More Than 70 West Point Cadets Accused Of Cheating In Academic Scandal (npr.org) 151
Seventy-three suspected cheaters, one critical mistake. Dozens of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were caught cheating on a calculus final exam in May after they all made the same errors on the test, according to officials. From a report: Instructors at the Army's premier training ground for officers revealed the academic scandal on Monday, saying it's the worst they've seen since the 1970s. So far, 59 cadets out of a suspected 73 have admitted to taking part in the scam in which the students "shared answers and made the same mistakes," Lt. Col. Chris Ophardt, a West Point spokesman told NPR. The test was administered remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Four cadets have resigned and another eight, who say they're innocent of any wrongdoing, will face a full hearing led by seniors at the academy. The cases against two others initially implicated in the scheme have been dismissed for lack of evidence..
If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Sadly on-target FP, though "He whose name need not be spoken" is not the sole culprit. It takes a village of congress-critters to nominate the poorly qualified students with relatively weak moral fibers. Plus a supply of ethically dubious candidates who are willing to enlist in the current moral climate and in the hope of serving under such a Commenter-in-Chief.
I do have three questions on the story.
(1) Is the moral cancer also spreading in the other service academies?
(2) How many of the cheaters are also r
Re: If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:2)
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I see your point. Representative generalization is rife within the populace's current belief set.
Every car salesman isn't a crook, every Biden supporter doesn't want to defund the police, and every Trump supporter isn't racist. The ones who are have undue societal influence over the ones that aren't, at least in the theatre of public opinion. The real crime is the one committed by those whose behavior patterns validate the stereotype.
Goddamn it, activist minority, you're fucking killing us.
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I studied a large and rather extreme evangelical church many years ago. Where most churches are dominated by Jesus pictures, I remember this one for the many photos of the pastor in his military uniform during his WW II glory days. Lots of authoritarians in the crowd. Not just military, but police, too. Bible study every day and twice on Sundays, and many of the members went to every class. Also, I was actually asked if I wanted to be nominated to a military academy way back when.
There was this guy who kept showing up at church back in the day, asking strange questions like how many Bible studies each of us went to and if we thought it was weird that the picture of the pastor in the lobby was from his days as a chaplain. He said he was "studying us," whatever that means.
Public masturbation of 1870390 (Score:2)
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Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
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Re:If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:5, Interesting)
West Point grad and former faculty here (in their Physics/Nuclear Engineering department):
1. I doubt any POTUS has any meangingful influence on who decided to apply to a military academy. The application process take months if not more than a year, requires congressional nomination in most cases, etc. The incoming class to West Point is a reflection of those who desire to serve in the larger society. The students/cadets bring their values with them; most of them are solid and aspire to do the right thing. There are exceptions. There are extensive efforts at character education/development in general and honor specifically, but you are not going to change someone overnight, if ever.
2. I saw no correlation between honor cases and "religious loons". To be honest, I saw very, very few "religious loons" in the student population while on the faculty. Anecdotally, those being found on honor often had "co-morbidities" of discipline/breaking regulations issues where they were in trouble to begin with, but anecdotes are not data.
3. I think the "because they could" / temptation due to the virtual environment may be a factor. In a normal testing environment at USMA, there are other students in the room, though the desks are staggered to make it more difficult to accidentally see another's work. (The self-reporting sense of honor is strong -- cadets will turn themselves in because they mindlessly gazed at another's work while staring off into space during a test). But there is also the unspoken peer pressure to not cheat and the higher chance of being caught. (Interesting, faculty will often leave the room completely during an exam; our presumption is that cadets are honorable and do not need to be watched like a hawk.)
I tended to see more issues with honor in non-testing environments -- lab reports for instance. A single student has to make up a lab that he missed; he gets a copy from a friend "just to see how he laid out the report" and before you know it, they are misspelling "Newton" the same way in the same places in the report. Often there is a time pressure associated, and of course the grade pressure -- the cadet who gives in and cheats is often failing a class, close to failing another, and is already late on the report. They are human (as is the faculty and all of us).
The honor and character systems are designed to mentor those who can benefit from it and separate (expel) those who are too far along, are too grevious in offense, or have multiple offeneses. The mentoring process is no joke - it takes significant faculty time to do for any given cadet, not to mention the extra work placed on the cadet themselves.
