cheating

Beverage · Apr 11, 2007

Not at my school. The instructors roam the room while tests are being taken, nothing but a scantron, pencil and a calculator are allowed at your desk. All backpacks, purses, coats... go in a pile at the front of the room until the exam is done. I'd hate to be the patient of a nurse who cheated their way thru school, YIKES!

justme1972 · Apr 11, 2007

We have a very strong honor system at our school. Teachers do not stay in the room...that is part of it, and out of courtesy, you keep everything on the floor. The worst thing you can do at my school is being accused of an "honor violation", which can get you not only an "F", but expelled from the school. A student will turn you in, in a heartbeat.

However, I don't agree with this school's policy on WHAT is cheating.

I had a friend that is taking a class for her third time...she got a D the first time she took it, and the second time she took it, she brought her old notes, tests, quizes (keep in mind, the teacher gave different ones), to class to help her review, and when he saw them, he turned her in for an honor violation and they forced her to take an F for the course.

I believe that cheating is using someone else's work as your own, or using notes DURING a closed-book exam...it's that simple.

I don't think what she did was cheating...and neither do alot of students here...because it's her own work and she has to learn it for the test just like everyone else.

You can leave a $100 bill in the middle of our campus and it will still be there at the end of the day.

emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Apr 11, 2007

We have a very strong honor system at our school. Teachers do not stay in the room...that is part of it, and out of courtesy, you keep everything on the floor. The worst thing you can do at my school is being accused of an "honor violation", which can get you not only an "F", but expelled from the school. A student will turn you in, in a heartbeat.
However, I don't agree with this school's policy on WHAT is cheating.
I had a friend that is taking a class for her third time...she got a D the first time she took it, and the second time she took it, she brought her old notes, tests, quizes (keep in mind, the teacher gave different ones), to class to help her review, and when he saw them, he turned her in for an honor violation and they forced her to take an F for the course.
I believe that cheating is using someone else's work as your own, or using notes DURING a closed-book exam...it's that simple.
I don't think what she did was cheating...and neither do alot of students here...because it's her own work and she has to learn it for the test just like everyone else.
You can leave a $100 bill in the middle of our campus and it will still be there at the end of the day.

So wait, was that an open book test that she never used her notes for the 1st time or a closed book test?

Because, by your logic, if this student fails the NCLEX 2 times, she would be able to bring her notes into the the 3rd try? Unless otherwise specified by the school, anything other than a pencil and your brain during a nursing test is cheating. The instructor was correct in failing her.

justme1972 · Apr 11, 2007

So wait, was that an open book test that she never used her notes for the 1st time or a closed book test?
Because, by your logic, if this student fails the NCLEX 2 times, she would be able to bring her notes into the the 3rd try? Unless otherwise specified by the school, anything other than a pencil and your brain during a nursing test is cheating. The instructor was correct in failing her.

You misunderstood my post...she was using old material to help her REVIEW for a test...not DURING the test.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Apr 11, 2007

is cheating big in your program?
i know of an adn program where cheating is an accepted part of the student culture. seems like most students do it, the rest are aware of it. a big thing there was getting in good with the right people so they could "help you out."
i was wondering if this is the norm...

Of course it is not the norm, it is the exception. Turning a blind eye to students who are cheating is doing a disservice to the honest students as well as the cheating ones: after all, they can't be expected to pass the NCLEX if they've not learned the material in the first place. They should not expect to be able to cheat on THAT, either, since the monitoring is unbelievable.

I recall there being a rash of cheating (or suspected cheating?) going on in my first year. The proctoring during tests was getting ridiculous, all but having faculty staring over our shoulders while we wrote (oh, wait, they DID do that sometimes). Anyway, things lightened up by the end of that first year, as the "problem" students were eliminated in other ways. It takes more than passing tests to pass nursing school.

Hopefully you've misread the situation, and the cheaters will be eliminated from this program in due time, as well. Or, since you're not actually IN this program, it's been greatly exaggerated. Regardless, best of luck to YOU!

