best idea neither from a learning perspective nor from a passing the exam perspective. In the end, university students are adults and responsible for their own learning (although there may be some cases where you can start doubting that).

I essentially always allow an A4 aid sheet with anything written. You will never encounter a situation in real life where you have to know the exact form of the Laplace operator in spherical coordinates.

 

[symbolipoint]

Note-card or formula sheet was often allowed and sometimes professors would supply a formula and reference sheet for the students during a test. I would wonder about how legitimate is the student also including examples of already-worked problems on them as Eclair_de_XII said.

 

[Orodruin]

Note-card or formula sheet was often allowed and sometimes professors would supply a formula and reference sheet for the students during a test. I would wonder about how legitimate is the student also including examples of already-worked problems on them as Eclair_de_XII said.

If the student is able to understand and solve a problem based on seeing the solution to a similar problem, I cannot see why that would take anything away from the student’s understanding of the subject. I have a hard time seeing how a course would involve so few possible problems that putting a sheet-worth of solutions would give a high probability to get the exact same problem on the exam. On the contrary, I think students putting solutions are doing thenselves a disfavor because it is a tradeoff with what else you can fit. It also becomes utterly clear whether students understand if they are trying but failing to adapt a solution to a similar problem.

 

[Orodruin]

Is my school not really serious about learning? Do my instructors expect the students to cheat anyway, which is why they want to supervise said "cheating"? Or maybe is this a new-generation college trend? Is it just my professors who have done this?

I realized I just rambled on, but I think it is worth it to supply the TLDR version of my answers:

• I don’t know about your university apart from what you said, but this practice is certainly positive for being considered serious about learning. The question is if the students are as serious if they do not understand how to use the opportunity properly.
• No. Instructors do not expect students to cheat, but are aware of the possibility. If an aid sheet is allowed, it is by definition not cheating to bring it.
• It has existed for quite some time and is a useful learning aid to students who are smart enough to do it properly and not half-baked.
• No.

 

[DrClaude]

I don’t want to test my students’ capability if remembering constants and exact expressions, I want to know if they understand what they mean and if they can properly apply that understanding.

This.

I used to allow an A4 cheat sheet (btw @Orodruin, this is the colloquial way to say it in American English, even if it not technically "cheating"), but stopped because we have lots of exchange students from China, who could cram more text on their sheet, and felt it wasn't fair. Instead, I give a sheet with most equations found in the textbook, and eave it up to them to figure out which one is relevant for a given problem.

Some exams can be open-book, where you are allowed any help material, but these tend to be much harder than regular exams, because the questions can't be trivial (not something you can find just by looking it up in the textbook). As a teacher, I don't like them because there are some things I want the students to know without having to look it up.

 

[Orodruin]

btw @Orodruin, this is the colloquial way to say it in American English, even if it not technically "cheating"

I know, I am questioning this nomenclature.
The Swedish equivalent would be "fusklapp", which is essentially the same.

 

[Eclair_de_XII]

I hadn't realized that these sheets of paper that we're allowed are widely used, encouraged sometimes, and are actually beneficial towards the learning process, depending of course, on how they are used. The whole reason this topic was made was because I had been instructed to make these sheets of paper for tests (mostly for probability/statistics courses) for the past two years I have been in the university, and was worrying that my school didn't think enough of its students to succeed without them.

And what kind of advantage does it give if they are asked a different question?

I don't know what my classmates think when they do this. For myself, I'm usually too lazy to do anything other than write down formulae that I know I will need and formulae that I will likely forget while taking the test.

 

[Orodruin]

For myself, I'm usually too lazy to do anything other than write down formulae that I know I will need and formulae that I will likely forget while taking the test.

A very common (and good) method is to start your sheet as soon as you start solving problems in your course. Whenever you find yourself looking up something in some reference, write it down. At the end, you might want to reorganize your sheet to give it a more logical order, but that should be relatively easy and give you yet another quick course overview.

 

[Windadct]

We had one insanely smart guy in our EE program, a punk rocker, but that is a whole other issue... anyway he had this incredibly neat handwriting, and like pt 8 size... we paid him good money to have him copy his sheets...

 

[Orodruin]

We had one insanely smart guy in our EE program, a punk rocker, but that is a whole other issue... anyway he had this incredibly neat handwriting, and like pt 8 size... we paid him good money to have him copy his sheets...

Actually, I would say that this was probably a waste of money. Sure, if you are going to be lazy about it it is better than nothing, but you all lost out on a learning opportunity that would have helped you organize your knowledge resulting in a better exam result. In addition, it is not really the amount of information you can fit that is important. An A4 is typically sufficient to fit the really important stuff unless you really need references like tables of different material properties (and if you do need that examiners will typically either allow standardized tables or provide the necessary information). Too much information also means more difficulty in finding what you are looking for.

 

[EngWiPy]

Yes some professors have done it before in some classes. Usually one notebook page both side is allowed to write down the equations and formulas. The exam should not be a memory test.

 

[phinds]

I hadn't realized that these sheets of paper that we're allowed are widely used, encouraged sometimes, and are actually beneficial towards the learning process, depending of course, on how they are used...

Yes. There are, as has already been noted, some areas of learning where it is not beneficial in the long run for a student to have access to a cheat sheet, but in many there are. Life is an open book quiz.

 

[OCR]

...in real life you will always has a pile of books and the internet at hand, yet many people still can't use them properly to produce valuable results.

When I went through A&P school, one of my instructors said... "You don't necessarily have to memorize everything, but make sure you learn and remember where and how to find everything" ... I really liked the guy, he's dead now... he was a very wise man. .

The "everything" he was referring to are these... . . .

The FARs are divided into tens of thousands of separate sections, many of which have large numbers of researchers using them on any given day.

Federal Aviation Regulations

Oh, and speaking of cheating, I've always found this. (YouTube. ). video... interesting, I guess ?

.

 

[ZapperZ]

In some classes that I have taken in university, it's become sort of a common practice for instructors to allow students to create cheat-sheets that they can refer to while taking tests. They claim that the process of creating this cheat-sheet will allow students to help remember what they must in order to pass the test in question, even if they don't use it at all when taking the test. Some of the classmates I have had classes where this is allowed have made cheat-sheets containing entire solutions to homework problems, even. Although he/she discourages it because it will make it harder for students to find what they are looking for while taking the test, the instructor still allows it. And I wonder to myself why they are so lax when allowing students this privilege. Is my school not really serious about learning? Do my instructors expect the students to cheat anyway, which is why they want to supervise said "cheating"? Or maybe is this a new-generation college trend? Is it just my professors who have done this?

And in some cases, the professor will say that it is an open-book exam, where all your notes, textbooks, completed homework, quizzes, previous tests, etc.. can be brought in for the exam.

There is nothing new or "trendy" about any of these. I had such similar situations way back when I was in college in the 1980's, and I continue to see the same thing.

Zz.

 

[StatGuy2000]

Allowing for cheat-sheets or open-book exams has always been up to the discretion of the professors or instructors in various colleges/universities. I think the rationale for allowing cheat-sheets or open-book exams is that instead of focusing on rote memorization of formulae, allowing for cheat-sheets or open-book will allow the instructor to ask questions which focus on broader problem-solving.

Consequently, I've often found that courses where cheat-sheets were allowed for exams (or allowed for open-book exams) tended to be more challenging, and thus required better understanding of the material.