Student wants consumer advocate to help with essay they bought.

[Pickman's model]

I cheated a bit in O level maths, stole a bit of that special exam paper from a previous exam, wrote some formulae on it and smuggled it into the maths exam where I could have it on my desk looking like exam notes / planning / working out etc

I'm sure we've all done it

(The student is still wrong though)

If memory serves you used to get a formula book

 

[twentythreedom]

If memory serves you used to get a formula book

Not that year / syllabus / exam / exam board etc, no

 

[alan_]

Student intended to commit fraud and only failed because the instrument wasn't good enough. You can commit a crime by attempting one even when you have no chance of succeeding. I can't recall the name of the case where someone got done for attempting to smuggle drugs. They were actually carrying talc but believed they were carrying drugs: genuine attempt >> genuine prosecution

I agree with most of your post But you say student intended to commit fraud. we do not have enough info to know that. How would you prove a fraudulent intent

 

[gosub]

It would be nice on a course if they handed out an example of what a good essay for that course would look like and why.

 

[alan_]

It would be nice on a course if they handed out an example of what a good essay for that course would look like and why.

But they do. The learning resources are full of past papers and specimen answers. That is why I cannot understand people moaning about a financial aspect. It is equivalent to private tuition, education. If however the student attempted to pass that work off as their own then that is plagiarism, but I dont think that has been alleged at the minute.

 

[gosub]

But they do. The learning resources are full of past papers and specimen answers. That is why I cannot understand people moaning about a financial aspect. It is equivalent to private tuition, education. If however the student attempted to pass that work off as their own then that is plagiarism, but I dont think that has been alleged at the minute.

not on courses I've been on

 

[Mr Smin]

I agree with most of your post But you say student intended to commit fraud. we do not have enough info to know that. How would you prove a fraudulent intent

Pretty hard to prove intent 'beyond reasonable doubt' in this context. I'd argue that that no reasonable person commissions essays in order merely to learn from them, but I doubt I'd win the case!
I just saw an article about bogus universities which mentioned that 1 in 3 employers do not verify the degrees applicants put on their CVs anyway.

 

[alan_]

not on courses I've been on

Is that down to the quality of your course and delivery, or the extent of your research skills. Give us a clue which area you are in, and while your at it tell me what you are bustin this buyer of essays for.

 

[gosub]

Is that down to the quality of your course and delivery, or the extent of your research skills. Give us a clue which area you are in, and while your at it tell me what you are bustin this buyer of essays for.

The Scottish Business & IT HND one was quite bad i recall, had 3 essays to do in differing areas before we had really made aware of the level was about 3X too deep on each, but as was by the end of course went back to doing that coz it was the only way I'd actually take anything from the course.
Don't recall being given them on CIM's nor on the OU IT degree I'm currently doing, though the OU's word guide helps though I usually find I can say whats needed in 2/3's of that and wonder what people are padding it out with. (more than happy with my grades)
I don't remember it happening at school either and it would have made for a useful exercise (though I had a few selected for school magazine).

But I am dis-graphic and it is useful to have a base to work from though my final work wouldn't resemble it -something a kid who used to let me see his gcse homework could never understand and resented me getting higher marks.

More about a non cheat use for essays than 'bustin this buyer of essays'

 

[abe11825]

I knew someone who did their book reviews by reading sparknotes. Why get yourself into student loan levels of debt for what is basically a massive doss for the first year and then not use some of that time to read what you are supposed to and make a considered opinion on it?

Between sparknotes and the IMDB fora, that's how I spent my junior year of college... Ain't no shame in it. Sometimes you can't be buggered to read the book or watch the movie. And if you're like most of my English Lit classes, you've read the same book 10 times and haven't read what you should have (Great Gatsby and Girl, Interrupted are rather tattered paperbacks in my collection. Of Mice and Men or Catcher In The Rye have yet to make any mark on my collective brain and bookshelf. I'm at the point now, I don't want to read "the classics"!). *Sparknotes not included in this last bit.

 

[Celyn]

So you didn't read the actual books?

 

[alan_]

The Scottish Business & IT HND one was quite bad i recall, had 3 essays to do in differing areas before we had really made aware of the level was about 3X too deep on each, but as was by the end of course went back to doing that coz it was the only way I'd actually take anything from the course.
Don't recall being given them on CIM's nor on the OU IT degree I'm currently doing, though the OU's word guide helps though I usually find I can say whats needed in 2/3's of that and wonder what people are padding it out with. (more than happy with my grades)
I don't remember it happening at school either and it would have made for a useful exercise (though I had a few selected for school magazine).

But I am dis-graphic and it is useful to have a base to work from though my final work wouldn't resemble it -something a kid who used to let me see his gcse homework could never understand and resented me getting higher marks.

More about a non cheat use for essays than 'bustin this buyer of essays'

I didnt realise, I thought past papers and specimen answers were a thing which stretched from O (or whatever it is now) and A level up to university. My most recent qualification, MSc supplied a whole host of specimen dissertations with grades to show how to approach the subject. There was about 12 -14 different approaches to tackle it and each had its own methodology and learning outcome.