WDWpixieRN, RN · Apr 11, 2007

Anyone caught cheating at our school would be kicked out immediately. That opportunity doesn't even exist, and I don't understand how it could anywhere else.

That's actually pretty disgusting to even think about.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Apr 11, 2007

i have two classes. one is totally online and the other has online components to it. for both we have to take online tests, but pretty much at any time we are ready to take them with deadlines attached. there is an immense amount of cheating going on. i've had students just come up and unashamedly ask me for the answers to the tests because they know i've taken them early. another wanted to get into an arrangement where he took the weekly quiz first and shared the correct answers and then next week it would be my turn. i don't know what rock these people crawl from under! the worst was one student who i thought was going to be a good study partner. we had a take home test and we started working together on it earlier than the other students in the class and put a lot of time into researching the answers. we were allowed to work together on it. then, she never showed up on the day we were to input our answers into a test program on the school computers. she called me, and i later found out she also called several other students in the class, two days later very tactfully pumping us for "feedback" on how we did answerwise on the test. she gave us all the impression that she had already made up the test. she missed class the next week as well and we learned from the instructor who warned us not to discuss the test since she was the only student who hadn't taken it yet. that's when we realized how she had duped us. what she did was find out which questions we had each gotten wrong and is now able to correct them so that when she does take the test she will get the highest grade in the class. the problem she is going to have, however, is showing the instructors how she accomplished such high scores since she's never been an "a" student that we know of. i've been debating whether to narc to the instructor on her or not. i suspect the instructor may already know since this student stupidly told me that our last semester instructor had outright accused her of cheating on the midterm and she barely made a passing grade in that class. she told me this just before this year's midterm and that's when my antenna went up. but, it was too late at that point since we had already been working together on the take home test. i'm definitely cutting her out as a study partner.

CityKat, BSN, RN · Apr 11, 2007

There was a major problem with cheating at my school and the funny thing is, when they get to their internship and they have to do all of the work...they will fail. You CANNOT take care of patients the way a nurse takes care of and assesses, etc. unless you know your stuff. Students were walking around during exams, copying from one another, talking and sharing answers and stealing exams and making copies. Yes, yes, that is at my school. They say it's under wraps now, it was just my graduating class. Wee..really sad. The worst part about it, is they will more than likely be the ones taking care of our parents/grand parents:(

chijon512 · Apr 12, 2007

The way I understand it is the instructors don't change their tests. So current students learn which questions are on the test from previous students. In some cases, they have actual copies of the test.

It shocks me how seemingly everyone is in on it.

Good to know this is not the norm.

*Blessed2BaNRS* · Apr 12, 2007

Wow, reading these posts about cheating is disheartening! It is unbelievable what some people will do! I had a lab partner in A&P II who was on her 3rd go around and she still was not passing. She would come to class to ask us questions because she was outpartying the night before. Needless to say, she somehow made it through the LVN program but couldn't pass her NCLEX. I think there are people everywhere who try to cheat, but when it comes down to it, they won't get pass the one test that means licensing or not. Not being in the ADN program yet, I don't know how the cheating is there, but I do know that they are very strict in the grades and procedures, and if you mess up 2 times, you are out, no questions asked and no explanations given. Being a life that we will be taking care of, I would hate to know that someone cheated their way through the program and lucked out taking the NCLEX.

mimi1jb · Apr 22, 2008

I have a major concern. Im very distraught because of a huge cheating fiasco that is occuring in my school, Long Island University. We are graduating in may and the "valevictorian " was caught cheating on a Hesi exam, where you sign a contract not to disclose any information. This girl wrote down all the answers to 110 questions. She was caught red handed by our professor and was to be terminated. Apparently, the dean and everyone else for some odd reason is thinking of letting her slide. This is very disturbing and I dont know what to do. I feel like my nursing program is a joke and the authorities arent doing anything. These nurses are going to be the ones that ending up injuring patients. Is there anything that I should??

Distraught nursing student