General University tears down signs warning against cheating.

[FireCat]

Plymouth University in Devon installed the signs to warn off cheaters
They illustrated the imposing, red signs with a hand covered in writing
Staff did not realise they featured genuine mathematical formulae
Student claimed he used formulae to answer a final-year maths paper
He said he expects to gain 10 per cent - an entire grade - as a result
University says writing is too small to read - but took posters down anyway

A university has torn down anti-cheating posters from its exam hall after realising they had answers to a maths exam written on them.Officials at Plymouth University installed the signs ahead of the summer exams season – but failed to realise that a stock image of a hand covered in scribbles contained genuine formulae. Students have since claimed that spotting the notes gave them a boost in a final-year maths exam – with one estimating that he will now score 10 per cent higher than he would have without the help.

University tears down signs warning against cheating... after realising they featured ANSWERS to a maths exam

Staff at Plymouth University hoped to warn off cheaters - but ended up inadvertently putting mathematical formulae right in front of their eyes, and didn't notice for days.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Accname]

Funny, nobody really cares if the students cheat at my university.
Of course officially is not allowed, but its not like anybody gives a fuck.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Like my lecturer keeps telling us: "I'm not saying you're not allowed to cheat; just don't get caught."

 

[FireCat]

Like my lecturer keeps telling us: "I'm not saying you're not allowed to cheat; just don't get caught."

But the only person you're cheating > is yourself !! Is that a good thing eh?

 

[Varine]

Funny, nobody really cares if the students cheat at my university.
Of course officially is not allowed, but its not like anybody gives a fuck.

So you end up with a bunch of graduates that don't actually know anything?

 

[Accname]

Exam scores have nothing to do with how much you know.
You can know a lot and still get a bad score if you know the wrong information or you dont know how to reproduce your knowledge, or if the professor is simply a dick.
Or you can score really high but not know anything of importance because the exam itself is flawed.

You wanna get employees who know their shit you better test them yourself.

 

[FireCat]

Well, at least you know "you didn't cheated!"

 

[Varine]

Exam scores have nothing to do with how much you know.
You can know a lot and still get a bad score if you know the wrong information or you dont know how to reproduce your knowledge, or if the professor is simply a dick.
Or you can score really high but not know anything of importance because the exam itself is flawed.

You wanna get employees who know their shit you better test them yourself.

Is exams all your grade is based on?

 

[Accname]

At university? Of course.

 

[Varine]

Here its usually half. I would prefer to come take the exam.

 

[Accname]

What is the other half?

 

[Varine]

Classwork and sometimes homework. Most classes like the languages had a lot of homework and mostly lectures and discussion in class and the exams were less. Our final was like 25% unless you were failing. Then if you passed the final you got the lowest passing grade. Most of my math and design classes had almost no homework and most of the work was expected to be done in class and homework was assigned if you had trouble with it. Then the final was like half the grade.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Classwork and sometimes homework. Most classes like the languages had a lot of homework and mostly lectures and discussion in class and the exams were less. Our final was like 25% unless you were failing. Then if you passed the final you got the lowest passing grade. Most of my math and design classes had almost no homework and most of the work was expected to be done in class and homework was assigned if you had trouble with it. Then the final was like half the grade.

Over here you can skip the final entirely and still pass, if you happened to completely ace all your tests and assignments in class.

 

[Varine]

In some classes you might be able to. The professor has some level of control in how they grade, but individual schools will have their own requirements as well as some government regulations.

 

[Accname]

Interesting.
We do have class work and homework sometimes (depending on the prof and the lecture) but the exam is 100% of your final score and all the other work is only there for exercise.

 

[Varine]

I would prefer that system, but I see why it can be flawed (judging someone's knowledge of the subject in a single exam in a potentially stressful environment with the obvious factors of one's individual life problems and so on is not the perfect system). What I think would be ideal is how my Russian professor did it (she's the only one so far) where if you passed the exam you automatically got a passing grade for the class. If you did poorly on the exam, but well throughout the rest of the course, you could still pass since. You wouldn't get a good grade necessarily, but 75 percent got you through to the next course. I think I should have gotten a better grade personally (I did awesome on the final, but only had like fifteen percent attendance or some shit so failed all classwork. I was one of the highest in the class on the final, should have at least gotten a B). Had some issues with math too, did all the work in the first week, stopped going, failed.

 

[Accname]

The problem with grading your course work is that you are probably not working alone but rather together with others in groups.
So its less about grading your own skills but more about how good your friends are.

 

[Varine]

In which case that is your own problem. You also forget that we pay to go to school here. And we pay a lot. For most people, that is a discouragement to cheating on those things. Not always, but I don't think it's a major issue, I mean it's school. You can go to Harvard and come away with nothing if you don't put in some level of effort when necessary, and you can go to the community college near my town (trust me it's terrible. I had to use a computer with a CRT monitor in the library there a little bit ago) and come away with quite a bit if you put in the work necessary to get there.

But even then, beyond a few sciences subjects, most things would be better studied and worked on in group settings. What's better, sitting at home reading the history book and answering my homework based on what I just read, or being with a group of people who are also familiar with what I just read and capable of expressing opinions and rationales that I did not come to? That would obviously allow for a more significant and deeper understanding of the concepts at hand as well as potentially differing viewpoints regarding whatever it is you're working on. Even in sciences it provides new ways to think about and handle complex problems and situations in different ways.

Plus, we still do have exams and it'll be obvious as fuck you don't know what you're doing when you get all of the questions wrong.

 

[KaerfNomekop]

Honestly I can't see being graded 100% on a single paper as a good system. It just encourages people to cram for a short time then forget everything afterwards, rather than having to learn and relearn continuously until they actually internalise the information.

 

[Slapshot136]

Most of my classes are like 80% tests/exams and then there rest is like homework/participation/attendance - basically just enough to have people show up for class on a semi-regular basis

that said, for like math/science courses we are usually allowed to bring in an index card or similar with formulas, since memorizing formulas isn't really useful, and not what we should be graded on