The honor case, while run by cadet (seniors) with special training and experience in the Honor Code, is also facilitated by no-crud attorneys, and there are plenty of protections for the accused.
I do not know the specifics of how the cadets cheated and have no inside information about this particular event. I am curious.
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Very interesting report. I am curious when you were there, because I think the religious thing has been increasing rapidly in recent years. When I was studying that fundamentalist church their pro-military bias seemed to be an extreme outlier. I think the buzzword at that time was "reconstructionist", but they have a new label now. I can't remember the new tag, but I'm still on the side of keeping churches out of politics and vice versa.
My first university had a strong honor system. Basic pledge was "On my
Re:If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:4, Interesting)
Shanen,
I was on the faculty from about 2011-2014. There were certainly religious organizations on campus with good participation, but none of them were "Bible thumpers" and I cannot think of a time that someone brought up religion inappropriately in the classroom. But I also realize that as military faculty many conservations would not be held in front of me. (It's amazing how many fewer problems you hear about as you increase in rank. You have to proactively ask subordinates about issues around them and then go look for yourself.)
I agree -- we can try to make honor and integrity positive things, as opposed to a "gotcha!" system. We talk to people about establishing guardrails of ethical behavior -- "does this give me an unfair advantage?" and "would I be happy if I were on the other end of this action?" as thoughts to consider when making a decision.
It's a bit idealistic, but if I cannot trust you while taking a physics test with personal consquences, how can I trust your word when you tell me your platoon is short on ammunition and in need of immediate support (at the expense of other platoons and to the risk of the people bringing supplies forward to you?)
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I'd like to thank you for teaching at West Point, and of course for your service in the Army. My nephew graduated West point 3 years ago, and I had the privilege of attending his graduation. Walking around the campus and speaking to the cadets and faculty was an experience I'll never forget. Starkly different than any other college campus I've ever visited in so many ways. I came away with the feeling "damn, at least this place is still doing things right". West Point continues to churn out real leader
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SpankiMonki,
Good deal! I'm glad you got to see the graduation; I felt terrible for the cadets who had their week marred by COVID. It is a very special time. That being said, on the scale of COVID impact, that's a small thing.
West Point is a bit insulated from society writ large -- not many folks personally know someone who has been there. So I'd certainly take the opportunity to share my experiences both as a cadet (quite dated) and faculty member (not quite as dated). I don't expect shanen to take my
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Pretty sure I would not describe the church I studied as Bible Thumpers. Hard core, but not that. The main church was quite large, with seating for several thousand members, but they were sort of low key about seeking new members. However they actually wanted to attract or even recruit people in my "category" because they think we are part of their interpretation of the necessary scene setting for Armageddon. (I almost feel like including the church URL, but I mostly don't feel like giving them any publicit
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Shanen,
I graduated/commissioned just before 9/11. So that event clearly shaped my career, including multiple deployments overseas. I've done well, serving in artillery, aviation, signal, logistics, and an infantry division HQ, but I'm not a superstar/future general/anything like that. I have a few years left, and have found a decent balance between work and family.
9/11 definitely changed the nature of who joined/stayed in the military for at least a few years following. Not many joined the Army or Marin
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Boy, that brings back a lot of memories. "Request permission to speak, sir!" Really. Do you think the trolls have gotten bored and gone away? Some of them are actually looking for any ad hominem ammo they can find. When they can't defend their positions with facts or evidence (or kinetic ammo), they just attack the person.
Three primary reactions:
(1) Pretty sure I would not "feel at home" in the military. Never did then and I haven't mellowed much. Which is why I didn't re-up, even though I was up for staff.
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I want to answer you on 2 & 4; I just don't have much to contribute on 1 & 3 that isn't ground already well-covered.
2. The idea of "mandatory national service" is intriguing to me. My concerns are that it will not be "mandatory", not be "national", and not be "service". Not mandatory in the sense that the elite/connected are not going to allow their offspring to take a 2-4 year delay on their road to greatness. They'll somehow find a loophole/exemption, or design a "service" program is basically
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On (2) I basically share your concerns, especially when a "supreme leader" like "He whose name need not be spoken" is taken into account. Chicken and egg thing? If we had political leaders who understood and valued public service then they would understand the value of teaching young people to understand public service? Term limits might help a little bit. Make it a bit harder to be a long-term professional politician?
