Almost 100% Foolproof way to Cheat in Exams?

[Shagnasty]

@Johnny_Bravo

If this is indeed true for you, then you are abnormal. The typical human brain just doesn’t work that way when we’re talking about long-term retention and application of new knowledge.

I can promise you it is true for me as well. I just had to disregard all of the conventional study advise and go with works for me and that was incredibly intensive cram sessions that could literally last days nonstop. It does indeed work for me at least and I remember it quite well indefinitely. I got great grades (often the highest in the class and some even the highest ever for that class). I tried the incremental study methods and found that they were, at best, a supplement to my more intensive cramming methods.

Granted, it works much better for subjects like pure science rather than foreign languages but, even in that latter case, I found it easier to just force myself to learn to conjugate 100 verbs in a night rather than learn 3 a day for a month.

I realize that people vary greatly in this but I just roll my eyes when people claim that the more intensive methods won’t work because I know for a fact they can and do for some people including me. I wish that wasn’t my preferred style because it is stressful and exhausting when you have to hit the books with a hard deadline.

[Morgenstern]

You have 30 minutes to finish this test. If you leave the room, hand in your paper, even if you aren’t finished.

[Hari_Seldon]

@Lightnin

I cheated on exactly one test in school.

It was seventh grade, and we had to memorize the square roots of the numbers 2 through 12, out to six decimal places. Now, I’m great at tests- I was good with concepts, and could ace any multiple choice test. But rote memorization? Screw that. I studied for a week, but couldn’t keep the number straight. I knew I was going to fail the test, so I knew I had to cheat… but how would I write the numbers down in such a way that I could access them easily, but not get caught?

Heh. I wrote the numbers down… on my pencil. All I had to do whenever the teacher came by was tighten up my grip on the pencil and the numbers would just look like chew marks.

Worked like a charm.

That is just about the worst teaching imaginable. I know pi to 12 places, thanks to a mnemonic rhyme (now, I have a rhyme assisting my feeble brain its tasks resisting) and e to 15 thanks to a fortuitous sequence (2.7 1828 1828 45 90 45, the spaces to be ignored).

But memorization of that sort is just useless. I was never even required to memorize the times table. It was posted on the wall for use during classes and tests and we had it all memorized before the end of the school year.

[simster]

@Johnny_Bravo

If this is indeed true for you, then you are abnormal. The typical human brain just doesn’t work that way when we’re talking about long-term retention and application of new knowledge.

Then I, too, have an abbynormal brain.

[Asympotically_fat]

@hakunamatatee

What if you suddenly have diarrhoea in the middle of the exam?

This happened to me, though it was near the start of the exam, despite feeling unwell I soldiered in for an exam, within a few minutes though I literally ran out of the door into the toilet with only a half-mumbled excuse. I wasn’t well enough to carry on with the exam and I went home. Luckily for me it was only a mock exam, but I was ill for a while and if I remember correctly I did miss some real exams as a result and had to take them later in the year.

[Chronos]

I’m yet another physics teacher who allows a page of notes for exams, and I do indeed do it for two reasons: I don’t think it’s worthwhile to test on rote memorization, and I know that preparing the sheets is a good study technique for the students. I don’t collect the sheets, but I do like to walk around the room during the test and take a look at what the students are using. Some just have the formulas, some have worked sample problems, and some have so much material on them photoreduced to such a degree that I can’t even make out what they have.

[Johnny_Bravo]

@simster

Then I, too, have an abbynormal brain.

Well, this is the internet, where 99.9% of all users exhibit traits that only .01% of the real-world population expresses.

Seriously, though, maybe you do - I don’t know you and have no reason to doubt you.

What I have observed as an educator is that the vast majority of people who consider themselves more suited to that type of learning are actually people like WhyNot, who have in one respect or another never learned how to engage with their studies in ways that are most conducive to long-term retention. I’m the same way - I crammed in school and even as an adult I tend to work on projects in dense spurts of productivity.

The psychology is pretty straightforward in this case, though. It’s called the spacing effect if you care to read up on it, but it doesn’t say anything surprising: we learn better when we learn over time. Alternately, just google something like “effectiveness of cramming.”

