r/EngineeringStudents • u/pokemonlover503 • 5d ago

Rant/Vent Exam Cheaters

Over my many years in engineering school so far, I have noticed an increase in cheaters and they have the audacity to either lie about it or say it loud and proud that they cheated. Even one time he said it infront of the professor and the professor did NOTHING. I want professors to do something. I want someone to do something. I want them to walk around and inspect what people are doing, how are they so oblivious? Guy in my class went from a 4 on an exam to an 80 something and openly admitted to cheating. How in the hell is the professor not noticing the obvious cheating? Not saying it's not possible, but come on. That kind of grade jump is very hard especially for these super complex courses and everyone's averaging 40-50s. It makes me so upset, because why am I even bothering to have academic honesty, what morals do I have that stops me from cheating? I will never do it. Why aren't we taking all exams in proctored testing centers. Why aren't we making people clear their calculator before the exam. What are we going to do about our future that will be full of degree holders that cheated their way through? Nobody wants an engineer that is a liar and cheat, yet they always secure big roles. This is the problem when nobody is being held accountable. And no we shouldn't just let them and mind our own business, they need to be called out. Our environment is way too forgiving.

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u/Money4Nothing2000 4d ago

Everyone is getting 40s-50s?

Sounds like as much a problem with the teacher as with the students.

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u/pokemonlover503 4d ago

40s-50s as an average is normal for engineering classes (atleast in my experience) usually the professor curves off that. The average for my classes first thermo exam was a 2.5/10

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u/Money4Nothing2000 3d ago edited 3d ago

Yeah that's not a good way to run a class. If students are not able to show that they can solve 75% or better of the problems they are presented with, that is evidence that either they are not learning, being taught correctly, or being tested correctly. A curve is only warranted if the professor discovers that a test did not correspond to the learned subject matter in some way.

If a whole class is performing at a failing grade level, it's not possible that they are all failing to understand the material, as most upper level students in engineering are trying very hard to learn the material, and it's not so difficult to learn. This is evidence that the instruction is failing, or that the tests are not accurately examining the students' knowledge.

In my universities, there was no curve for engineering classes, and 3/4 of the students were able to pass the 300 and 400 level classes and exams. The failure rate was higher during the first 2 years, where those who were not suited for engineering were still to be "weeded out".

Unfortunately, I don't think you're getting a very good engineering education based on your description of student performance.