I do think that public education in America has been under intense attack starting about 4
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I share your regret of not focusing on a foreign language earlier in life; I wasted the opportunities in high school and beyond, including living abroad. Some people have a real knack for foreign language; I do not, and I agree it gets harder after the early years.
I had an old boss that when you'd bring him a complex problem, he'd hand you a book off of his shelf and say "your answer is in here". He didn't want to deny you the chance of learning all the other lessons and concepts by him cherry-picking wha
Honor codes are invaluable (Score:3)
I went to a school which required all tests to be take-home and unproctored but also limited time and closed book. Cheating is thus trivial if you choose to. Worse than that the temptation to cheat is actually amplified. When you are doing an exam problem and you are nearly at the end and 3 hours is suddenly up. Do you write 5 more lines of equations or just put down your pencil. If you can't quite recall the equation for rayleigh light scattering do you check your notes or spend the time to try to wor
professors behave differently under honor codes (Score:2)
added note. That style of test taking also made the professors task different in creating tests. They designed problems in which synthesizing the course material was required not just "do you know the quadratic equation". So the problem tended to be actual "problems" where the "problem" was figuring _how_ to solve it, not memorizing a canned solution. Instead of "compute the jacobian of this functional transformation" it would be to solve a integral where you had to figure out what variables to change,
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That's interesting. While teaching physics, we would make the test problems different enough from homework/previous years' tests/etc where trying to memorize problems would be a waste of time compared to mastering the course content and problem-solving method. And we graded in a similar way. Let's say we were doing a Newton's 2nd Law block/ramp/friction/pulley problem. We may have the problem in a different configuration than the homework problems or a different force causing acceleration. But if a stu
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Certainly the biggest factor here is the opportunity, but I wouldn't let POTUS off the hook.
Honour is supposed to mean doing the right thing when no one is looking, as well as doing the right thing even when there's negative consequences for oneself.
It's essentially a form of sacrifice.
Being honourable when that sacrifice is shared is noble.
Being honourable when no one else is makes you a sucker.
For the past 4 years the SOP at the highest level of governments has been "do what benefits you even if its wrong
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No. In WW II the post-war pastor probably trained the guys who dropped the atomic bombs. At least that's what his Wikipedia page claims. But I can't recall him ever saying anything in Bible exegesis class to suggest that he had any regrets about his military service as a possible motivation for getting religion afterwards. (Just read an interesting claim that the Japanese were ready to receive more atomic bombs but it was the Russian declaration of war that finally convinced them to surrender. It's actually
Systemic (Score:2)
If there are 77 people who made an identical mistake, that means they're all involved in the same scheme. That points singularly to a systemic problem.
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I'm sort of reading between the lines, but it seems to me that they were just calling each other on the phone and discussing how to approach the problems. They shared enough details to mislead each other down the same wrong roads.
Sort of tangential, but my too-late-now theory is that math is like a language and you learn it better and more easily when you're young. A couple of my closest friends had a different math teacher in junior high school and they suddenly jumped way ahead of me. One of them was able
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It takes a village of congress-critters to nominate the poorly qualified students with relatively weak moral fibers. Plus a supply of ethically dubious candidates who are willing to enlist in the current moral climate and in the hope of serving under such a Commenter-in-Chief.
A West Point cadet, male or female, is ten times the man you are, or ever were, in every measure that matters.
So is every student/graduate of the other US service academies.
Losers like you who besmirch their betters just provide a good laugh for the rest of us.
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When you make it easier people cheat more. Period. (Score:2)
Re:If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:5, Informative)
Further, as the story also noted, Biden released all his school transcripts, grades and notes from faculty. He showed he was not a fantastic student.
Compare that openness to the con artist who has not only refused to show his grades, but has threatened to sue anyone who releases any information on his failures during his school tenure.
Re:If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's true, Biden was not rich enough to pay someone to take tests and do papers for him, unlike the current president.
This is whataboutism. And if your side cheats then it's ok if our side cheats. And of course we'll never admit that our side cheats or hold our side accountable. There are lots of bullets lying on the ground and when someone finds one they load the gun and shoot it over the divide, even though they know other bullets will come back in return.
