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xi.gua · Joined: 15 Jul 2010 Posts: 170

I know this topic has been talked about time and time again. But I just received some interesting news at my university. A number of students have been caught cheating on the examination. The number I heard was 18. My school is threatening them with expulsion or a permanent black dot on their record depending on the extent to which they were cheating.

When I heard this I felt pretty happy to hear the school taking a big stance on this. Word seems to have traveled pretty far that students are getting kicked out and it should in theory stop students from cheating so much. Obviously you can't catch everyone but the fact that they aren't passing students along says something to me. This comes minutes after handing in the final grades for my class when I did actually fail some kids this year. So I don't think their grades will get changed.

Do you guys have similar experiences? I don't have as much experience as a lot of the guys here, so from your XP, what would come from students who do get expelled? Other chances at different universities? Will it hinder them getting a job?

The Great Wall of Whiner · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 4946 Location: Blabbing

Not a personal experience, but a big 'KUDOS!' to the administration at your University.

keeperofpythons · Joined: 28 Jan 2010 Posts: 152 Location: zhu san jiao

I echo those kudos.

As far as I know, they don't change the grades at my University. However, they do ask me to give a second final exam to those who failed the class (even if it's hopeless). Last semester I did my best to resist, but decided to give in before my bi-yearly temper detonation kicked in. I made it fair, and they all still failed.

What I did this time is that two weeks before the exam (for writing classes and history classes), I essentially gave them three topics and said that the final exam will be on one of those. In theory, this greatly reduces the number of topics that they must study for. The week before the exam, I gave a soap box lecture about plagiarism, cheating, etc. I also printed out a piece of paper for everyone with their name in pinyin, hanzi, and student number. If they did not sign it, they could not take my final exam. Seriously, last semester some people pleaded with me and told me with a straight face that they did not know cheating was wrong. So, I devised this simplistic approach. The University did not ask for second final exams this time and I received a raise for my next contract. At this rate, if you can't pass the first final exam when you all but know what it will exactly be about, how could you pass a second when you go into the classroom without knowing squat?

Anyways, I digress. I hope this trend starts to catch fire. Some of these kids will invariably go abroad, get nabbed, maybe lose their student visa, and then have the longest flight home of their entire lives with the worst possible case of loss of mianzi.

tr_waters · Joined: 18 Nov 2010 Posts: 14 Location: Jinan, Shandong

Kiwi303 · Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 11:50 am Post subject: Re: Cheating on Exams

xi.gua · Joined: 15 Jul 2010 Posts: 170

flyingscotsman · Joined: 24 Mar 2010 Posts: 339 Location: Suzhou, China

I was proctoring an exam a week ago with a Chinese teacher. I went to the toilet and came back a few minutes later. Noticed the student sitting in the front had no paper and I asked him where it was. He replied with a dumb look. I saw the student behind him had his paper and was copying. The Chinese teacher looked up laughed and went back to playing qq on her phone.

I didn't care either.... To tell you the truth.

TexasHighway · Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Posts: 779

Your school administration certainly appears to be the exception to the rule. At every school I've taught at, the administration officials are appalled if I attempt to fail a student. And when I do, they send the students back to me for a re-test.

Flyingscotsman wrote:

Banner41 · Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 656 Location: Shanghai

I caught two students cheating on my exams and promptly took their papers and ripped them up in front of the class. They were pretty shocked. The Chinese teacher in the room told me that they dare not do that because they would be fired. I really don't care.....fire me. The students will probably get a pass from admin but my integrity is in tact.

Lot's of respect for any schools who actually follow through with failing kids for cheating. Wonder if it is China's big new push for intellectual property protection. It starts here. Companies are starting to get apprehensive about building stuff here if they know it's just going to get ripped off. I see all of the new ads on CCTV promoting this. Could just be lip service but I welcome it.

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

Non Sequitur · Joined: 23 May 2010 Posts: 4724 Location: China

This is why I don't work in anything other than oral English. I just don't want to buy in to fights I can't win.
If I do a written test ie vocab recall after a conversational section on say families, it is always multiple choice and minimum two students to collaborate on the answers.
This way you build 'cheating' into the process.
A bit of humour in the test doesn't hurt. For example my multi choice on families includes the final question.
'What do you call my sister's mother's son?'
Circle one:
'Mickey Mouse' 'Me' 'Stupid' 'Brother'
When you hear the kids shouting 'Stupid' or 'Hey Mickey Mouse' you know they've picked up something and often there are very small returns on what we teach.

Banner41 · Joined: 04 Jan 2011 Posts: 656 Location: Shanghai