Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

It wasn't intentional that I got an academic parallel to my main topic in today's student-accessible version about punishment against cheaters.

Sometimes, it is better to let the students think they are getting away with cheating by acting lax, when in fact I'm more vigilant as they try to get answers using the conventional means.

First of all, no objective questions (fill in the blanks or enumeration) as much as possible to prevent the proliferation of cheat sheets.

When these students go to their work places anyway, it's not what is memorized that gets them success, but knowing where to look for the answer or how to obtain the answer from raw data.

If there are basic concepts that the students really have to know, (and have demonstrated that they do not believe to be significant enough to remember) I will include them in the test, but only for a minimal percentage of the total for that test.

Second: seating arrangements. Use knowledge from previous exams and previous subjects to determine who are the most "inquisitive", then place them in positions where they will do the least acquisition.

Maybe even place them with students who are known to be diligently anti-cheating, or are too busy concentrating on their own solutions to help out, and will hold it against the one asking.

Even if they are desperate enough to ask the teacher for some clues to what they conveniently forgot (read: did not study on) the teacher will be able to count it against them, maybe even say outright that "I will be grading the test you answered limit of what you know, not what I know." Best example: a certain student.

There's giving them different sets for those sitting beside each other, or giving them different initial values for the same problem.

If you ask your seatmate for help, you may get it right, but your seatmate is busy solving his own problem to give you the final answer outright.

Session 1871 doesn't know the teacher is observing all the old tricks of cheating being performed. Class dismissed.