The game of politics has devolved into bitter rivals. Instead of saying "your guy is good but our candidate is great!" with a positive message, with candidates people want to vote in favor of, we have both sides saying "well our guy is bad but your candidate is the personification of evil! and the votes are all voting against who they are afraid of the most. It's a stupid game that has no winners. If this was the prisoner's dilemma they'd both be betraying teach other and achieving the lose-lose outcome.
So here's the bright side. Biden seems to be staying out of the fray. He even congratulated the current Trump administration for the Warp Speed effort to get out the vaccine. That's how things *should* work. Both side working together for the good of the people, rather than both sides working against each other for the good of their wallets.
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A pound of flesh will be extracted for every bullshit Trump story about Russia.
If you're following Shakespeare's metaphor, the one who is trying to extract the pound of flesh is the one who loses, and badly. I'm not sure that's what you intended.
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Was this a reference to the four boxes of liberty? If so, touche.
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Indeed, the breakdown of the four boxes has been a persistent theme I have seen in the modern American context. I think we can often convolute some of the issues thought. For instance with the first box, a private platform banning speech does not completely destroy this liberty in a modern sense. However, combined with how we have essentially gathered our internet usage into effective monopolies, it's pretty close to silencing any voices that would not be allowed on these platforms. The solution is either c
Re: If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:3)
"Compare that openness to the con artist who has not only refused to show his grades, but has threatened to sue anyone who releases any information on his failures during his school tenure"
I'd point out here that Mr Obama has ALSO insisted his college records remain entirely secret and kept locked away from public scrutiny, to this day.
So are you equally enraged about that?
Re:If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:5, Interesting)
You're right, Biden is a plagiarist. [washingtonpost.com]
He even did it in college. [nytimes.com]
1) It was bad, but a lot less brazen then what's being alleged here.
2) It was 55 years ago. Unlike your Dear Leader, for whom cheating as a youth was the start of a lifetime of uninterrupted wrongdoing, Biden seems to have matured into a pretty honest dude.
You're gonna need some better whataboutism than that.
Lifelong plagiarizer (Score:2)
2) It was 55 years ago. Unlike your Dear Leader, for whom cheating as a youth was the start of a lifetime of uninterrupted wrongdoing, Biden seems to have matured into a pretty honest dude.
Nope. He routinely plagiarizes to this day. Its a lifelong habit. Its just that only in school is one really called out for it. When its a political speech no one cares. Its just his way, superficiality.
Re:Lifelong plagiarizer (Score:5, Informative)
2) It was 55 years ago. Unlike your Dear Leader, for whom cheating as a youth was the start of a lifetime of uninterrupted wrongdoing, Biden seems to have matured into a pretty honest dude.
Nope. He routinely plagiarizes to this day. Its a lifelong habit. Its just that only in school is one really called out for it. When its a political speech no one cares. Its just his way, superficiality.
I searched around and all the chatter was about that 1987 episode, so if you're alleging that he "routinely plagiarizes to this day" I'm afraid I'll have to ask for a citation.
As for 1987 [snopes.com]:
Maureen Dowd reported that Biden had “lifted” parts of a speech by British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock, “with phrases, gestures and lyrical Welsh syntax intact,” for use in a 23 August 1987 debate at the Iowa State Fair. It wasn’t the first time Biden had used elements of Kinnock’s speech, Dowd noted, but on other occasions he had cited Kinnock as their source:
If you actually think about the process of giving political speeches it's a constant process of refinement and A/B testing. In that case the quote was the message he was focused on, not the attribution. To think he deliberately plagiarized the speech and left the "lyrical Welsh syntax intact" is nuts.
It's was pretty obviously a mistake, the kind that Biden is famous for.
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"The Claim: Pence claimed that the coronavirus plan laid out by the Biden/Harris campaign was so similar to the one that the Trump administration has carried out, it seemed like it had been plagiarized.
Rating: Mostly True. Pence's statement was true."
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-... [newsweek.com]
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Well we could start with the most recent:
"The Claim:
Pence claimed that the coronavirus plan laid out by the Biden/Harris campaign was so similar to the one that the Trump administration has carried out, it seemed like it had been plagiarized.
Rating: Mostly True.
Pence's statement was true."
