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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Honor System for tests
Message-ID: <5393@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 19-Oct-84 13:28:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.5393
Posted: Fri Oct 19 13:28:46 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Oct-84 07:47:18 EDT
References: <1970@stolaf.UUCP> <1681@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 24

Regarding cheating: It's been a while since I was in school, so this may be
an old and completed discussion for most of you, but I just thought of it
while reading the "honor system" discussion.

It is my understanding that many test situations in the sciences allow the
students to use calculators during the test. If you are so allowed, and
the test is to see if you had memorized or knew certain formulae or
principles, what is to keep someone from using one of those little
alphanumeric memory calculators/pocket computers to store the formulae?

You couldn't tell from looking at what they were doing if they were just
punching in numbers and reading off results, or if they were recalling
text containing information and therefore cheating.

Anybody have any knowledge of this possibility actually being used?

(And an aside: an old story about tests. For an open-book type of test
in an engineering school, the professor had announced that the students
could use, during the test, "anything they could carry into the room
with them". One student arrived carrying a graduate student on his shoulders...)

Will Martin

USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin     or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA