Is plagiarism in GCSE English lit exam possible?

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My dc is in yr10. Their English teacher has said they have to grade them U in their end of year test because some of their work is word for word from popular revision sites. And that she needs to ensure it's in her own words as otherwise it is plagiarism. Can it be plagiarism if it's in an exam and she's just memorised some information? It's not like it is coursework and she's copied it.

As a start, I’d be asking your daughter to arrange for the teacher to go through it with her. Her paper, I mean.

@Comefromaway apologies I missed your link

Plagiarism no. Malpractice, yes.

I think it needed posting again. Because no matter what people think the only thing that matters is what the exam boards actually publish in their rules & regulations.

This is a Year 10 school test though - the school can apply whatever rules they want. In that context it may well not be unreasonable to give the student a U on the basis that they had just regurgitated something from a revision site (maybe they even had some advance notice of what the questions would/might be?)

The OP asked it if was plagiarism - not whether it would be considered such in a GCSE/A level exam.

If the OP is actually asking "would my daughter be penalised for doing this in her GCSEs?" - that's a different question. If does feel like this might be a grey area - even if it's not plagiarism according to the JCQ definition, is it malpractice?

OP was asking about GCSE's though. Presumably because end of Year 10 exams are (usually) treated as a kind of mock and OP talks about a U grade which is the GCSE system.

But going back to JCQ - no, it isn't malpractice according to their regulations. It would be in an NEA, but not in an exam.

It is a different situation though. It's possible/likely that the school may have used previous exam questions and the student has learnt a model answer. It's even possible that they were given advance notice of questions.

This doesn't happen in an actual public exam (unless the questions are leaked on social media, where it is taken seriously if it's thought students had advance access to them).

OP really needs to understand more about this situation. Has the DD just reproduced a generic essay about "the role of Lady Macbeth" because the question was Lady Macbeth related, which was always going to limit the marks they could have got, or is it a case of they learnt an answer to a specific question?

I can find your quote on a handful of websites, such as Dixons Allerton Academy, but not JCQ. It seems to be somewhat confused as it talks about compilation of research notes for use in the exam and bringing annotated texts into the exam room as possible plagiarism. In both of those cases, an plagiarism is only going to come to light when looking at the student's exam script.

JCQ say, "Plagiarism refers to a student copying work and submitting it as their own. This can involve published resources (whether in print or on the internet), AI-generated content, essays, or pieces of work previously submitted for assessments by others or manufactured artefacts. Copying can involve memorisation and reproduction of text." So, if OP's child has memorised some information then regurgitated it word for word (or nearly word for word), that very clearly falls within JCQ's definition of plagiarism.

It is clearly more likely in a non-exam setting, but the wording above suggests that it can also occur in exams.

@prh47bridge
Some exams allow students to take in materials, not sure which and in those cases this might count as plagiarism. Given what I have read I think that memorising information and reproducing this in an exam is not malpractice.

I agree that the school/teacher can impose whatever rules they want for an internal exam - although I do not think that is wise as in my view they should be mirroring GCSE procedure so to prepare students. The teacher in my view is scaring pupils - surely students can memorise and revise then adapt or reproduce this an exam. Sometimes this may be appropriate sometimes it might now be

surely students can memorise and revise then adapt or reproduce this [in] an exam

That is the question isn't it? Is this allowable, or must you always write in your own words? Seems (based on this thread) that it's not at all clear.

Since JCQ say, "Copying can involve memorisation and reproduction of text", it seems clear that directly reproducing someone else's work is plagiarism.

They also say, "A strict interpretation of the above definition would include the original ideas as well as the actual words or artefacts produced by another. Assessors should reflect the incidence of any paraphrasing in the way they apply the markscheme/assessment criteria. Students who have not independently met the marking criteria must not be rewarded in the marking." This suggests that simply paraphrasing someone else's work is not allowed.

If you are asked, for example, how Shakespeare presents Romeo’s feelings towards Juliet in the play as a whole, the answer needs to be your own work, not just a reworking of someone else's work. If you've used a study guide which gives you some pointers on this question, there is nothing wrong with using those pointers to help you write your answer. However, if you've read an article exploring this question, you mustn't simply reproduce it or paraphrase it.

