4 ms·

So my version of that story is less analog and arguably less academically honest. I had a somewhat challenging mid-level math class in college where after each

So my version of that story is less analog and arguably less academically honest. I had a somewhat challenging mid-level math class in college where after each homework assignment and test the professor would give us a URL to a PDF of his scanned handwritten completed version of the work. The URL path was something like /math-321/2019/fall/test-1.pdf, and the professor diligently made sure that each file wasn't available until after each test was graded. Unfortunately, the professor was not sufficiently diligent to remove URLs using the exact same pattern for previous years and semesters of the same course. I discovered throughout the course that there had been some trivial changes to the assignments and tests (moving questions around, slightly changing constants, etc.) and only a few non-trivial changes.

causality0 4y ago
Gods I miss the halcyon days of pulling the entire file directory down and rooting around for interesting stuff like that.
idontwantthis 4y ago
My digital logic professor was so lazy he reused previous year homework questions on exams and exams were completely open notes. The old questions were available with answers on old versions of the course website that were still online. Everyone just brought the answers to each exam.
- robbintt 4y ago
  He may not have been lazy; he may not believe in the system.
  - MonkeyClub 4y ago
    He was probably still believing in the salary he was drawing from the system.
    - ralgozino 4y ago
      Exams are for you to evaluate your progress, a professor doesn't give a flying duck about your grades, maybe only in the statical sense. You are only lying to yourself.
      - greyhair 4y ago
        Your GPA may be what gets your foot in the door, but your knowledge and your ability will determine the long arc of your career.
blippage 4y ago
> slightly changing constants As a maths lecturer once said: some of the problems will be similar with some of the numbers changed. Pi, however, will remain the same. ;)
ktpsns 4y ago
I did the same, shared with my fellows, got denounced, got a written warning by the university and the faculty hated me afterwards for "hacking".
gtk40 4y ago
Reminds me of over a decade ago I was in a high school AP course. At the start of the course, the teacher recommended we get a AP prep book to study throughout the year, and recommended 2 brands. She specifically said not to get one brand, noting that it was of inferior quality. I had already got the prep book she didn't recommend as I had found it on sale before that remark was made. I later learned that she used that book for all of her test questions, sometimes literally copying the test from the book with minimal editing. I got a 100% on a test out of the blue after averaging in the 80s and then had to make it less obvious.
- fezfight 4y ago
  Similarly, with a slight twist, a prof I had used to recommend we read the entire text book, not just the chapters required for the class. It was an open book exam so people figured they could annotate the pages or whatever and didn't bother to follow his adcice. He would often say, 'everything [we] ever want to know is in that book!' He was right. The final exam was verbatim the practice exam given at the end of the book. As luck would have it, I had discovered the practice exams a week earlier. Once I realized they were identical to the final, I literally copied the answers and handed it in. It was a 3 hour exam and half the class was done in 15 minutes.
  - fuzzfactor 4y ago
    I had one where on the first day of the semester, the very first thing the minute the class started, the professor casually said "if you do every homework problem in the book, you'll get an A on the final." Not everyone was there on time, some students were going to drop & add the class and most people weren't paying attention. He casually joked for a couple minutes then settled down to get started. There was never another hint. When the final came, each question was verbatim from homework problems that were not assigned.
  - benj111 4y ago
    I had an exam once where we were told to read the entire question paper first. At the end it told you to ignore all previous questions and just do this one. 2nd favourite exam question after an economics multiple choice exam where we had to calculate the probability of passing the exam just by guessing.
Cerium 4y ago
My chapter of Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society) got so tired of how unfair it was that people would share around old tests and decided to do something about it. Since there is no way to stop people from doing this, we got permission from the dean to start a test and study sheet bank and made it publicly accessible on a website.
- Thorrez 4y ago
  Many of my CS classes posted pdfs of a bunch of previous exams on the course resource site to study from.
- wrp 4y ago
  Over his whole career as a professor, my father was so concerned about test sharing that he kept a file of every test he ever gave and was careful to never ask the same question twice.
  - worthless-trash 4y ago
    Respect, the amount of work to do that is mind boggling.
    - 6510 4y ago
      Its easy to spot the pattern and useful to know what wont be asked.
      - Beldin 4y ago
        Errr... many questions can just vary numbers a bit. There's very little value to knowing that the inverse of 3 mod 7 won't be asked this exam - it's trivial to change the numbers and test the same knowledge with a slightly but sufficiently different question. I imagine there's a somewhat similar type of questions for non-CS disciplines (same case description, different key clue, hence different answer).
        4y ago

causality0 4y ago

Gods I miss the halcyon days of pulling the entire file directory down and rooting around for interesting stuff like that.

