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The academic integrity policy can forbid access or use of test solutions. A student who studied from that resource isn't innocent. You want to tune your polici

The academic integrity policy can forbid access or use of test solutions. A student who studied from that resource isn't innocent. You want to tune your policies so that students will bring that extra test that was lost in the printer tray back to you.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
> A student who studied from that resource isn't innocent. I guess it's more understandable if that's the position being taken. However, that makes me want to ask a different question: why is that bad? A student who uses said resource to study for the test during usual study hours but walks into the test without any extra material is taking the test on their own merit.
- LodeOfCode 3y ago
  Because the test can't reasonably cover all of the course material in depth. The idea is that the test takes a representative sample of the course material, so your understanding of the material on the test is indicative of your understanding of the course material overall. Specifically studying the material you know is on the test invalidates this premise, and by extension the results of the test
- MengerSponge 3y ago
  I'm going to assume you're giving this hypothetical student the benefit of the doubt, so we can discard the "ACCACA DABACCA" version of test prep (Which is what the professor in the linked article is alleging) https://youtu.be/0cyS4HZ_Dxc?t=56 https://youtu.be/0cyS4HZ_Dxc?t=56 With that out of the way: Why is it bad for a student to study for a test from an unofficial test bank? It's really stinking hard to write a good test question. It needs to be possible, clear, and not exactly* like problems you've done in class and homework. There are a few exceptions to this for "canonical" problems/derivations. Capacitance of parallel plates, for example. It's very different if a student chooses a problem to study, and that problem is on the test, versus a student who is given a problem to study that is from the test. For example, if I give a "derivation of cylindrical capacitor" in my test prep packet, and a student looks at that and also studies the spherical and parallel plate geometries, that's great for them! They thought deeper about what was going to be on the test, and directed their attention accordingly.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago

> A student who studied from that resource isn't innocent. I guess it's more understandable if that's the position being taken. However, that makes me want to ask a different question: why is that bad? A student who uses said resource to study for the test during usual study hours but walks into the test without any extra material is taking the test on their own merit.

LodeOfCode 3y ago
Because the test can't reasonably cover all of the course material in depth. The idea is that the test takes a representative sample of the course material, so your understanding of the material on the test is indicative of your understanding of the course material overall. Specifically studying the material you know is on the test invalidates this premise, and by extension the results of the test
MengerSponge 3y ago
I'm going to assume you're giving this hypothetical student the benefit of the doubt, so we can discard the "ACCACA DABACCA" version of test prep (Which is what the professor in the linked article is alleging) https://youtu.be/0cyS4HZ_Dxc?t=56 https://youtu.be/0cyS4HZ_Dxc?t=56 With that out of the way: Why is it bad for a student to study for a test from an unofficial test bank? It's really stinking hard to write a good test question. It needs to be possible, clear, and not exactly* like problems you've done in class and homework. There are a few exceptions to this for "canonical" problems/derivations. Capacitance of parallel plates, for example. It's very different if a student chooses a problem to study, and that problem is on the test, versus a student who is given a problem to study that is from the test. For example, if I give a "derivation of cylindrical capacitor" in my test prep packet, and a student looks at that and also studies the spherical and parallel plate geometries, that's great for them! They thought deeper about what was going to be on the test, and directed their attention accordingly.