So on our final exam we had to solve a set of equations for X and Y. You could look at the problem and tell they were likely to be low positive numbers. Anyway, I was running out of time and just threw down a guess of x=1 and y=2 for part a and part b. It turns out that my guess to part a was the right answer to the other version of the exam but not the right answer to my version. Now my professor is trying to get me expelled from school.
Anyway, here is what I'm going to argue before the board.
1.) The other version of the test is clearly different. It was a different color and no one in their right mind would copy from a test that they *know* has different answers.
2.) The professor refused to check if the guys beside me even had this answer.
3.) Guessing the same thing to both parts should imply that I didn't cheat because it makes no sense to get an answer and then assume a different question has the same answer.
4.) The professor has a propensity to use 1,2 in his answers and it seemed like a logical guess given that the problem looked to yield low numbers.
5.) My vision is 20/70 and I couldn't even see the test if I had wanted to.
6.) The girl in front of me had my version of the test and was even closer. Had I wanted to cheat I would have just looked at her test instead of one that you can clearly tell was different.
7.) the professor even admits he didn't see me cheat. He just thinks it's weird I got that answer.
So do you think the university's review panel will find me 'not guilty'? Their standard is that clear and convincing evidence has to be shown to find someone guilty and that the burden of proof is on the accuser.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
"Their standard is that clear and convincing evidence has to be shown to find someone guilty and that the burden of proof is on the accuser."
Then you should be fine but who knows what will happen?
1. Good point
2. Will the prof check this before your hearing?
3. Good point
4. This is perhaps your strongest argument, when combined with #3
5. What is your *corrected* vision as applicable to the distance in question.
6. Weak, but useful. If the girl was *directly* in front of you, could you *really* see her paper? The kids I saw cheating in grade school always cheated diagonally up a row.
7. Also a strong point.
Have you talked directly to the prof? How did he react to your explanation?
I know the feeling all too well -- I was in front of my school's honor board between the and of classes and commencement, for a class required in both of my majors. It was about 2-3 points on a project that was 10% of our grade (maybe half a percent of my final grade, which was *not* in jeopardy). I grabbed the wrong output from my stack of about 2 dozen, and turned it in. I certainly don't blame the prof, as he was a member of the honor board, himself: in his spot, I would have done the same thing.
If it's any help for you, I was acquitted based on my explanation -- although it was a 5-2 vote.