There are people on this thread who work in exams and are saying - repeatedly - that this is reportable as malpractice.

Because it is.

Your quote is from the Guide to Plagiarism in Assesments which states

"This guidance note is written for the staff of assessment centres who have   responsibility for supervising and/or marking candidates’ non-examination assessments or portfolio work"

Plagiarism is also mentioned in the Information to Candidates - Cousework & Non Examination Assesments pages but not the Written exams pages.

An older version of the document states more specifically about exams. I suspect it was re-written to include more reference to AI in coursework.

https://ccea.org.uk/downloads/docs/ccea-asset/General/Plagiarism%20in%20Examinations.pdf

@MrsHamlet
No it is not malpractice as the JCQ regulations clearly state

If you say so.

OK @greenlettuce you clearly know more than all of us! I bow to your superior knowledge.

(Please don't pre-learn and regurgitate model answers. It will be flagged as malpractice)

@Evvyjb Thank you!

She didn't know what the questions would be - it was a proper exam style test.
I saw her notes, and they were just quotes for each character and what it illustrated - so it might be a few words describing the character which she'd memorised. She's got that sort of memory. She certainly hadn't written down paragraphs / model answers.
The teacher said they'd go through the paper with her, so hopefully the issue can be resolved anyway, and it's better she knows to be careful of this now. She worked really hard for these tests and will be devastated though. But she'll be better prepared for next year I guess.

Really? Perhaps you can point readers and the relevant regulations, since it seems they contradict what JCQ say in their Guide to Plagiarism in Assessments.

I'm sorry, it's a thumping great malpractice.

If, for example, you know you've got a question on a character from Of Mice & Men coming up, then you could of course memorise answers to the 6-8 possibilities from examples online.

It's malpractice - mind you igcse Edexcel doesn't help itself by setting questions like this.

I teach overseas, in a culture that has a tradition of confident rote learning.

It's definitely a concern, & would void a y10 exam for sure.

"By virtue of its definition, plagiarism is restricted to those examination components where students undertake examination work in unsupervised conditions, such as coursework, pre-release work, or the compilation of research notes which can be used in the examination. It can also occur when candidates are permitted to annotate texts and bring these into the examination room." from JCQ

Candidate who reproduce stock answers which they have learnt parrot fashion often don't answer the question so they may not score highly.

Corvus - it really isn’t. GCSEs have a large recall component- by definition if kids are learning definitions and facts they will be from a book / website.
We don’t expect gcse kids to come up with new ideas about Romeo and Juliet, they use what they have learnt and adapt it to the question. The whole point of flash cards, cgp books etc is that they are for learning stuff and it doesn’t need to be referenced in exams. It’s called studying. I think some people are confused about the difference between work done in exams and NEAs and other assessments that are ‘open book’.

Yes, of course you don't expect much original thinking. It's one of the reasons why gcse is a terrible preparation for IB.

But what you can't do, is regurgitate 1000 words you got off Spark Notes or Shmoop verbatim.

Sadly, examiners do see quite a bit of that.

That is from an old version of their guide for teachers/assessors, not JCQ regulations.

As I've already pointed out, the current guide omits that paragraph. In any event, that paragraph is somewhat confused. It talks about "the compilation of research notes which can be used in the examination" and also says it can occur "when candidates are permitted to annotate texts and bring these into the examination room". In both cases, any plagiarism will only be found when the student's exam script is marked.

The actual regulations state that, "plagiarism: unacknowledged copying from, or reproduction of, published sources or incomplete referencing" is candidate malpractice. There is nothing in the regulations that says it is only malpractice in non-exam situations.

So I'm afraid you are wrong. Memorising and reproduction of text is malpractice regardless of whether it happens in an exam setting.

Kids aren't expected to come up with original thoughts on Romeo and Juliet, but they mustn't simply learn someone else's work off by heart and regurgitate it word for word. They need to adapt it to the question. I would agree that plagiarism in an exam situation is likely to be rare, but JCQ clearly regard it as malpractice.