Comment by kls | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kls | Hacker News Reader

I had this happen in one of my classes, when I was in school. The whole class was in shock and fear, as the professor asked what we thought she should do. I was the only one that spoke up and said, well if you truly have evidence you should not be presenting it to us you should be presenting it to the authorities and that the whole thing felt like a shake down. It was the only class I got a C in, but I kept my dignity I know confronting a professor like that was grade suicide but man we as people get bullied enough, I was not about to get shook down for a couple students stupidity if it took place at all. If I where in that course at UCF, I would be raising hell about having to retake the test.

If they are so 100% sure about the offenders, then why does everyone have to retake the exam, why is everyone being punished. Maybe he does not have the data he claims he does. Until they could prove that they do, I would be standing my ground on not retaking the test because I am innocent until proven guilty and if they did prove it they would prove why I as a non-cheater need not retake the test.

You were definitely bold to say such a thing to your professor. I probably would have stood right beside you and said the same thing. I'm currently have a problem in a Stat class. My TA is fresh of the boat, and my professor doesn't want to hear it. But anyway, grades are just another arbitrary number, like a credit score. They ultimately mean nothing in the long run. That's just me though.

I'd show up with the note signed by God just to aggravate him. The main reason why people get desperate and cheat is because they have to maintain a certain GPA for additional financial aid.

Grades are for college, but ethics are for life.

You can never be 100% sure about all the offenders. Even if you can identify all of them, the odds that you won't get any false positives are very slim, and the last thing most teachers want to do is ruin the lives of innocent students.

Your teacher was standing in front of you saying those things, probably because she really didn't know what to do. It's an incredibly difficult position to be in. Even the students that cheated for sure, you don't always want to turn them in. You think, 'maybe I can/should keep this small and avoid ruining their lives- don't people deserve second chances?' Have you ever been cheated on by a s/o? Do you know that feeling of undirectable anger, helplessness and rage with no clear outlet, and the confusion over what you should do next? That's about what it's like.

The teacher used statistical analysis - enough to prove that a lot of students did unrealistically well on this test, but not enough to prove that any one student cheated (after all, even a poor student can decide to start studying or get lucky with the questions.)

The worst thing is that now people who scored high on this test because they learned their asses off -- maybe because their grades have been rather meh so far -- could feel that confessing is the rational thing to do.

That's not how he presented it, he presented it that they have the info to identify each cheater. He said (I am paraphrasing), "The net is tightening and we will catch you". He dared them to try to get away with it. He was shaking them down. My point is, I would call him on it, if they do have the data then they can prove my (hypothetical me) innocence.

If they don't then he is shaking people down, which is not entirely fair. If they don't have the data then the innocent don't deserve to be shook down for a witch hunt. He should just tell the class, we know some of you cheated, we don't have the data to unwind who did and who did not, so it's a do over for all of you. To the ones that did not, I am sorry but you can thank your fellow classmate.

I would be pissed if they came clean and said they can't sort it out, but I would not blame the professor for the actions of others. As it sits, with the claims that they know who the cheater are, I would hold it against the administration for holding me as a non-cheater to account when they claim to have proof that exonerates me.

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