Moochers who want to copy your homework or cheat off you......

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  1. Do moochers try to copy or cheat off you?

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what do you do with moochers? ;)

Specializes in LTC.

I feel moochers is too nice of a word. I like to call them CHEATERS. I have had an experience with one that really takes the cake.

In my clinical group there was 7 of us ladies and 1 male student, who I NEVER liked from the beginning. He just had a really fake-nice attitude and was cheesy and sounded just plain weird. He'd say 'Oh I really like your sweater miss.." He would just sound too polite and after awhile it got on my nerves.

ANYWHO. He'd be really sneaky. Slip into class late and the teacher didn't notice so he didn't give one of his late passes. He would take a hall pass and leave early. He would 'mooch' off of 2 of the ladies in the group who didn't quite see what he was trying to do. Copy their homework, classwork, probably off of tests and quizzes too.

My first encounter with him was in med-surg clinical. I am very rusty when it comes to changing an occupied bed/giving a bed bath so my instructor had him help me since the student who is very skilled in that area was busy. So instead of helping me, he just stood at the bedside and barely helped.

My second encounter with him was in peds, when we had a patient who was in a coma. We were partnered to care for this patient. The patient was pretty heavy for me to wash and change by myself so I really required help from someone who knows what they are doing. He again stood there at the bedside barely any help at all. Didn't help with our assessment or nursing diagnosis/interventions or practice nursing notes that we had to hand in. I spent my lunch doing all of that so I wouldnt have him hanging over my shoulder copying off of me. That afternoon our instructor was in the patients room with us and she knew he was bullshitting his way through, so she told him to do the tube feed that she asked us to read up on the night before. He placed the stethoscope on the patients chest! Well I did my reading and I knew at least you put the stethoscope near the abdomen. I needed the instructor to walk me through it because that's how I learn, but she knew I at least read.

My last and final encounter with him was in geriatrics. The clinical instructor asked us to get a partner and nobody in the group wanted to work with him so I was stuck. I informed her privately of my past experience working with him and she was unable to change my partner so I took a deep breath and figured it was only 4 days its not forever. He was his usual lazy self, I ended up doing an assessment and after the first day. It basically was my assessment because he got the hint that I wasn't going to help him slide by.

In the last week of class, we had a theory instructor who didn't like him very much. She saw he was lazy, she saw him constantly coming in late and "mooching." She caught him on his cell phone which if you were caught with a phone you were sent home for the day. She sent him home and he was arguing with her. Nobody was on his side with this. He didn't come back after that. I can't say I was disappointed that he didn't come back. But as a new nurse, I really fear for the patients he would have taken care of because he barely did any work. Have no idea how he even made it to the last couple days of school.

Sorry this was so long but he was the first person to come to mind when I read this.

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Specializes in ER.
hello all~

i hate to sound childish, because i don't have a problem "sharing", but i have pretty high grades and i realized that a lot of people want to copy my homework.

given, i do have a small group of nursing friends and we each team up. i think that's a good system to make it through nursing school.

what i have a problem with is the people who are not part of our group always swarming around and saying " hey, what did you get for this...&....can i see that?". our group can barely go over answers with each other without everyone trying to copy. :angryfire

i hate having the "mines" attitude, but i help those that have helped me. i get along with a lot of people. but i'm tired of feeling used. should i just let it go? ps. there is also one "moocher" that copies off of others tests! actually...3 of them. they haven't tried to see mine yet...but is this not insane or is it me? i would be embarrassed to copy off of someones test...or even ask them or let them see i'm doing that. they obviously have no shame & don't think anyone will say anything to them. i feel bad for those people.

i don't want to go to war with you but i have to be honest, your post sounds like you are blaming others for your inability to draw good boundaries/guilty feelings for doing so. if its really that hard for you to draw boundaries, then please consider working on that for yourself.

you and your friends sound like an exclusive group. remember that that won't work in the real world and it can come across looking snotty. if you and your friends want to review the test answers or the homework then a public place may not be the place to do it since it appears that your colleagues are under the impression that this discussion, taking place in a public area, is open to all potential participants. this strikes me as a reasonable conclusion given the circumstances. (in other words, be a little more low-key.)

