I used my older sibling’s test to study and now my friends are calling me a chea
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I confess that I read quickly and missed that you have continued to study from your brother’s old tests after learning that the teacher always uses the same test. You need to talk to your parents and this teacher. The teacher probably won’t send you to the principal, because this is really that teacher’s fault. Now s/he knows to stop being so lazy and make up a new test each year. A 5 or 6 year cycle is fine, because if you study half a dozen old tests, you’ve studied 100% of the course material.
Your parents aren’t going to have all that much to say to you, since they’re the ones who encouraged you to cheat. And yes, after the innocent first time, it was cheating.
Also, 100% certain one of your friends will rat you out before the end of the school year. You even gave a copy of the test to a girl you aren’t really friends with.
This is the problem with lazy teachers: they bring the whole system down. If they use the same test over and over, everyone assumes every one else is cheating. That’s certainly what we non-Greeks assumed about the Greeks. It became corrosive enough that past exams had to be submitted to the library.
If I were you, I would stop talking about it and stop using old tests to “study.” At this point, you know you could be getting the same test from the teacher, so it’s really not studying, but cheating.
This isn’t cool: “When I ask them how I’m cheating they say it’s because I looked at the answers/test before everyone else and I understand that but I should be able to still use the test (it’s literally my property).”
Yeaaahhh, they’re right. The first time, you didn’t know, but now that you do, you’re cheating. Literally, yes, you own the tests, but ethically what you’re doing isn’t right and your friends know it or they’d take you up on your offer.
Study the books so you actually learn the material instead of memorizing the answers to a test.
I can’t blame you because I’d do the same thing (but never had the opportunity). I mean really all non-essay tests are is ensuring you can regurgitate learned information correctly and that’s exactly what you’re doing but you really should have kept your mouth shut. Now your best bet is to get ahead of your friends inevitably telling on you by talking to your parents and approaching the school together.
The first time you used an old test to study, you get a pass. You didn’t know, and that’s a pretty common study technique, when I think of all my AP classes to prep for the test, the tests of the last few years.
HOWEVER now that you know the teacher is reuses tests, you know you are looking up the exact answers before the test. That’s intentional and it is cheating.
The teacher should know better, but now you’re the one in the wrong here.
And I think you need to say something.
Ideally you would’ve said something right after the first test. I think if you had done that you wouldn’t have been in danger of getting in trouble because you didn’t do anything wrong.
But now you’ve got yourself in a bit of a pickle because you decided to continue to cheat once you figured out it was possible.
You should assume this will eventually be found out – you say you trust your friends but you don’t know. Somebody may get pissed at you for some reason. Or you don’t know that they may have already told someone you are less friendly with. Plus, being honest is the right thing to do.
I think you should tell your parents, and you should work with them to approach your teacher together. As others have mentioned, the amount of trouble you get will likely be less if you are the one being honest and upfront. If you’re found out (and again you probably will be because how long can teenagers keep their mouths shut?), it’ll be worse than if you give yourself up.
This is a good life skill, and will serve you in the future. I work in consulting, I have clients. Sometimes things go wrong, and I have to tell them a mistake was made. They may never find out, but if they do, that’s basically the end of their trust in me and I don’t get their business anymore.
It’s always busy to admit a mistake before they realize it (and fix it). That shows you have their back and are honest with them, and usually you keep that business.
You won’t always be a student, the consequences for cheating and covering it up will get much worse, so start practicing doing the right thing now.
I don’t think it’s cheating. Every student who has ever taken a test in that class has access to those tests. Their contents are basically public knowledge and as she noted, her own personal property. If the teacher wants to keep using tests that dozens and dozens of students have brought home, it’s on him.
That being said, academic institutions are crazily punitive and could conceivably blame her for their own incompetence, so I would agree that it would be better for her to follow the advice of the posters here and go to the school explaining the situation. There is also the risk that you will rob yourself of actual substantive mastery of the material because you are getting the questions in advance.
The suggestion of having your parents accompany you to meet with your teacher is better than my idea of you meeting with both the teacher and the principal. Do that.
Thanks to everyone that responded. I really do appreciate the honesty. Some people have suggested that I go talk to the teacher with my parents. The only time that I ever brought this up to my parents was one time in the car to my mom and she kinda just laughed and said something like, “don’t depend on it.” They wouldn’t be mad at me if I explained the whole situation but my teacher may get mad. It’s not even halfway until the end of the school year so I don’t wanna mess things up and fail the class or get my teacher upset. So how do I approach my teacher? What should I say?
And this hasn’t really been addressed by anyone but what do I do about my friends that have called me a cheater? I think their right so I’m not gonna deny it or anything so how do I handle it next time they call me a cheater? Thanks again for all the responses.
I don’t think anyone’s addressed your friends calling you a cheater because a.) you are and b.) it’s hardly your problem in grand scheme. How about, shocking, asking the to stop.
I think if you and your parents talk to your teacher that there is a good chance s/he changes her test procedures and doesn’t send you to principal. To send you to the principal is to admit that s/he is the problem due to laziness and unprofessionalism. A situation was created whereby any student with a sib or older friend who was a prior student of this teacher has a copy of the tests. That can’t possibly be fair. A new semester exam is the only fair solution. If your parents push for that, I’m not sure what else teacher can honestly do. This solution likely also satisfies your friends. And yes, when you used your brother’s test papers after the first exam you must have known you were cheating. The ‘the paper was my property’ is a totally illogical excuse unfit for an honor’s student.
P.S. Doesn’t it bother you at least a little that your parents see you as the less intelligent child who can only get by in the classes her brother succeeded in by using his retained test papers to gain an advantage by cheating? If they had more faith in your ability, they wouldn’t have come up with this particular scheme.
Oh, I don’t know if that’ true, that she’s seen as the less intelligent child. She’s just the younger one; perhaps if the ages were reversed they’d be saving her papers for him. Like I said, there’s a lot of value in studying previous assignments and tests. Even if you can’t copy them verbatim, its a good way to understand the sorts of concepts that will be covered. If they could give him the same resources, perhaps they would.
I also don’t think they’re giving her tacit approval to cheat. They probably also assumed the teacher wouldn’t reuse tests word for word. Teacher’s shouldn’t leave things unchanged year to year.
