re: inspired by AI thread - did you cheat in college?

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I did a summer job as as pipe fitter helper inside Shell refinery in Norco the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. frick that job. That was the most miserable job ever.

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yeah it made me go back to school real quick.

First attempt at college I dropped out my junior year with a 1.7 GPA. My gpa my second go round was a 3.8 or 3.9. I didn't know what I wanted to do the first time. Second time I knew what I didn't want to do. Ended up with a 3.1 cumulative.

Yes, when necessary. I can’t even do simple math, so cheated in College Algebra and other high math subjects. In the words of the most successful football coach ever, If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”

Ill be honest here, there were a few classes that I absolutely cheated my arse off in. As I got more into my major this became less possible but with some of the freshman/intro classes I took this was much more possible.

I was at a pledge brothers wedding last weekend who was a party to my cheating scheme. Myself, him, his now wife and a random friend of his from Houston were all in an intro Geology class together. The four of us got together the week before finals to plan how we would study for this exam and by this point we knew the final was gonna be 4 answer multiple choice questions.

We broke up our material for the final into 4 parts and each one of us memorized the material we each decided to study. When the test came, we tapped our pencil on the paper to indicate the answer we thought it was. One tap for Answer A, two taps for B, so on and so forth. We each naturally changed a few answers on each paper so it wouldn't look to suspicious. I think I ended up with a 93 on that final which was the lowest grade, the other 3 had like 95+.

We actually didn't even really need to cheat as we genuinely liked the material and all went to class which was rare for me my 1st year. It was more so used for the stuff we didn't know.


Anyone who took tests/finals in the math lab at LSU and was there at any point from 2011-2016 likely knew about the trick of presubmitting a test and being able to see your current score. You could then go back into the test and change the answers you were iffy on and see how those changes affected the score. I was glad I was done with my math credits by the time they figured this loophole out.

Did not cheat, but definitely took advantage of lazy professor's using the same tests year after year. It wasn't too hard to get ahold of those old tests for studying.

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First attempt at college I dropped out my junior year with a 1.7 GPA. My gpa my second go round was a 3.8 or 3.9. I didn't know what I wanted to do the first time. Second time I knew what I didn't want to do. Ended up with a 3.1 cumulative.

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Honest question, but is that even doable these days? I had many friends who struggled in college, go on a walkabout and realize that "Mom and Dad were actually correct", and finish college strong.

It just seems like college is a different animal these days with low tolerance for forgiveness.

No and I have the grades to prove it.

Sure I cheated.

I used a folded piece of paper about the length of the inside of my forearm. One end was taped to the inside of my elbow. Folding it gave it some rigidity. The cheat sheet was written in tiny print on the tip of the paper.

It was hidden by long sleeves. When my arm was bent, the end of the paper would emerge from my cuff so I could read it. When the teacher walked near me, I straightened my arm and flexed my fingers as if I was getting rid of stiffness.

I did the same thing with my legs, where I could read my notes when I rested my ankle on the top of my opposite knee as if I was crossing my legs.

Freshman year I walked into Music Appreciation for the first time in a few weeks, it was exam day. I had no idea, probably had a Reggie's stamp on my hand.

cheated off the girl next to me on the listening portion. She went 25/25

Didn't realize we had different exams after that. I got 0% on the rest

The teacher called me in. I thought I was cooked and was going to get busted for cheating. Instead, she saw that I was dyslexic and should have granted me extended time. She blamed the Scantron cause she looked at it, my handwriting is so bad that it was believable that I bubbled stuff in wrong.

She was going to let me retake it. Such a kind hearted woman that I felt bad about going along with dyslexia being the reason i failed.

I dropped the class the second I left that her office

I had put off taking machine shop until the last minute and I needed it to graduate in the summer of 1960, because it was required for graduation and not offered in the summer. I had already taken off the prior Spring and Summer semesters on a Co-Op program to earn money for last two semesters.

SO I ended up taking machine shop at the very last moment - I knew absolutely nothing about machining anything at all. First thing we had to do was make the 'tool' and then had to turn a piece of I inch stock down to any dimension that was within some tolerance from end-to-end (.001 inch as I recall) Had to complete that assignment to pass the class. Then had to do one other = make a 1/2" diameter bolt with a specified hexagonal head. That would get you a "B" - to get an "A" you would have to make a special specimen to be used in Strength of Material Labs.

There were about 20 students in my class - at least half dozen of them had already worked as machinists.

Within a week a dozen were done with their "A" - it took another several weeks for the rest of them to either get their "A" or settle for a "B."

So there I was - all alone for the last two months of the term - and had barely completed the 'break-in' task. I HAD to pass, but wanted a B (knew I'd never pull an 'A') Finally got the hang of it and was progressing along.

As I was getting close to the end, I failed to retract the cutter far enough before moving it back to the other end. IT scarred the thread the whole length. I had to remove that flaw or it would not pass, and I had no time to start over.

So I took it home (against the rules) and spent all night with fine sandpaper reducing the appearance of the scar. Had to hold it just right to see it.

When I finished, it was the last day of Spring semester - all grades were posted, the campus was about deserted. I took my bolt in to the instructor and without looking up, he took it and got a nut out of his desk put it on the bolt and gave it a spin - it smoothly went all the way down the bolt.

He handed it back to me and went out and posted "B" next to my name.

I kept that bolt until our every last move about 8 years ago - somehow it got lost in the discarding of 50 years of superflous material over the prior half century. Wish I still had it. It would have made a great hand-me-down to my great grandsons