A few days ago
Thrice Blessed

Shouldn’t cheating on exams be against the community guidelines?

I feel that using Yahoo Answers to blatently cheat on school exams is an abuse of the forum. Are there any guidelines that would prohibit this?

Top 10 Answers
A few days ago
Anonymous

Favorite Answer

I completely agree.

The acts of cheating that typically appear on this section of yahoo involve requesting answers to specific tests (I’ve noticed this a lot with Penn Foster). This violates community guidelines in two ways:

1. The askers are using the forum for solicitation; in this case they are soliciting test answers

2. Those who respond by offering to transfer the answers are violating copyright laws. Test answers like all written material are protected by copyright and are not transferable without the written permission of the copyright holder.

5

A few days ago
Anonymous
I, too, feel that it’s a form of cheating. But, if you think it’s bad on Yahoo, what about the websites that are devoted to nothing but cheating? i think there’s one called Homework.com, or something like that, where a student can go on, and get answers to their homework help.

I have no problem with using the Web to research information, but I do have a problem when someone just lazily says, “Do this problem for me.”

I think Yahoo should eliminate the homework category altogether, and delete any such questions, but then I come from a time when you couldn’t even bring a simple calculator to school. Times at school, and the attitudes of modern parents, have changed for the worse, I’m afraid.

To Busymom, above, I must respectfully disagree with you when you say the only one getting cheated is the cheater. The other students get cheated as well as any other honest person, because they end up having to take up the slack somewhere down the line for the person who cheated, whether it’s in tutoring them to get them back up to speed, or cleaning up after them in professional life when they’ve done harm to a customer or in the workplace because they either tried to shortcut around the work (the same motivation for cheating in school) or because they caused a more serious problem because they didn’t have the requisite knowledge to do the job right to begin with.

After all, you wouldn’t want your doctor, your airline mechanic, or your lawyer to have cheated their way through school, would you? Such an attitude can (and has) resulted in death for innocent patients, clients, travellers, etc.

Too much leniency when they’re young leads to a lack of discipline when they’re adults.

2

A few days ago
Terri
ABSOLUTELY 100% YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!

It is indeed a sad commentary on the youth of today in general that so many students not only have absolutely no problem asking people to help them cheat, they really think they have a right to.

I have had “students” (and I use that term lightly since one actually has to be learning something to earn the right to be called a student) contact me to say silly things like

“it’s only an elective” “I’m so close to being finished, I just want this to be over” “i’m not really wanting to be a (fill in the blank) so it shouldn’t matter if someone helps me.

And then I absolutely love this one “stop saying I’m cheating! All I want is someone to give me the answers so I can go do something else”

Is it just me?

As for guidelines, I would say “don’t number four” covers it: “don’t solicit others for ANY purpose.”

Also, there is a forum where you can post questions about guidelines, and I, for one, will be asking for a new “don’t”

PS, never thought of the copyright rule. good point.

3

A few days ago
Tad W
You mean this question:

“Where can I find Penn Foster Spanish elective answers?

I need help with mostly all the exams any help is appreciated”

or its like? How do you know this is a student and not a parent or teacher trying to grade a student’s work against the rubric?

Even if it is a student, the answer is: “Look in your book. They are open book exams.”

Someone once told me that lawyers go to law school not to learn what the law says, but to learn where to look up what the law says. And Sherlock Holmes made a point of not remembering information that he didn’t need for the case at hand.

Using Yahoo answers to “look up” something that should be in your textbook for an open book exam is silly (it makes about as much sense as looking in your Algebra textbook does), but it isn’t morally wrong. Finally, after hours of testimony in a libel case, where plaintiff Henry Ford was grilled on all the things he didn’t know (the defense was trying to prove he really was an “ignoramus”), Henry finally answered in exasperation, “I don’t know the answer to your question, but I have access to men that do. They work for me and will come running at the push of a button on my desk.” Ford knew what he needed to know, and knew how to get the answers to the rest.

Open book tests are designed to see if you are familiar enough with the material to find the answer, not to test whether you’ve memorized it.

Insifficient data to call this “blatantly cheating.” No foul.

0

A few days ago
old lady
Cheating is a real issue for Yahoo because so often people put exam questions on and enthusiastic Yahoo readers leap in and provide answers. In my opinion (which no one has asked for but which I’ll offer anyway) homework help or any of the school related sites, should be just that — help. It’s fair game to explain how to do something, but you can do that using a different set of numbers for an example, and then they can figure out how to do the problem they are dealing with. It doesn’t help them at all to simply provide the answer.

Same for the people who ask someone to write essays for them.If they write an essay and ask for help with it, that’s a whole different thing, but don’t ask someone to do homework or provide answers to exam questions.

3

A few days ago
Janis B
It be better if they just had some one do their exams for them. It is cheating. They are cheating themselves and their parents who have paid for the schooling. There will not be anyone there to take the SAT/ACT or community college placement test. Their ‘diploma’ will be useless without an education.

Should there be guidelines? Yes, but the students would find ways to get around the guidelines.

3

A few days ago
busymom
It should, but not all rules facilitate good choice making.

It is up to us to not answer such questions when we think it is used for that purpose.

Do keep in mind though that the only one getting cheated is the person who cheats.

Add.

When I say only the one who cheats get cheated; I mean they are short changing themselves in terms of their education.

1

A few days ago
hsmommy06
Students will find a way to cheat whether it is on this site or another. They will eventually get caught or have to pay the consequences in some other area of their life the older they get. I wouldn’t put too much of your time or energies into worrying about it or getting mad. They will reap what they sow. I can guarantee that.
3

A few days ago
Anonymous
It totally depends on how the question is asked and how easy it is to find the answer. Sometimes I will answer, sometimes I will explain, and other times I will ignore the question. I certainly do not think it should be a violation.
1

A few days ago
Anonymous
You are 100% right. It most certainly should be against the guidlines, and we should be able to report them.
3