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I think it's perfectly fair for the prof to catch students who are cheating this way.

how would they have performed if they tried to cheat but didn't find the poisoned answers? would they have had to come up with answers on their own? suppose they cheated for 10% of the answers but had to give honest effort on the remaining 90% and just made the cut?

i don't think it's very clear cut or obviously perfectly fair.

> how would they have performed if they tried to cheat but didn't find the poisoned answers?

I don't think this matters. Cheating was against the rules and a cheater demonstrates a failure to adhere to a social contract and voluntarily waives their right to be assessed the same with those who did follow the rules. At least there are avenues for a cheater to have another attempt, even if they have to move to another institution.

Their hypothetical score is irrelevant, as they will be receiving a zero due to cheating. In your hypothetical scenario they are still cheating, in which case their improved score would also become a zero.

no, because it was undetectable they were cheating, so their grade could have been passing.

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