Job Discussion Forums

donb2222 · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 134

It seems as though most students in China cheat.

What do you do if you catch only one or two cheating during a test ?

What do you do if it becomes obvious while you are scoring the test that most of the students cheated ?

The Ever-changing Cleric · Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 1523

i had this problem the first time i gave an exam in china back in 2004. it was a relatively easy multiple choice and many cheated, and i couldnt stop it.

next time i gave an exam, i prepared three exams: A, B, and C. All exams were marked at the top as being either Exam A, B or C. none of the students noticed that part. so i handed out the exam papers, and every third student had the same exam. they all continued to cheat as they had before. most of them couldnt figure out how they failed until i pointed it out after the fact.

the students i have now have been pretty honest, on exams and in marking their own homework. however last year, one student in one of my classes was caught cheating on the final exam, not caught by me, but by the chinese teacher that was supervising the exam. this students paper was graded as 0. i dont know what happened after that however.

donb2222 · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 134

Good suggestion ECC.

I am also curious to know what others do when they catch students in the act of cheating.

Some stories of students caught cheating and their methods of cheating could also be fun or interesting.

tommchone · Joined: 27 Oct 2009 Posts: 108

I tell them that their grade is based primarily on their classroom work; "instructor's assessment". The final exam is a short conversation with each student, different questions about their personal lives. I take note of pronunciation, verb tenses, sentence structure. Impossible to cheat.

mat chen · Joined: 01 Nov 2009 Posts: 494 Location: xiangtan hunan

I try to encourage them to go into politics or buisness. But seriously the cure is to ask them to evaluate each other. Then they will come to you and complain about the cheating

The Ever-changing Cleric · Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 1523

tommchone · Joined: 27 Oct 2009 Posts: 108

Good point, but I give them assigned seating at the beginning of each term and I call roll every day and look at them and have them answer to their name. By the time the semester ends, I have all their faces and where they sit etched indelibly in my mind. Then I take them outside the classroom one by one and interrogate them. This works very well for up to 45 students in a class.

chinatwin88 · Joined: 31 Aug 2009 Posts: 379 Location: Peking

Actually, I do the same as the A,B or C test but they are identical except for the order the answers are offered. If they cheat by simply looking at another�s paper for a letter to indicate the answer, they will be cheatin off a paper without the same order for the answers.
When it requires a written answer, the order or the objective of the questions are altered or even changed. They are aware of such trickery on my part and realize it changes each time with newer and improved Red herring ways to �tickbag� the xam cheater.

cmknight · Joined: 29 Apr 2004 Posts: 38

It's been my experience that cheaters are not really discouraged. One student I know got caught cheating and his uni fined him 1000 yuan, then gave him the minimum passing grade (60). He cheated a second time and they doubled the fine.

In one of High Schools I was at, the students were allowed to take one paper of notes into the exam with them, so they would copy their entire notebook onto a single piece of paper, in writing so small you needed a magnifying glass to read it.

Dan The Chainsawman · Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 302 Location: Yinchuan

Not sure what I would do about it. On the one hand it is a bit of a slap in the face of the teacher, but on the other hand if the school can't be arsed to do much about it why should I get worked up over it?

At the very minimum though the ABC style of different tests is probably what I would start doing immediately upon hire to keep things from getting to far out of hand.

The Ever-changing Cleric · Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 1523

Dan The Chainsawman · Joined: 04 May 2005 Posts: 302 Location: Yinchuan

"Teachah.... Must pass!!!! OMG!!!! MUST PASS!!! Pleassssee lemme pass??"

Yall ever get any of this from your students?

tommchone · Joined: 27 Oct 2009 Posts: 108

"I need the money!" (This is when they're trying to tell you that you will ruin their chances for their scholarship. Right.)

Ariadne · Joined: 16 Jul 2004 Posts: 960

Not about cheating, but along the same lines.. Handed back the midterm exams and a gal who failed by one point didn't want to take the retake I'm offering next week. She wanted me to give her a point and she would 'give it back from the final exam'. Funny.

.

mat chen · Joined: 01 Nov 2009 Posts: 494 Location: xiangtan hunan

It's not about cheating here but about working together to learn. Students spend the whole day in the same classes with the same people. They are working together as a group. They are expected to help each other. There are Chinese teachers who get upset and yell and scream at the cheaters because it is their job to find the top students and to sent them on to the top schools or find the worst students to send them on to the third tier schools.
I have done the same thing in Korea where I would put out the same test in three different versions and have all the students with their hands in the air telling me I made a mistake. But isn't this more work for the teacher? What I do now is give them role plays to do that we practiced during the term and then ask them to evaluate each other. And then I get them complaining about the cheating. I laugh under my breath.
I keep records of all my students with their problems and strengths so grading is a daily thing for me. English grading should be ABC instead of a numerical evaluation. It is an art that should be taught as something to be enjoyed.
DON'T TAKE YOUR JOB SO SERIOUS.