 

[Orang Utan]

Between sparknotes and the IMDB fora, that's how I spent my junior year of college... Ain't no shame in it. Sometimes you can't be buggered to read the book or watch the movie. And if you're like most of my English Lit classes, you've read the same book 10 times and haven't read what you should have (Great Gatsby and Girl, Interrupted are rather tattered paperbacks in my collection. Of Mice and Men or Catcher In The Rye have yet to make any mark on my collective brain and bookshelf. I'm at the point now, I don't want to read "the classics"!). *Sparknotes not included in this last bit.

shameful

 

[Orang Utan]

I knew someone who did their book reviews by reading sparknotes. Why get yourself into student loan levels of debt for what is basically a massive doss for the first year and then not use some of that time to read what you are supposed to and make a considered opinion on it?

totally, why be on the course if you don't want to read the books? do something else that interests you. i was a total dosser who was permanently baked. i rarely bothered with lectures and didn't go to many seminars, but i read the books. if you read the books, you can write the essay without bothering with the other stuff

 

[xenon]

Why even cheat on English literature course. Surely you have chosen it because you like books and literature have opinions or want to develop them.

I haven't read the whole thread but there is no exam.

 

[equationgirl]

I didnt realise, I thought past papers and specimen answers were a thing which stretched from O (or whatever it is now) and A level up to university. My most recent qualification, MSc supplied a whole host of specimen dissertations with grades to show how to approach the subject. There was about 12 -14 different approaches to tackle it and each had its own methodology and learning outcome.

Past papers are often available but some exam boards only make the model answers available to teachers in my experience.

University is different now that fees come into the equation, there are a lot more expectations from students.

 

[Pickman's model]

Past papers are often available but some exam boards only make the model answers available to teachers in my experience.

University is different now that fees come into the equation, there are a lot more expectations from students.

Yeh if they do the work they might get a good degree

 

[Pickman's model]

Why even cheat on English literature course. Surely you have chosen it because you like books and literature have opinions or want to develop them.

I haven't read the whole thread but there is no exam.

No, this course is examined on the basis of a 2,500 word essay due in by noon on 17 August

 

[Pickman's model]

Between sparknotes and the IMDB fora, that's how I spent my junior year of college... Ain't no shame in it. Sometimes you can't be buggered to read the book or watch the movie. And if you're like most of my English Lit classes, you've read the same book 10 times and haven't read what you should have (Great Gatsby and Girl, Interrupted are rather tattered paperbacks in my collection. Of Mice and Men or Catcher In The Rye have yet to make any mark on my collective brain and bookshelf. I'm at the point now, I don't want to read "the classics"!). *Sparknotes not included in this last bit.

Did you never learn to read the introductions in books? For shame, abe11825, for shame.

 

[Thora]

I only read the sparknotes and Cliffs notes for my Literature A Level - Shakespeare and Chaucer = too boring

 

[DotCommunist]

you'r only cheating yourself *shakes head*

 

[abe11825]

Sparknotes adds extra insight to the books you're reading.

I never read "the classics" during school years because they weren't being taught in my school system. So to clarify my past statement about "never reading Catcher in the Rye" and those type of books, it's due to not having it taught in public school English classes. I spent all of high school reading the same book over and over again (Great Gatsby, Night, a few Nathaniel Hawthorne essays for example) because no teacher could be bothered to teach anything else (hell, my freshman year English teacher even admitted that she didn't want the class reading To Kill A Mockingbird. Instead, we watched the movie. I bought an extremely tattered second hand copy at a used bookseller recently, though. I'll get to it at some point). Once I got to college, it was the same thing all over again as if nothing changed. I may have picked the courses this time, but it didn't stop the professors from using the same basic criteria. However, I have to admit, I had one class that was interesting because we actually were able to read an array of books that probably would never have been read. I've still got some of those books and I read them again every few years. Several of my classes were so dull because even when I did write lengthy term papers, they weren't accepted. That's why for a certain professor, I figured the best way to get the grade was to utilize certain websites. It was the only way she'd accept my homework.

I feel it's all a matter of opinion. I don't completely agree with cheating for everything, but it's possible that it could be dependent on the situation.

 

[Pickman's model]

what i used to do was make up quotes. i particularly remember in one gcse essay saying 'as graham greene said in his introduction to the sadly long out of print 1933 edition of macbeth ...' and my teacher wrote in his comments 'i want to know what you think, not graham greene'. i got an a for english literature.

 

[mrs quoad]

Why even cheat on English literature course. Surely you have chosen it because you like books and literature have opinions or want to develop them.

I haven't read the whole thread but there is no exam.

Nothing killed my love of reading quite so effectively as a Literature degree.

 

[gosub]

Past papers are often available but some exam boards only make the model answers available to teachers in my experience.

University is different now that fees come into the equation, there are a lot more expectations from students.

on OU I can buy past papers, no sign of model answers.....should be.