We thought it would be a good way to study and get an idea of what kinds of questions to expect. Of course, on the copy, the corrections had been made so we knew what the right answers were.
When we went to take the test, we found to our surprise that IT WAS THE SAME TEST – EXACTLY.
I wonder if the right thing to do would have been to go up to the professor and explain what had happened and ask him to give us a new test (yes, I know it wasn’t very smart of him to had out this years test with no changes from the one from two years ago).
So, did I cheat? Was I unethical?
Answers:
This happened to me for my final, final at college. A friend of mine, and I, decided to meet early in the morning to go over any subject matter that we may have overlooked. I arrived early at the exam site. I had be studying deligently during the previous week. While I was sitting there studying and waiting for my friend, the custodian parked her cleanup cart next to me. On the bottom of the cart was a stack of paper. I looked at one of the papers and realized that it covered the subject matter, upon which I could be tested. So, using my notes and my textbook, I answered all the questions. When my friend arrived, I gave him a copy of the questions and suggested that this seemed to be good study material. Using his notes and textbook, he answered all the questions. When the exam was handed out to us, we realized we had studied from the actual text, and we looked up at each other with amazement. Sure, we both made perfect scores, and being honorable, we were in the same dylemia as you are. Since we had studied so hard, and since we had no idea that we had been studying from the test, we concluded that we had done no wrong, and that professor should have been more careful.
If you feel that you must speak with your professor, thank him for the study notes, and ask him if he meant to give you the answers from the test. If he didn't mean to give you the test, offer to retest. You did what you were supposed to do. You studied.
it depends on how you look at it...the professor may think its cheating, but other people may think its just luck b/c you didn't know it was going to be the exact same test. personally, i think its just luck so you didnt cheat
I don't think what you did was unethical--you didn't know that the test would be the exact same test. I guess the proper thing to do would have been to tell the instructor afterwards, but I'm not sure if you should run that risk. If you somehow get in trouble for cheating, you can either be expelled from your university or have a label attached to your transcript saying that you were involved in cheating. This could hurt your prospects with future employers. So you were kind of stuck on this situation.
From your explanation I don't think you set out to cheat, but once you took the test knowing you knew the answers yes I think you cheated and yes it was unethical. What can be done now I don't know.
What you did is not unethical. You didn't know it would be the same test. Using old tests is a great way to study. It probably needs brought up to the professor (after you are done with his class and gotten your grades...just in case) that he might want to look into chaning the test up a little bit each year. If you knew it was the same test that would be cheating and very unethical but without knowledge that it was the same test then it is not unethical.
I think the determination lies completely with how you obtained the test. If you had stolen it from your teacher's office, that would be a different story. Since the teacher handed the graded tests back, he was completely aware of the possibility that the tests could get passed around and shared with future students. Obviously your teacher did not care otherwise he would have made changes to the test or made students return them. I had several professors in college that kept our tests and required us to visit their office to view our graded copy. Additionally, you still studied and had to learn the answers, so unless you had a cheat sheet and just mindlessly copied the answers, you did not cheat.
No, you were simply preparing for a test. First of all, you didnt know that you were looking at the exact questions. Secondly, Even if you prepared from any other source, you would have ran accross many other similar questions.
Yeah thats basically the professor's own laziness. I wouldn't be too worried about cheating.
Did you look at the answers while taking the test? Or did you remember the right answers from the studying you did? As you didn't do the former, I wouldn't consider it cheating. You knew the matterial because you studied, not because you had the same test. That you had the same test was not known to you, nor did you intend to obtain the copy of that year's test. I think your intentions were in the right place and it just happened to be a coincidence.
It depends how you look at it.
I don't think it was "cheating" because you looked at the old test to get an idea what types of questions were on it. It's not that you memorized all of the answers. You knew how to do the problems, right?
I would say you were not cheating. Your professor was lazy. It never is a good policy to reuse exam questions.
In college we were told to look up old questions in the library to practice. It is one of the best ways to get good. It is logical not unethical.
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