Wow, I barely caught what you tried to pull there. Let's finish off that quote you copy/pasted:
Pence's statement was true, but taken out of context to imply that Biden has stolen from Trump's Coronavirus plan.
And before that:
Although Biden has admitted to plagiarizing other sources in the past, there is no conclusive evidence that Biden lifted any original ideas or concepts from the Trump administration's coronavirus plan.
Newsweek wasn't rating Pence's claim that Biden copied the COVID plan, it was rating
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Well we could start with the most recent: "The Claim: Pence claimed that the coronavirus plan laid out by the Biden/Harris campaign was so similar to the one that the Trump administration has carried out, it seemed like it had been plagiarized.
Rating: Mostly True. Pence's statement was true."
Wow, I barely caught what you tried to pull there. Let's finish off that quote you copy/pasted: Pence's statement was true, but taken out of context to imply that Biden has stolen from Trump's Coronavirus plan.
The contextual distinction they are trying to make is that the words were not literally the same, just the idea and concepts. However their rating of "Mostly True" contradicts this, the rating relies on the fact that plagiarism is not only about words used but also those underlying ideas and concepts. "Context" is just a semantic game.
And before that: Although Biden has admitted to plagiarizing other sources in the past, ...
So its not a one time even as you originally suggested?
... there is no conclusive evidence that Biden lifted any original ideas or concepts from the Trump administration's coronavirus plan.
Again, semantic games. Attempting to make a distinction that Biden did not cut and paste from Trump, that he merely mis
Plagiarizer too narrow, perhaps habitual liar (Score:2)
"Mr Biden said he "had the great honour of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto" while trying to reach the civil rights leader [Nelson Mandela]
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"But Canadian media quickly noted that the former veep’s words were uncannily similar to those of Jack Layton, the leader of Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party, who issued a poignant open letter to his fellow citizens as he lay dying in 2011."
https://nypost.com/2020/08/22/... [nypost.com]
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"As a law school student in 1965, Biden flunked a class for repeatedly citing published works without attribution, reports said."
https://nypost.com/2020/08/22/... [nypost.com]
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"Biden’s new climate change plan copied passages from other sources"
https://nypost.com/2019/06/05/... [nypost.com]
Re: If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:2)
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Well, HE NEVER CHEATED ON THOSE OTHER TWO DEGREES, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] ;DDD and you idiots elected it president, a senile old proven liar, of the worst sort. I mean seriously WTF?!?
Re: If the Commander in Chief does it... (Score:2)
Tangential but True (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Tangential but True (Score:4, Insightful)
Your last line is correct. Some of the most dumbassed people I've known have had degrees.
Degree == time spent*subject matter*$ invested. Nothing more.
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Meritocracy isn't a lie, the lie is saying that we have a meritocracy.
We do have a meritocracy. However, that meritocracy has to be understood in its scope and characteristics. The meritocracy works to some or even perhaps a large extent. There are flaws in the meritocracy, but the existence of that meritocracy is not based on having a perfect meritocracy; it's not a binary choice between a perfect system or a total void.
There are those with less merit that advance in the system due to systemic flaws or corrupt gatekeepers. Merit is also intrinsically vague. It's meant
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Despite all these flaws, the majority of the people (including those that are well cognizant of the flaws) still try to work within that system, which strongly suggests that some form of meritocracy does indeed exist.
That's because for most people, merit (working hard, excelling in school etc) is still their best bet to climb the social ladder a couple of rungs. But the flaws aren't limited to a few individual cases; it really is systemic, and as someone else pointed out, those flaws pretty much start at birth. I'm not arguing that the fix is to drag everyone down to the same level, or to bump inheritance tax to 100%, but let's not call it a meritocracy until it at least resembles one.
When you tell people they live
Re: Tangential but True (Score:2)
Re:Tangential but True (Score:5, Informative)
A true meritocracy would require the 'death tax' to be strengthened to eliminate inherited wealth. Inherited wealth: what other reason would you need it but to enhance the outcomes of your descendants?
I'm actually for the idea.
If you for the estate tax, then I'd suggest using "estate tax" or "inheritance tax" instead of the loaded "death tax"--especially since that phrase was coined and focus-grouped specifically as a way to garner support against it from regular people [archive.org]:
"high"-lights:
Martin credits himself with coining the term “death tax” in 1993 as a usefully derisive nickname for the estate tax. As the founder and president of the 60 Plus Association--sort of a conservative AARP devoted to repealing the estate tax--Martin is one of the leading advocates for the tax’s abolition.
