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Greg Cizek (1999) reports that a student who had studied well
for one essay exam question was astonished to find a second
question for which he hadn’t studied at all. He wrote
“Blue Book II” on the cover of his blue book and
began it in the middle of a sentence summing up the first question,
then proceeded to answer the second question beautifully. The
professor apologized for losing his first blue book.
• Girdler (1967) reports: A friend of mine tells this
about her brother Jack, a sometime student. Jack found himself
sitting in the classroom during an important examination with
two blue books, a pen, and a question he couldn't answer.
Being naturally bright, if lazy, he thought of the following
solution. In one of the blue books he wrote a letter to his
mother, telling her that he had finished writing his exam
early but was waiting for a friend in the same class and so
was taking the opportunity to write to her. He apologized
for not writing sooner but said he's been studying very hard
for this instructor, who was a nice guy but had pretty high
standards. When the time was up he handed in this blue book
and left in a hurry with his unused one. He hurried to his
text, wrote an answer, and then put the blue book in an envelope
and mailed it to his mother in Boston. When the instructor
found the letter he called Jack, who explained that he had
written in two blue books and must have got them mixed up,
and if the instructor had the letter, the answer must be in
the mail on the way to Boston. He offered to call his mother
in Boston and have her send the envelope back as soon as she
got it. He did, she did, and the blue book was sent back,
with the inner envelope postmarked the day of the test and
the outer envelope postmarked Boston.
• One urban legend claimed that a professor announced
that his final examination was open-book and students may
use "anything they can carry into the classroom."
One student took the instructor at his word and struggled
into class carrying a graduate student piggyback and the graduate
student proceeded to write the exam for him.
• A student was suspected of cheating by a proctor
on the final in a huge lecture class. "Do you know who
I AM?" the suspect demanded, as if he had connections.
"No," said the proctor. "Good," responded
the student, who proceeded to grab the stack of completed
exams, thrust his into the middle, shuffle the stack, and
run out of the class.
• Barbara and David Mikkelson report: A student begins
work on writing a two-page exam, but the first page of the
test includes many questions he cannot answer. The unprepared
student spends all his time answering the questions on the
second page; when the period ends, he slips the first page
into his notebook and turns in only the second page. He immediately
rushes out of the room, looks up the answers to the first-page
questions, fills out that page of the exam, and finally places
the paper on the ground and steps on it a few times. After
preparing his doctored test page, the student then seeks out
a friend who has a class in the same room later in the day
and requests that the friend hand the paper to the instructor
and claim that he found it in the back of the room. The ruse
successfully fools the instructor, who awards the devious
student an "A" on the exam.
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