Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Plymouth University to take down anti-cheating posters after they were found to be helping students cheat

The 'No Cheating' posters included formulae that could be used for maths exams

Jack Simpson
Sunday 04 May 2014 16:47 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Universities usually do all they can to ensure that students do as well as possible in exams.

Practice papers, extra seminar classes and libraries staying open 24 hours a day are all part of the University service to try and help their students gain them crucial extra marks.

However, Plymouth University has gone over and above the call of duty, after it was found that posters put up in exam halls intended to stop students from cheating in exams, were, in fact, helping students cheat.

The University has had to remove their anti-cheating posters after one student claimed that the posters helped him gain 10% more marks than he would have done otherwise.

The unnamed student took to Reddit after his maths exam and said that the anti-cheating poster, which includes an image of a hand with mathematical formula scribbled all over it, helped boost his mark as those formulas present on the hand could be used in his maths exam.

The Plymouth student who identifies himself as hazzapp 123 on the news website posted a picture of the poster and wrote: "Just took a maths final with this on the wall of the exam room. It has formulas on that were needed in the exam. This poster got me an extra 10% on the paper."

The post was met with scepticism by officials at the University who said that the posters were too far away from students for them to be able to make out the formulas and use them during exams.

Speaking to the student newspaper The Tab, the University said "They were located in the exam hall at a distance where the individual formulae would not have been observable by any student taking their exam.”

Nevertheless, they did admit that the picture, which was taken from stock photography website Shutterstock, did include genuine mathematical formulae and as a result the University has decided to remove them for the rest of the exam period.

They said: "The posters used to remind students of the dangers of cheating contained official stock imagery, which included genuine mathematical formulae.

Adding: "In light of the concerns raised, however, the University has replaced the posters."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in