Yet while few citizens will ever be subject to the estate tax, polls show that nearly 80 percent of Americans support repealing it (at least they do when it’s presented as a “death tax”).
A few years ago, Martin gained an important ally in GOP pollster Frank Luntz, whose polling revealed that “death tax” sparked voter resentment in a way that “inheritance tax” and “estate tax” couldn’t match. After all, who wouldn’t be opposed to a “tax on death”? Luntz shared his findings with Republicans and included the phrase in the GOP’s Contract with America. Luntz went so far as to recommend in a memo to GOP lawmakers that they stage press conferences “at your local mortuary” to dramatize the issue. “I believe this backdrop will clearly resonate with your constituents,” he wrote. “Death is something the American people understand.” Apparently, he’s right. Spurred by Luntz, Republicans have employed the term “death tax” so aggressively that it has entered the popular lexicon. Nonpartisan venues like newspapers and magazines have begun to use it in a neutral context--a coup for abolitionists like Martin.
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Don't presume the cheating stops after they are admitted!
David Foster Wallace (the famous author) was expelled from an expensive private university he couldn't afford because he got caught writing others' term papers for money.
He even went to lengths such as reading the student's former work to make sure he wrote in their voice and it wasn't too good. But one o
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That was my first question about those who'd been admitted. If they're not going to raise the academic bar to match the ever rising acceptance bar then stop pointlessly raising the acceptance bar and randomize acceptances.
that's a lot of money to pay back (Score:5, Informative)
pretty sure that if you get kicked out you have to pay back the value of the education you had received so far. I think it's $100,000 a year or so. Not too smart to cheat on a test where the risk is that big.
these idiots will be in debt for the rest of their lives for cheating on a test
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On another note: who's surprised that the percentage of people TAKING calculus vs the number invested in LEARNING it is even in the double-digit percentage?
To me, it feels like, if there's going to be a default class for learning about numbers, the choices shouldn't be calculus and/or statistics. Make them exhibit a high unde
to be kicked out they may need to court martial? (Score:2)
to be kicked out they may need to court martial? and the level of proof needed is not hit?
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Probation? I thought the honor code at all American service academies required expulsion for cheating. When did that change?
According to the article, 2015. So for over 200 years, the punishment would have been expulsion. I guess they're lucky that the rules were loosened 5 years ago. Seems to me if they wanted to keep to the code the cadets should have been expelled and the remedial classes given to those who stayed.
Interesting that this scandal, with the cadets taking their exam remotely, is on the same Slashdot page as an article about parents protesting Proctorio exam monitoring.
This is to be expected (Score:2)
They're simply employing Mike Pompeo's "Roadmap for a Successful Career".
Similar experience (Score:3)
A group of students all copied the assignment from one of their friends. That friend made a simple mistake with his addition. And everyone blindly copied that mistake.
Pretty easy for the professor to catch on. First year math majors wouldn't all make the same basic mistake.
2 More Things (Score:3)
1. I attended an American engineering school that had an Honor Code. Not West Point, certainly. We all knew the code; it was a pledge that we made in writing in the first week of Freshman year, and it was written on the last page of most exams. We had to sign it with our full name each time, too. Now....as a freshman, we treated it with the kind of disdain that you'd expect most 18 year olds to treat it with. Most 18 year olds have no idea what honor is yet, even those at West Point. It's something your learn, not something you're born with. That pledge didn't mean much to the group of dipshits hat I was in school with, until we saw people caught for cheating and their own signature became their poison. Some took the failed classes, learned, and moved on. Some left the school. Point is that seeing freshman caught for this is the only ones who would be caught for this. By the time you're a Junior (YMMV) in that kind of environment, you start to understand what honor is.
This is all my opinion, of course, arguable 100 ways. It was my experience with it. I didn't graduate from that school, either. Too dumb to make it.
2. What was the mistake? It had to be something obvious enough for the professor to catch, but not obvious enough for the students who at least had some grasp of the material to miss it.
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In the War Game scenario they wanted to invade Australia in January, because they claimed they would not expect an attack in the middle of winter!
