I don't think that's the slippery slope part. I think the slippery is not WHERE the test/information was procured, but HOW it was. If they merely bought the tea

I don't think that's the slippery slope part. I think the slippery is not WHERE the test/information was procured, but HOW it was. If they merely bought the teacher's textbook, then it's not cheating. Even if they knew most of the exam's question came from that textbook, it's not cheating. It's lazy, and doesn't foster real learning, but it's not cheating. To me, this isn't a story on cheating, this is a story on laziness, and what acceptable level of laziness is allowed in higher education.