Did I cheat? Or did I study well?

orcestra May 03, 2019 at 14:36 2400 views 10 comments

This happened to me once. I don't know what to think...

I was studying Macbeth in English at high school. The teacher said "the exam is next week. You can read books wriiten by literary ctirics. But you really should use your own ideas". I was so busy with other subjects that I didn't read any critical analyses; I had read the play of course.. Then two days before the exam I started to worry. I read a long essay by a US critic about how Macbeth was not a hero.

Then the exam came. The topic was "Is Macbeth a Hero?" Suddenly the whole essay that I had read poured through my head. I proceeded basically from memory [this was a closed book exam] to give the same arguments that the critic had. Including from memory quoting from parts of Macbeth.

A few weeks later my English teacher gave me an A for the exam and said on my school report "impressive, original, thoughtful response that went deep into Macbeth's inner emotions and motivations". I felt bad. I felt unworthy of the mark. But I didn't know if I had cheated or not. In a sense I hadn't. Had I ? Sure. I hadn't acknwledged the source. But in an exam thats closed book you can't be expected to. I'd done the work to read it. I'd even out researched the teacher who had a phd and was a great teacher who knew a heck of a lot. Should I have felt bad for that?

Yet I thought about telling him and asking for the mark to be lowered. If I had run into him - he was the school senior director of studies so sometimes he was hard to find - I might have. I still feel bad about it all.

Comments (10)

Shawn May 03, 2019 at 14:43 #285245 0 likes

Quoting orcestra

Should I have felt bad for that?

You got lucky... No need to feel bad about a happenstance.

I like sushi May 03, 2019 at 14:46 #285249 0 likes

Reply to orcestra I wouldn’t worry about it. Reiteration of another's ideas is a skill in and of itself. It is asking a lot to expect young students to come up with fresh perspectives when their life experiences likely equip them to say pretty much the same thing.

Also, for future study, try to avoid others views about a piece you study. Once you’ve formed your own ideas you’ll reap more benefits from then looking at others thoughts on the matter. If you rely too heavily on the views of others it could blind you from personal insight.

Congrats! :)

Streetlight May 03, 2019 at 14:48 #285250 0 likes

Did you cite the critic in acknowledgement? Probably would have been a good idea. But don't fret too much. You did the work - the reading - along with the understanding that allowed you to write your own essay, and well enough to get a good mark. At a high school level that's pretty cool. In future, all you need to do is cite your sources, and you're usually fine.

orcestra May 03, 2019 at 14:49 #285251 0 likes

I add that to read more than my teacher was not easy; he was once a lecturer in history and literature at the University of Hawaii. But yes I agree that my own views first would have been better scholastically.

Shamshir May 03, 2019 at 14:56 #285256 0 likes

Quoting orcestra

Yet I thought about telling him and asking for the mark to be lowered.

Then tell him, but let him judge whether the mark should be lowered.

Though it is an indirect analysis, if you agree with what you have written, what is the issue?

Sir2u May 04, 2019 at 02:15 #285448 0 likes

Quoting orcestra

I still feel bad about it all.

You had read something he had not. If he was supposed to be the teacher, then he should have done the research and read about it before assigning it. Then he would have known it was not original.

I don't think you should feel bad about him not doing his job properly.

Alan May 07, 2019 at 01:43 #286613 0 likes

I've been through that same situation before. It was an engineering test and I had a book to study from but I wanted more exercises so I looked up on Google and I found an exercise to work on. When I saw the test I realized it was exactly the same exercise I had found on Google. I had a high grade on that test and I just realized I had studied very well because I had looked elsewhere other than the book. Certainly, I was a little bit disappointed with my teacher because he had no imagination but that was completely his problem.

Metaphysician Undercover May 07, 2019 at 02:02 #286619 0 likes

Reply to Alan
That sounds like a lazy professor, getting the exam questions off the internet.

Alan May 07, 2019 at 02:09 #286622 0 likes

Reply to Metaphysician Undercover
Yes, he was... Sigh

I like sushi May 08, 2019 at 04:12 #287037 0 likes

Many students at university simply copy from textbooks and paraphrase without much thought. They are just fooling themselves though. You studied something at least rather than literally opening a book up in front of you and mindlessly copying it (I’ve seen this done by many students at uni)