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U.S. FIRST STRIKE
USSR FIRST STRIKE
NATO / WARSAW PACT
FAR EAST STRATEGY
US USSR ESCALATION
MIDDLE EAST WAR
USSR CHINA ATTACK
INDIA PAKISTAN WAR
MEDITERRANEAN WAR
HONGKONG VARIANT
SEATO DECAPITATING
C
Re:2 More Things (Score:4)
Point is that seeing freshman caught for this is the only ones who would be caught for this. By the time you're a Junior (YMMV) in that kind of environment, you start to understand what honor is.
If the only reason you don't cheat is because of the consequences if you get caught, then you don't really understand what honor is.
I tend to agree with your other points, though. It isn't something that you're born with, it is something that you learn. I think the students not cheating start to understand the reasons behind the honor code the first time they get put in a group with the cheaters, and realize that they don't have the knowledge to contribute. Everyone will understand after they graduate: if you have a degree that you got by cheating, you can't get through a cursory knowledge check at interviews. Then you end up with a lot of debt and unable to find a job in your field. If you have a degree that you didn't get by cheating, you start interviewing people with a good-looking resume who quickly show that they don't have the most basic understanding you would expect. Or worse, unqualified people who managed to make past the interview process, but you start working with them.
It's at that point that you realize that honor codes exist because our society suffers when people don't abide by them. It's not about fairness, it's about broader consequences that apply to more than just the individuals involved.
I didn't graduate from that school, either. Too dumb to make it.
I hate to see people saying that, because I feel that unless they have a significant mental development problem, it's rarely true. There are a lot of factors involved in failing. I teach a class and the vast majority of people doing badly are clearly people who aren't putting in the effort. However I'm going to assume you really tried your hardest and still couldn't cut it: it still could be the case you didn't have aptitude for that field, but would have excelled in another. I started my undergrad work as a mechanical engineering major. I was good at math, felt like a nice fit. Then I spent two semesters taking Statics and Dynamics, and I was seeing everyone around me ace those courses while I was studying my ass off and still feeling like I didn't grasp it. At the same time,I had to take a Circuits class, and the class I took ended up being a weed-out course with a professor that failed over half the people in it. I didn't crack the book open, and aced it. I realized I had aptitude there and could easily grasp and understand those concepts, but had a harder time visualizing mechanical engineering problems, and I switched majors.
Basically, the first step is always to avoid frustration and try harder. But if that doesn't work, keep in mind Isaac Asimov's take on intelligence [talentdevelop.com]. It's highly field-specific, and if you don't have the talent for one thing, try something else until you find your aptitude.
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"No member of the University Community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the community."
It's about as simple an honor code as you can get. And immensely powerful because it isn't focused on academic cheating. Moreover, it is taken seriously, which means that there are far fewer locks on doors, far fewer barriers to learning and research outside normal classes, than in other institutions. It reinforces the idea that we should be excellent to each other, and, in doing so, reap the benefits
The problem is in education (Score:5, Informative)
Our education system, is so tied to test scores, that a lot of pressure are put on students to succeed at any cost.
When I went to Grad school, the Dean was interviewing me for the program. While I met the requirements, she decided to call me out on some of my lower grades in my under grad where I got a C+ (2.3) in. She seemed very perplex about my answer. The classes I got a C+ in were the classes that I had learned the most in. Because the classes where I got A and B+, were on topics and ideas I already had a good handle on, and I just picked up a few bits new information that was easy for me to fill in my knowledge gaps with. The classes I got a B- and C+ were classes where I was introduced to a new topic, in which I had to learn a lot more, because they covered something that I never really understood before so my grades were not so good, because it was the first time I needed to think in that sort of mindset.
During my undergrad, I choose electives in topics that I was interested in, vs how easy they were to take. Inter-process Communications compared to Computer Graphics. Parallel Processing compared to UI Design. Those decisions I feel gave me more education for my buck, however my GPA did suffer from that.
A lot of the Honors students in my Undergrad University, were Art/Music/Lit majors, where it was easy to get a good grade in those classes. While Science and Engineering Majors just got their degrees (and higher paying jobs) without honors. As they had to take classes that had right or wrong answers.