idontwantthis 4y ago

My digital logic professor was so lazy he reused previous year homework questions on exams and exams were completely open notes. The old questions were available with answers on old versions of the course website that were still online. Everyone just brought the answers to each exam.

robbintt 4y ago
He may not have been lazy; he may not believe in the system.
- MonkeyClub 4y ago
  He was probably still believing in the salary he was drawing from the system.
  - ralgozino 4y ago
    Exams are for you to evaluate your progress, a professor doesn't give a flying duck about your grades, maybe only in the statical sense. You are only lying to yourself.
    - greyhair 4y ago
      Your GPA may be what gets your foot in the door, but your knowledge and your ability will determine the long arc of your career.

blippage 4y ago

> slightly changing constants As a maths lecturer once said: some of the problems will be similar with some of the numbers changed. Pi, however, will remain the same. ;)

ktpsns 4y ago

I did the same, shared with my fellows, got denounced, got a written warning by the university and the faculty hated me afterwards for "hacking".

gtk40 4y ago

Reminds me of over a decade ago I was in a high school AP course. At the start of the course, the teacher recommended we get a AP prep book to study throughout the year, and recommended 2 brands. She specifically said not to get one brand, noting that it was of inferior quality. I had already got the prep book she didn't recommend as I had found it on sale before that remark was made. I later learned that she used that book for all of her test questions, sometimes literally copying the test from the book with minimal editing. I got a 100% on a test out of the blue after averaging in the 80s and then had to make it less obvious.

fezfight 4y ago
Similarly, with a slight twist, a prof I had used to recommend we read the entire text book, not just the chapters required for the class. It was an open book exam so people figured they could annotate the pages or whatever and didn't bother to follow his adcice. He would often say, 'everything [we] ever want to know is in that book!' He was right. The final exam was verbatim the practice exam given at the end of the book. As luck would have it, I had discovered the practice exams a week earlier. Once I realized they were identical to the final, I literally copied the answers and handed it in. It was a 3 hour exam and half the class was done in 15 minutes.
- fuzzfactor 4y ago
  I had one where on the first day of the semester, the very first thing the minute the class started, the professor casually said "if you do every homework problem in the book, you'll get an A on the final." Not everyone was there on time, some students were going to drop & add the class and most people weren't paying attention. He casually joked for a couple minutes then settled down to get started. There was never another hint. When the final came, each question was verbatim from homework problems that were not assigned.
- benj111 4y ago
  I had an exam once where we were told to read the entire question paper first. At the end it told you to ignore all previous questions and just do this one. 2nd favourite exam question after an economics multiple choice exam where we had to calculate the probability of passing the exam just by guessing.

Cerium 4y ago

My chapter of Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society) got so tired of how unfair it was that people would share around old tests and decided to do something about it. Since there is no way to stop people from doing this, we got permission from the dean to start a test and study sheet bank and made it publicly accessible on a website.

Thorrez 4y ago
Many of my CS classes posted pdfs of a bunch of previous exams on the course resource site to study from.
wrp 4y ago
Over his whole career as a professor, my father was so concerned about test sharing that he kept a file of every test he ever gave and was careful to never ask the same question twice.
- worthless-trash 4y ago
  Respect, the amount of work to do that is mind boggling.
  - 6510 4y ago
    Its easy to spot the pattern and useful to know what wont be asked.
    - Beldin 4y ago
      Errr... many questions can just vary numbers a bit. There's very little value to knowing that the inverse of 3 mod 7 won't be asked this exam - it's trivial to change the numbers and test the same knowledge with a slightly but sufficiently different question. I imagine there's a somewhat similar type of questions for non-CS disciplines (same case description, different key clue, hence different answer).
      - 4y ago