i think many of us have been in the same shoes that you are in now. we have done well in a course or throughout the program, only to find some people showering us with attention in order to receive help with their homework. i don't think the people who do this are stupid. i actually think they demonstrate another type of intelligence that we tend to undervalue in academic settings: the so-called street smarts. (exception: cheating on tests is never acceptable.) they are strategic thinkers, survivors and they invest in whatever option makes the most sense at the time. stop helping them and they will be forced to find another option or hopefully, study. its really up to you to become more confident saying no to these folks.

if it helps, i do some of the things that people here have suggested. i say that we can compare if both of us is finished. i say that i don't want to be accused of cheating on the assignment if our answers are too similar and i say we can talk about that later or why don't you call me or whatever so we can talk about it. (they either don't or i don't pick up.)

remember that there may also come a time when you would like to review someone's assignment for a variety of reasons. for example, you may wish to see someone's apa formatting while you are working on your paper or you may wish to see a study guide that someone else wrote because you fear you have left something out. tread carefully. you are doing well right now but that can turn around for you and you may need these folks. also, they will be in the workplace whether you want them to be or not.

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For those of you that are being hard on Inbox as a pushover, as one who has been through this experience, moochers are very clever at finding ways to see your work. Can they just "confirm" an answer and then, when you go to get supplies, you find they have "confirmed" 3 pages verbatim. When you go to talk to the professor, they "accidently" pick up your book as their own. You don't want to believe that other students, who got in the same school you did, do this, and you're sitting with them.

So yes, I guess we should be more vigilant about our work product (and aware of what patients might do for, say, narcotics). But as a person who thought we were all in this together (HSM :))), it takes time to realize, nope we're not. Every man for himself. Unless you meet a kindred soul, and we're figuring out who those are right now. It's part of the learning process. It's not a matter of "I'm too weak to say no" but "*** just happened?"

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For those of you that are being hard on Inbox as a pushover, as one who has been through this experience, moochers are very clever at finding ways to see your work. Can they just "confirm" an answer and then, when you go to get supplies, you find they have "confirmed" 3 pages verbatim. When you go to talk to the professor, they "accidently" pick up your book as their own. You don't want to believe that other students, who got in the same school you did, do this, and you're sitting with them.

So yes, I guess we should be more vigilant about our work product (and aware of what patients might do for, say, narcotics). But as a person who thought we were all in this together (HSM :))), it takes time to realize, nope we're not. Every man for himself. Unless you meet a kindred soul, and we're figuring out who those are right now. It's part of the learning process. It's not a matter of "I'm too weak to say no" but "*** just happened?"

Nope, not buying it. Life doesn't just happen...it reacts to choices I've made. To say there's nothing that can be done is to admit to being a victim. Nope, not me. I don't let folks who I don't already know and trust look at my work to "just check 1" if they want to check one they can ask me about it.....if I don't think they've done their work, I'll just say no. If someone picked up my workbook "accidentally" I'd report it to a Professor. The Honor Board can decide if it was an accident or not. This might seem like a hard line, but my school's Honor Policy is really clear, if someone gets answers from me, I'm as guilty of cheating as they are....and, lets be clear, them handing in my work is cheating.

My work is my work, I don't share answers. Now working with a study group is different....however everyone should be bringing something to the table, otherwise it's not a study group, it's a tutor session and I charge $20/hr.

Now, lest folks get the idea I'm not a team player...couldn't be farther from the truth. If folks want to talk about the concepts or know how I approached a math problem, etc no problem, happy to help. But my help is going to require the other party to be doing their work....not me doing it for them.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
True, but until you have really been "there", I don't think it's something one can fully comprehend. I don't hold anything against you for that. The statement about stereotypes was incorrect, though, and I'm not going to get into it or give specific examples, because I don't want to twist the entire thread around.

I'm not sure what you meant by "favors". But it does seem I'm doing them a lot of favors and giving them too much credit! lol . Take Care

I think it's awfully presumptuous to think you know where I have and haven't been. But I do understand that this makes it easier to be dismissive of feedback you don't wish to hear. Good luck!

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Education.

I am well past nursing school, but we used to get together at the beginning of the semester when the load was light and complete all the homework we could as a group. Not always possible when assignments are last minute, but we use to be able to get a lot of it done in advance. If someone else asks, tell them you can all get together as a group to work on it. If they don't contribute, I wouldn't give them my work. It doesn't help them at all in the long run, as NCLEX isn't a team sport.

Also, if you have a chronic moocher, just turn in the assignment early. Then you can truthfully answer "Oh sorry, I already turned it in!"