You (and the others in this thread) may be different, but just about every *other *human being who studies that way is being inefficient at best and utterly wasting his or her time at worst.

[WhyNot]

@Johnny_Bravo

…people like WhyNot, who have in one respect or another never learned how to engage with their studies in ways that are most conducive to long-term retention…

I think you missed the point. My long-term retention is just fine. I got a 32 on the ACT. I got a perfect score on the NCLEX. I graduated college with a 3.8 in a competitive nursing program with no weighted grades and an inflated grading scale (meaning it took a 97% to get 4 points). There is absolutely nothing wrong with my long-term retention. I just get there differently than you do. This IS the way that is “most conducive to long-term retention” for me.

Here’s something I learned in Statistics class 20 years ago (and retained). Statistics are great for talking about large groups, and crap for talking about individuals. Yes, given a large enough sample size, I’m sure that traditional, gradual studying produces superior results in long-term retention. That doesn’t tell you anything useful about an individual.

[Johnny_Bravo]

@WhyNot

This IS the way that is “most conducive to long-term retention” for me.

First, I didn’t mean to offend you and I apologize if I did.

Second, How do you know that?

Suppose I take it upon myself to start running (god forbid, but bear with me). Over the course of a couple years, I get into great shape and run several miles every single day.

Eventually, I start running with other like-minded folks. A buddy tells me that my form is way off, and with some changes in the way I run, I would see across-the-board improvements in my training. I say, “no, this is the way that works for me. I’m meeting my goals and am exactly where I want to be in terms of my fitness.”

That’s great for me, and if I’m where I want to be then nobody has any right to denigrate me for… not doing whatever it is runners do to increase the efficiency of their stride. But that doesn’t mean that I’m acting in the way that’s best for my running.

It’s the same with studying. When we’re in school, a lot of us (like you, and like me) never really learn how to study. We, to further stretch my metaphor, run in the way that feels best even if it’s not the optimal way to run.

You achieved an admirable level of success in a difficult program using methods which work for you, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a different approach could not have worked better. Maybe not in terms of raw numbers, but possibly in terms of the amount of time and effort it took you to get there.

Or maybe not. As you say, individuals are not groups.

Just understand that I’m not talking about esoteric or fringe research, here. This is basic, well-researched stuff.

[Dangerosa]

@Chronos

I’m yet another physics teacher who allows a page of notes for exams, and I do indeed do it for two reasons: I don’t think it’s worthwhile to test on rote memorization, and I know that preparing the sheets is a good study technique for the students. I don’t collect the sheets, but I do like to walk around the room during the test and take a look at what the students are using. Some just have the formulas, some have worked sample problems, and some have so much material on them photoreduced to such a degree that I can’t even make out what they have.

Almost every class in college where I went did it that way. I only made a detailed sheet ONCE. Mostly, I was one of those people who had four formulas and three facts that weren’t sticking on a notecard. But I remember the study groups that would get together to create the photoreduced sheets. They put them together in teams. (I suppose that’s why some profs collect them).

[WhyNot]

@Johnny_Bravo

First, I didn’t mean to offend you and I apologize if I did.

Not so much offended as frustrated. It drives me crazy when I feel like someone else is trying to define my experience and they get it wrong.

Second, How do you know that?

Because I’ve done the long slog, and it didn’t work. That’s how I know that Stuff doesn’t go into my head on the second reading. Or the third. But yeah, I’ve had to do it. I’ve had teachers who forced us to study by their preferred methods - turning in written summaries of chapters or outlines every day and that sort of thing - and it was torture, and didn’t result in any better performance on assessments. I could crank out a summary, sure, but I didn’t remember anything in it until I crammed it into my brain in the 48 hours before the test. Then I remembered it forevermore.

[pulykamell]

@Johnny_Bravo

If this is indeed true for you, then you are abnormal. The typical human brain just doesn’t work that way when we’re talking about long-term retention and application of new knowledge.

