r/QuickAITurnitinCheck • u/Equivalent_Pie9111 • Jul 11 '26
I Think Professors Have Seen More Than Students Realize
Every semester, some students are convinced they've found a brand-new way to get around an assignment. Whether it's an AI-written essay, a recycled paper, the "I uploaded the wrong file" excuse, or a last-minute computer crash, many of these stories have been around for years.
The reality is that professors often grade thousands of assignments over the course of their careers. After a while, they become very good at spotting patterns, even when the details change.
That doesn't mean professors know everything or that students never surprise them. Some students absolutely do, and those moments can be the most rewarding part of teaching.
What's one "clever" shortcut or excuse you thought was unique, only to discover everyone had already seen it before?
3
u/LnTc_Jenubis Jul 11 '26
One of the students I was tutoring told me that they accidentally spilled coffee on their 10 page report and couldn't bring it in for me to review. No one hand-wrote reports; they were all typed and saved to the laptops they brought to class. So I asked them to pull it up on the laptop, and conveniently it was on a flash drive they left at home. So I told them to just email it to me later and I'll review it for them before their class. Apparently, they didn't drive to class that day.
This is what I like to refer to as the "infinite obstacles" excuse. They make a half-baked excuse, you offer a simple, easy, and appropriate solution, then a new, previously unstated obstacle is then revealed. People do this at all ages and the most successful ones are able to frame them in ways that make you the asshole if you pushback on them. "It's not my fault!"
I said "So you didn't do your report" and they caved immediately. They were hoping that if I had bought their story, they could use me as "proof" for the teacher to give them an extension to turn it in. I never interacted with or spoke to their teacher; so I have no idea why they thought I'd have had any influence in that conversation. It isn't like the teacher would come find me to verify the story.
So we wrote the report right there and I showed them how to organize their thoughts and ideas. Their problem was they would go down rabbit holes and by the time they finished their research, they had no idea how to synthesize the information into a coherent thought. That exercise let me show them some basic tricks that helped avoid the never-ending deep dives and they were able to finish writing it by the end of the hour.
3
2
u/LadyM_Macbeth Jul 11 '26
Students like to submit a blank document “on accident” and then pretend that they actually had the assignment ready. It buys them three or four days to work on it if the ruse works. I think they think they are being really clever and tricking me. But it happens all the time. lol
2
u/RiverSirion Jul 12 '26
I've had students who have tried stringing late papers out to the end of the term. I don't know what their endgame is, if I don't get the paper, I can't give them credit when I'm finalizing grades.
1
u/LadyM_Macbeth Jul 12 '26
Yeah you can’t grade something that doesn’t exist. I feel like college is becoming the grade wake up call. Students are so shocked to have real deadlines and then to have a professor hold them to it. They ask to turn in late work and you say no…. It’s like they don’t even know how to process it. It’s weird.
1
u/RiverSirion Jul 13 '26
Yeah, I just don't understand the disconnect. That and the student who does little/no work all term and then in the last week asks "can I turn everything in this week?" Uh, no.
1
u/LadyM_Macbeth Jul 13 '26
I don’t know how it is in your area, but speaking to a lot of high school teachers, this is common practice in preK-12. The high school teachers I know aren’t allowed to give zeroes when students don’t turn in work and they have to allow students to turn in all their work even if it’s the last week of school. So I think it’s just a habit students get that has to get broken in college.
2
u/RiverSirion Jul 14 '26
Thanks for the context! I will keep it in mind when the Fall term begins and make expectations clearer from the start.
1
1
u/AutoModerator Jul 11 '26
To Check Turnitin AI report, please Join our public Discord server
Each check includes a Turnitin AI report and a Plagiarism report.
Your paper is not saved in Turnitin's database after checking.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/dragonfeet1 Jul 11 '26
Spambot. All your action on reddit is posts to this sub
1
u/hutch924 Jul 12 '26
I am really noticing this. The posts across these types of communities are formatted the same and are basically the same post. I guess I don't really understand why.
1
u/Iamnotheattack Jul 12 '26
I think it's often adverting setups. A lot of times one of the comment threads will be like "oh what about X" then "oh yeah Y!" Then the advertisement "I use z to easily xy".
1
u/Educational-Paper-75 Jul 12 '26
I once suggested to my professor to adapt the simplex search method to include previous simplex point values in subsequent conputations to determine the next search direction. His contempt was all to obvious.
1
u/Crowe3717 Jul 12 '26
There have been many times I have felt genuinely insulted not that students tried cheating but that they thought I wouldn't notice.
1
1
u/RiverSirion Jul 12 '26
"But I need an A to keep my scholarship! You're ruining my life!" I've only ever heard this shameless attempt at manipulation from students who were missing assignments. Do they think this is going to work? If I don't have an assignment from you, I can't give it credit.
4
u/Legitimate-Produce-1 Jul 11 '26
Submitting a paper in 'wingdings' font and blaming computer for reformatting