Manual for Cheaters
What to do if you are caught cheating
in my classes
Introduction
• I love to teach. The best part of teaching is
when I can help people to develop skills that
will give them a better life.
• The only part of my job that I really hate is
dealing with the people that I catch cheating.
Unfortunately, I catch cheaters every
semester.
Definitions of Cheating
• Any thing you do that tries to take credit for work
done by someone else.
• Reusing the same work for more than one class.
• Using any resource not permitted by the instructor
during an exam.
• Any communication with an another person during a
test.
• Multiple persons turning in the same assignment on
an individual assignment.
NJIT Policy
• New Jersey Institute of Technology has an honor code,
available on their web site at
http://www.njit.edu/academics/honorcode.php.
• Note that the honor code indicates four levels of severity
for offenses.
• I support the honor code, and attempt to follow it,
sometimes at great personal expense. In one case, I had
to delay summer employment for three weeks to gather
evidence and cooperate with the honor court.
My Policy
• I will always refer serious cases of premeditated
cheating to the honor court. Serious cases (level 1
and 2) include bringing notes into an exam that are
intended to be disguised.
• For lesser severity cheating, I will apply the same
sanctions that are in the honor code, usually the least
severe sanction, getting a zero grade on the exam or
assignment. Any time I do this the student may ask
to be judged by the honor court instead, and I will
grant that request.
What I will not do.
• I will not condone or excuse cheating, or let
the student make up the exam or assignment.
• I cannot excuse cheating without becoming a
cheat myself, because that would cheat the
University, honest students and alumni.
Cheating the University
• The most precious asset of any school is its
reputation. Students want to attend schools with a
good reputation and employers want to hire
graduates of those schools. Any toleration of
cheating harms the school.
• NJIT hired me to provide a good education for its
students, not to damage the reputation of the
University. Do not ask me to betray the school by
condoning cheating.
Cheating other students
• It is not fair to honest students to give
dishonest students the same grade that they
get. The job market is competitive, and
employers want to hire the best qualified
employees. I will not make it difficult for
potential employers to identify well prepared
students by tolerating people who cheat.
Cheating alumni
• You only attend school for a few years, but for
the rest of your life you are associated with a
school from which you have received a
degree. The reputation of that school will
either create or destroy many opportunities
for you. I am a graduate of NJIT, and the
reputation of the school has given me much.
I intend to protect that reputation.
Cheating Yourself
• Actually, the person harmed most by cheating is the
person doing the cheating. If you get credit for
knowing something you do not know, you are setting
yourself up for greater failure later on when that
knowledge is required for a later course or on the job.
• It is far better to have to repeat a course or even
change majors or professions than it is to devote a
substantial part of your life preparing for something at
which you can only fail because you do not have the
background to succeed.
Risky behavior
• Cheating in my classes is very risky. I have had far
more experience than most professors, over 100
courses at fourteen different colleges and universities
in two countries in eight different degree programs. I
have seen a lot of cheating by fellow students.
• Also, I have taught long enough to see a lot of
cheating. I catch cheaters every semester. I often
have honest students complain about people in the
class cheating, so I learn about new ways to cheat,
and am aware when cheating occurs.
Dead Giveaways
• There are items in tests that tell me immediately
that students have cheated:
• Isolated facts: “… 31 percent of…”
• Identical unusual words or phrases on more
than one exam.
• Writing in a style that is not appropriate for an
exam or for a person not writing in their native
language.
Futility of Cheating
• I have seen many cases in which students
who had a good idea of the right answer put
down the wrong answer because they were
cheating.
• Two special categories of especially
dangerous cheating are bringing “crib sheets”
into the exam and copying from someone
else.
Dangers of copying
• People tend to cheat because they think they don’t know the
answers. Often that means they don’t recognize a bad
answer. School is competitive, and good students don’t like
cheating because it reduces their advantage. So you are
usually copying from someone who doesn’t know anymore
than you do.
• I had one case where three people who shared answers
during a test got over half of the questions wrong. Not only
were the answers wrong, they were obviously the same!
The “Cheating Zone”
• People who plan to cheat often try to sit as far from the
professor as possible. That means they tend to sit together.
You should assume that your fellow cheaters are sitting
where they are because they don’t know any more than you
do. So it is dangerous to rely on them!
• Note: People who sit in the front of a class tend to get better
grades. They see better, hear better, and tend to be less
distracted by talking neighbors and people checking their
email or doing other things during class.
Drunk under the lamp post
• A man was walking down the street when he saw a drunk
crawling on his hands and knees under a lamp post. Trying to
be helpful, he asked; “What are you doing?” “Looking for my
house key,” was the answer. He also looked but couldn’t find
the key. He asked; “Are you sure you lost it here?” The reply
was; “No, I lost it over there, but the light is better here.”
• That is one problem with crib sheets—you tend to choose the
answer you have instead of the right one.
Test design
• I deliberately design my tests to catch cheating.
While I use many methods, I will give one example. I
ask students for their own opinions on a piece of a
topic. When students answer such a question with a
detailed amount of related material that is not directly
relevant to the question, I usually suspect a “crib
sheet” of hidden answers and grade harshly. That is
why I tell students to answer only the question asked.
Using the Internet
• On both take home exams and homework, I know
that students use the Internet regularly. I actually
think this is a good thing. But I use Google to check
any suspicious material.
• So remember, if you use someone else’s work,
reference it and give credit, or you are cheating. Also,
include your own opinions and understanding. I am
grading your thinking and work, not your ability to use
a search engine.
Open Book Test Rule
• If you look at it during the test and use any part of it, even
summarized, cite it! I will accept short form citations such as
these on a test:
• text, p 97
• Java Security lecture, slides 15-22.
• Web links in cut and paste format:
http://www.iusmentis.com/security/passphrasefaq/ (trim off
any unnecessary part.)
• Tanenbaum and Van Steen, Distributed Systems, page 3289 (if more than 2 authors: Tanenbaum et al)
What never to do.
• Best answer: Never Cheat!
• Do not ask me for an appointment or call me
on the phone to ask me to mitigate your
punishment for cheating or give you another
chance. It only humiliates you and is unfair to
both of us.
• I will not tolerate cheating, or respond to it by
becoming a cheat myself.
Arguing Innocence
• The majority of students I catch cheating give a flat
denial that they were cheating. Some continue that
denial and never admit cheating. Most usually
accept the evidence after trying to invent theories to
convince me they didn’t cheat. In all cases I am
always willing to turn the case over to the honor
court. So, if you disagree with my assessment that
you were cheating, present your evidence by email.
If I reject it, ask to go before the honor court. I will
abide by the decision of the court.
After You Are Caught
• What do you do next? Deal with it the same way you
should deal with any failure in life, by reexamining your
goals.
• Start by asking yourself why you had to cheat. If you had
to cheat because you really did not understand the
material, ask yourself if that course or that material are
important to your future plans. If not, find an alternative. If
it is, you may have to change your plans for the future.
Avoid A Dead End Life
• If you cannot understand material, you may be studying
in the wrong field. In that case, getting caught cheating
or failing a course can be one of the best things to
happen to you. You can find something else for which
you are better suited. It is far better to waste a few years
than it is to waste an entire life. It is often only in times of
depression (after failure) that many people are able to
force themselves to make significant changes in their
lives.