Cheating in end of year exams

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

DS is currently doing end of year 8 tests. He came home today and told me most of his form has cheated on the subject they did today. Apparently they got hold of a cheat sheet from other dc who had already done the test. There was only ds and a few others who didn't cheat. Consequently the bulk of the class have a aced the test but ds and co have not! He is very annoyed, as am I, but doesn't want to snitch. These marks will be used to set targets and decide which set the dc will be in next year. WWYD?

[BubblesBuddy]

What a stupid school to give the test to one group and use the same test later for another group. D- for that bit of organisation!

Snitch away! The school needs to know what happened so they don’t do it again. Don’t give names. The teachers might work it out though. The school should take responsibility and organise the sets on teacher assessment.

[noblegiraffe]

Teachers aren’t idiots and will usually notice odd results, but you could always drop an email to the teacher saying that your DS heard some students got hold of answers to the test and is concerned this might affect setting. Hopefully you will get reassurance that performance over the year will be taken into account.

[TeenTimesTwo]

Our school uses the same tests at different times for y8 as it does tests in usual lesson time, so with 2 halves of a year for example, both set 1 maths will have tests at different times.
Presumably though they aim for them on the same day to minimise cross contamination.
Presumably also a swathe of anomalous results will be obvious?

(Mind you, they also appear to reuse tests from year to year, or at least questions from tests.)

[noblegiraffe]

We use the same tests for different year halves, sometimes on different days as they don’t have lessons at the same time. Never heard of anyone creating a cheat sheet for the other year half, they don’t normally have anything do to with each other.

We don’t give back and go through the tests until everyone has sat it so pupils wouldn’t know for sure what the correct answers were, and would have to memorise them while doing the test.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

The other class (don't know how many dc involved in this bit) took in a sheet with all the definitions on (given to help revise) and used that to cheat, then created the cheat sheet which they sold for £1 each time.

[BertrandRussell]

They should be disqualified from whatever this test is, but given an A in Business Studies....

[BertrandRussell]

Teachers aren't daft, OP- they'll know there's something dodgy going on....

[noblegiraffe]

Drop the class teacher an email just so you know that they know what’s happened and can investigate.

Thinking about it, lots of student teachers taking classes at the moment and they might not be so on the ball regarding this sort of stuff.

[frasier]

The teachers should know that half the class were not going to ace that test. Even one or two pupils going from d or c to an a will raise suspicions.

But snitch (to head) anyway. Because some teachers might not do anything about it.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll so an anonymous phone call tomorrow as a concerned parent. Really don't want to implicate DS but I do want school to be aware. Don't know what they'll do about it.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

I'll probably have to get the office to pass it on to head of that dept.

[ADescentofWoodpeckers]

£1 per cheat sheet? Top marks for entrepreneurial spirit

[Kimlek]

Why anonymous? I’d just say there’s rumours and you want them to be aware in case there’s any truth. You don’t need to say where the rumours have come from.

[Kimlek]

I’d email the head directly as I don’t think it’s an office staff responsibility. The head can then investigate.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

It's really tricky as ds doesn't want to be implicated at all understandably and teachers would probably want to talk to him. A friend mum asked for her dss name to be kept out of something last year and he was called out of the class for a chat so it was obvious.

[noblegiraffe]

Don’t email the head, they will not want to investigate, they will ping it to the subject department. Or rather their PA will, they won’t even read it.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

Was going to ask the office to pass it on to head of year 8.

[noblegiraffe]

Head of the relevant subject would be better.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

OK thanks.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

Spoke to a lovely lady in the office whowas very reassuring and said that it would be taken seriously and felt it appropriate to be passed onto head of year. DS said nothing has been said today. Just hope of his dealt with and not brushed under the carpet.

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

Sorry auto corrected. I hope it is dealt with.

[Kimlek]

Ahh well done. Good to hear she said it’d be taken seriously. Maybe your son not hearing about it is a good thing too. Looking into it behind the signs?

[Kimlek]

Signs?? Scenes!!

[lljkk]

On plus side, at least they care that much about their marks. Most kids wouldn't.

[CoffeeAndCode]

What would I do?

Ha, simple. I'd smile at my child and tell him well done.

I'd tell him that while grades are important, there are two things that are more important.
The first is what you actually learned. The second is how you learned.

Ask him what the cheats would have learned and how they learned. Ask him how he thinks that will help them in the future when cheating isn't an option. Suggest to him that while his grade was less than the others, what he learned is more valuable.

Then tell him that in the future he will have other chances to take shortcuts. Other opportunities to circumvent hard work with a quick 'win' will present themselves and the morality of it will be less clear to him than on this occasion. He will have to make up his own mind whether or not take the shortcut.

I'd say that my advice to him would always be to take the choice that leads to learning and take the choice that feels right.

And I'd say that I'm very f*ing proud of him.