Harvard Students Are Not The Smartest Cheaters

The Harvard Crimson reports new details on how an assistant professor discovered enough similarities between final exams last spring to initiate an investigation into the entire class’s tests, and among the missteps taken by Cantabs: copy-pasting each others’ typos. Yes, it would appear that the students who collaborated with one another on the final exam for “Introduction to Congress,” 125 of whom now face an investigation, are not very skillful cheaters. Assistant Professor Matthew Platt described his discoveries in a letter to administrators. Among the warning signs:

On a bonus question, “all the answers use the same (incorrect) reading of the course material in arguments that are identically structured,” Platt wrote.

And:

He also noted that the same typo—an unnecessary space in “22, 500”—was present in two exams.

Borrowing your classmates’ answers is a pretty lazy move. Borrowing your classmates’ incorrect answers is an even lazier move. Failing to copy edit your classmates’ incorrect, borrowed answers is perhaps the laziest of all moves.  [Harvard Crimson]