Maybe I’m abnormal for this reason, maybe not. Or maybe I’m wrong about what my ideal method for learning things is. But you said cramming is no better than cheating for retaining knowledge for future applications. I completely disagree. It’s possible that my method of intense studying isn’t the most efficient, though I personally feel it does work best for me. But cramming and last-minute, high-pressure studying has been fine for my retention, and certainly far, far, far better than cheating.

[filmore]

If you could leave to go to the bathroom, you could just hide the cheat sheet somewhere in the bathroom instead of in your underwear. I wonder how often that happens? Has anyone here found a cheat sheet hidden in a bathroom?

[Johnny_Bravo]

@pulykamell

But you said cramming is no better than cheating for retaining knowledge for future applications. I completely disagree.

I believe that was in fact somebody else though, for some people at some values of cramming, the sentiment isn’t far off from the truth.

[pulykamell]

@Johnny_Bravo

I believe that was in fact somebody else though, for some people at some values of cramming, the sentiment isn’t far off from the truth.

Whoops. I blurred the Johns together, it seems.

[simster]

@pulykamell

Whoops. I blurred the Johns together, it seems.

There’s some irony there, I think

[Shagnasty]

@Johnny_Bravo

Well, this is the internet, where 99.9% of all users exhibit traits that only .01% of the real-world population expresses.

The psychology is pretty straightforward in this case, though. It’s called the spacing effect if you care to read up on it, but it doesn’t say anything surprising: we learn better when we learn over time. Alternately, just google something like “effectiveness of cramming.”

You (and the others in this thread) may be different, but just about every *other *human being who studies that way is being inefficient at best and utterly wasting his or her time at worst.

There is no need to be condescending. My undergraduate and graduate school was in cutting edge behavioral neuroscience. I even went to into an Ivy League PhD program for it. People in the minor leagues have repeatedly tried to explain to me my my method of studying is “wrong”. What they can’t tell me is why I got better results than anyone using my own methods. It probably is true for most people but I know it isn’t for me as demonstrated by real-world results… I am not advocating it for anyone else because it is a stressful and high-pressure way to learn a subject quite well extremely quickly as long as you are solely focused on it.

I have my own ideas explaining why it can work for some people. Very stressful situations can facilitate memory retention under some circumstances. If you can learn to work with that phenomenon, you can learn an extraordinary amount of information very quickly. Final exams always provided me with that level of stress and alertness so I would just stay up and study anywhere from 24 - 72 hours straight for them, ace them and then crash for about 16 hours. Contrary to your claims, the knowledge doesn’t disappear as soon as it is over either. It is a notable and traumatic event so the questions and answers get etched into your brain forever like few other things do.

[digs]

Teacher here. If we’re trying to get kids ready for “the real world”… well, when are they ever going to be without aids*, reference material, friends/mentors, and the internet?

Isn’t the student who learns HOW and WHERE to find out how to do something much more liable to be successful than a loner who tries to memorize everything and struggle through it themselves?

We keep hearing from potential employers, “We don’t want lone rangers. We need students who’ve learned to work with each other toward a common goal.”

(Though I must admit, I benefitted from the less enlightened techniques of the 60s: I could memorize like a mofo and ace most tests, even if I wasn’t learning anything long term.)
*“Of course you have to memorize square roots. You’re certainly not going to be carrying a big heavy calculator in your pocket In Real Life! ::cackle::” – 11th grade math teacher
(Wrong-o, Mrs. Kolteska)

[usedtobe]

You want ‘How to Learn AND Retain’?

I have never been able to grok math (illegal cheat sheets got me a D in Calculus.

Then I got a job on a survey/engineering firm.

All of a sudden, the Trig function that stood between me and a task of wading across a cold river made TONS of sense.

And the geometry made calculating the quantity of concrete, crushed rock and rip rap were clear.

IOW: Practical math v Abstract math.

[Melbourne]

All through university, we were allowed to take bathroom breaks during exams. Not in the first hour (until lockout-time), and not in the last half-hour. Bathroom visits would be proctored.

Would have looked deeply suspicious if anyone ever took a bathroom break in my courses, because no one ever did. We were all far too busy trying to complete the exam on time, to take time for things like bathroom breaks. Not mention the idea of being followed into the bathroom was unapealing.

Also, we were young an fit, not old an incontinent.