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I think it's awfully presumptuous to think you know where I have and haven't been. But I do understand that this makes it easier to be dismissive of feedback you don't wish to hear. Good luck!

But your feedback was incorrect. You made the incorrect assumption that I was stereotyping and not doing anyone "favors". I simply corrected you/responded. I suppose you didn't wish to "hear" my feedback either. Good Luck! :)

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For those of you that are being hard on Inbox as a pushover, as one who has been through this experience, moochers are very clever at finding ways to see your work. Can they just "confirm" an answer and then, when you go to get supplies, you find they have "confirmed" 3 pages verbatim. When you go to talk to the professor, they "accidently" pick up your book as their own. You don't want to believe that other students, who got in the same school you did, do this, and you're sitting with them.

So yes, I guess we should be more vigilant about our work product (and aware of what patients might do for, say, narcotics). But as a person who thought we were all in this together (HSM :))), it takes time to realize, nope we're not. Every man for himself. Unless you meet a kindred soul, and we're figuring out who those are right now. It's part of the learning process. It's not a matter of "I'm too weak to say no" but "*** just happened?"

That's all I'm saying! lol. Some replies never cease to amaze me.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
But your feedback was incorrect. You made the incorrect assumption that I was stereotyping and not doing anyone "favors". I simply corrected you/responded. I suppose you didn't wish to "hear" my feedback either. Good Luck! :)

I stated that you were "playing into stereotypes" in response to your post, which you deleted, in which you referred to a stereotypical image of yourself as possessing certain qualities based upon your race. You stated that you felt that by going against this, your classmates would turn against you. How is that not playing into a stereotype, by going along with what your classmates expect of you based upon your race?

Maybe you don't understand the term "you're not doing them any favors". It means that you are doing a disservice to your classmates not only by enabling their stereotyping of you, but by providing them with the answers instead of making them do their own work.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
But your feedback was incorrect.

My feedback is my opinion. Opinions, by definition, can neither be correct nor incorrect.

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I don't want to go to war with you but I have to be honest, your post sounds like you are blaming others for your inability to draw good boundaries/guilty feelings for doing so. If its really that hard for you to draw boundaries, then please consider working on that for yourself.

You and your friends sound like an exclusive group. Remember that that won't work in the real world and it can come across looking snotty. If you and your friends want to review the test answers or the homework then a public place may not be the place to do it since it appears that your colleagues are under the impression that this discussion, taking place in a public area, is open to all potential participants. This strikes me as a reasonable conclusion given the circumstances. (In other words, be a little more low-key.)

I think many of us have been in the same shoes that you are in now. We have done well in a course or throughout the program, only to find some people showering us with attention in order to receive help with their homework. I don't think the people who do this are stupid. I actually think they demonstrate another type of intelligence that we tend to undervalue in academic settings: the so-called street smarts. (Exception: cheating on tests is never acceptable.) They are strategic thinkers, survivors and they invest in whatever option makes the most sense at the time. Stop helping them and they will be forced to find another option or hopefully, study. Its really up to you to become more confident saying no to these folks.

If it helps, I do some of the things that people here have suggested. I say that we can compare if both of us is finished. I say that I don't want to be accused of cheating on the assignment if our answers are too similar and I say we can talk about that later or why don't you call me or whatever so we can talk about it. (They either don't or I don't pick up.)

Remember that there may also come a time when you would like to review someone's assignment for a variety of reasons. For example, you may wish to see someone's APA formatting while you are working on your paper or you may wish to see a study guide that someone else wrote because you fear you have left something out. Tread carefully. You are doing well right now but that can turn around for you and you may need these folks. Also, they will be in the workplace whether you want them to be or not.

The last paragraph is where you contradict yourself, but also understand my point.

It has nothing to do with confidence/spine, etc. Today I took my paper from a girl

trying to use it and said, "No, I need that right now" and walked off. This has been

done.

This is not an issue with just one person..it's several that my "team" is hoarding off! lol

Your assumption about an "exclusive group" is wrong. We are nursing classmates who

make good grades and happen to get along. I get along with everyone, but I tend to

gravitate towards individuals like myself. There is nothing wrong with that.

You ARE right about your "street smarts" conclusion. My college is in a big/bad/inner city. lol Funny enough!

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My feedback is my opinion. Opinions, by definition, can neither be correct nor incorrect.

Sorry, I just call it like I see it! No hard feelings.

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