For many students Cheating was an option, because they needed the piece of paper to get a job they wanted. Because the education system, demands you show that piece of paper, and private industry like seeing that piece of paper as well. Especially when it is a high demand job, with a lot of possible employees, and they want to find the best one. I had found Cheating to be more common with the Foreign students, because their Visas were tied to their grades, so failing a test or having to retake a class, could cause them to be deported back without a college degree. While getting caught cheating could be just as bad if not worse. It was more controllable than hoping you will get a fair test, or the teacher will curve the classes grade.
Train officers to win, at any cost. (Score:2)
Assume the enemy will cheat and train officers to cheat, without getting caught. Cheating in Calculus 101 is the practical examn for the other course Cheating 101. Doing the same error in all the answers? If there is one officer who turned in the correct solution and deliberately circulated a wrong answer to get ahead of fellow cadets, find that man and give him a medal, a commission and a command.
The military is a team. (Score:3)
In what capacity did you serve? Cheating inside the military is completely different from tactical and strategic deception against an adversary because the cheater undermines the meritocratic goals of the system, and an officer who thinks so little of their fellow officers to accept cheating has no integrity and cannot be relied on to put the mission first or value their troops.
This isn't about grades in some civilian credential mill. A corrupt officer has intimate control over many lives, more as they rise
other schools will let you cheat on football team (Score:2)
other schools will let you cheat on football team or get easy classes.
West point is not an football school.
Happened Before At West Point (Score:2)
The military doesn't need your lack of integrity. (Score:2)
Re: Independent Discovery? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that plausible deniability angle is what some of the students are attempting. If they succeed they will have demonstrated an important skill for rising up in any large government beuacracy. This is perhaps a more applicable life skill than the Calculus.
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Re: Independent Discovery? (Score:3)
The statistical significance doesn't come from the one they got wrong but all the others they got right. if 99% of answers are the same and one or more have obscure mistakes, together the statistical significance is high.
The solution to this is for each student to add some noise to their answers bringing the answers they share in come to roughly 90% between two individuals and 70% between the cohort. Probably none of these students are that bright at statistics except the ones that didn't cheat.
Ok then I want an full court martial (Score:2)
Ok then I want an full court martial then.
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Unfortunately that is part of how life works. Every day from courts to upset client, people are accused of things they didn't do.
It isn't pleasant, and will result in monitoring for quite some time, but it will likely work out for them.
If they didn't cheat, they learn about dealing with real-world scenarios for being accused of something they didn't do, and will be more sympathetic when they see it in the world around them. If they did cheat, the future monitoring will apply pressure to hopefully correct th
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I feel like students who took the exact same classes and studied the exact same textbooks, probably make very similar mistakes constantly.
Code software check (Score:2)
They had an issue years ago at my Uni with a group of Computer Science students accused of copying code from each other. It turned out that this group of students had all had the same intro computer instructor who was super strict on code formatting. They were just following that standard for basic variable definitions and loop structure and the code check thought it was cheating.
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zero. These folks didn't get into West Point by being quitters. The evidence is probably overwhelming. In addition, they will have the 'cheater' tattooed on every job application search for the rest of their lives.
Re: Independent Discovery? (Score:3, Informative)
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"They generally serve as an enlisted member if they leave during the final two year"
This is a very bad option. It tells enlisted people that Officers see them as no better than Academy cheaters.
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Kirk was a huge fraud.
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Re:Kobayashi Maru? (Score:4, Insightful)
Kirk never took the test.
Solo shot first.
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The test was designed , not rigged, to fail. Its objective was to see how a potential officer would act under no-win conditions. Kirk never took the test. Solo shot first.
It's just a retelling of the Gordian Knot. [wikipedia.org]I'm not sure how you can claim Kirk was a fraud, as you do earlier, when he meant for his cheating to be caught, just as Alexander was not a fraud in the legend for publicly cutting the knot.
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The Kobayashi Maru had such a limit and penalty. Kirk removed it then took the fraudulent test. Ergo, he was a fraud to claim he would take the test when he knew it wasn't the Kobayashi Maru. That it was discovered later changes that not one whit.
You might also want to read further on the legend. In an alternative version of the story, Alexander loosed the knot by p [wikipedia.org]
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Why are you wasting our time with this sort of thing?
It was a calculus exam.
Last cheating scandal in 1976 was on an electrical engineering exam.
News for Nerds.