Investigation into possible plagiarism

Hi Will, the first thing would be to read this forum people have had some good suggestions and then form an argument based on only the March regulation and try and decipher what they are talking about. Hopefully it’s not material.

The approach I have finalised on is that for me personally it was unintentional. I didn’t understand what they wanted me to do with definitions and that my definition is in the 2020 April report hopefully helps and the materiality in the context of the whole paper. But tbh if they want to take this approach they will. We may be the sacrifice to scare future students.

I just hope they realise that we didn’t prepare for an open book and some of us spent months revising but the ifoa don’t have history of being compassionate to expect the worst.

 

Thanks Priya, thats helpful advise. Best of luck with your situation.

If anyone else has any other ideas, I would be keen to hear them.

I hope it doesn't get to the court stage!

 

Well the amount of people it’s affected, certainly implies their guidance was unclear

 

But if it does, you may want to consider working as a group and getting those of us who weren't accused to act as witnesses.

 

I certainly hope things are resolved long before that stage - good luck and I hope there is a just, fair outcome for all concerned.

 

I would consider speaking to a solicitor because they allowed the use of personal notes but are now penalizing students for answers that came from notes based on their own material. The consequences to peoples careers and reputations are significant. I would not personally be trying to go up against them without clarity on the legal implications of their guidance before the exams versus your approach to an "open book" exam versus their behaviour afterwards.

 

It's expensive to seek legal assistance individually but you are correct about the damage IFoA could inflict on people's reputations here. People should notify FRC, their MPs (and MSPs if in Scotland) and human rights organisations about what IFoA are doing to them and ask for them to urgently intervene before IFoA do more damage.

 

Does anyone who received these Plagiarism/Collusion accusations have a ‘P’ for passed in their exam history section? Or do you all see ‘F’?

 

you have to be very careful though with a group effort - for instance there are people that have actually cheated in the exam - so what happens if you go in with a group of people and the ifoA show proof that some of the people have identical answers for non book work questions for instance - how do you cover costs then for instance - how would you feel covering the costs of people who did this?

 

Says who - you?

IFoA should be fully upfront with evidence and details of accusations but several people have posted here saying they are being left in the dark.

 

I think that human rights organisations will have more pressing concerns than this to be honest - it's this needless sensationalism that really detracts from the credibility of some of your posts to be honest. I would definitely be discussing my concerns and seeking advice from my employer first of all.

 

Thankfully I'm not affected, but I've been watching the thread with interest. As it happened, none of my questions were 'simple' enough to look up the book for but it could easily have been different. If someone has genuinely cheated then they should be kicked out of the profession. However, from reading the thread I think most are accused of quoting educational material. My understanding before the exam was that you could look at the Course Notes (even the electronic ones!) and Past Papers and that you could 'refer' to them but not copy and paste directly. This is still shown online in the April FAQs. I copy the full message below for completeness. This made sense at the time as copying and pasting would give a distinct time advantage. However, as much of my study involved trying to learn parts of the Core Reading verbatim, I find it hard to distinguish between what is plagiarism and what is good study, especially for glossary definitions!

Extract from https://www.actuaries.org.uk/studying/exam-bookings/exam-dates-2020/april-exams-2020
I have seen on social media that these examinations may be ‘open-book’. What are the materials that I will be able to use during your online examinations?

Updated 17 April 2020


In line with our Assessment Regulations (March 2020) you are permitted to use personal course notes during our April online examinations. Personal course notes include electronic or hard copy Core Reading, tutorial materials, and supplementary materials such as notes you have prepared personally as part of your studies.


However, during your examinations such notes may only be used for reference purposes, and you must not copy and paste content from any personal course notes into your answer script.


Our advice is that when referring to such materials, you need to remember that the skills you are required to demonstrate remain the same as in traditional examinations; namely to show understanding of the materials and their effective application to specific situations. You will therefore need to ensure you correctly balance your examination time between use of your personal course notes and completion of the examination paper.


Use of any materials which do not constitute personal course notes are strictly prohibited. For the avoidance of doubt, these include (but are not limited to) materials/items specified in our Assessment Regulations (Section 7d - regulation 60), namely e-templates and any electronic files which contain pre-existing calculations.


You are reminded of your professional ethical obligations under the Actuaries’ Code, or as applicable, to uphold our Assessment Regulations, and you must not collude with other candidates and/or third parties.


Your answer script will be checked for originality to ensure it is your own work, there is no evidence of plagiarism, and that there are no similarities to the work of other candidates. We reserve the right to carry out such checks during marking and after the release of results - as outlined in our Contingency Statement. Any potential case of inappropriate conduct will be investigated in line with our Assessment Regulations, and results will be withheld until such investigations are complete.

 

Explain how IFoA refusing to provide details to those its accuses is consistent with natural justice and one's human rights.

 

I completely agree - very good points.

 

Surely IFoA would fear a represented group action more than unrepresented individuals... or is that too obvious.

 

Where people have identical answers for non bookworm questions psumably those people would have been accused of collusion rather than plagiarism ( which the majority of letters seem to relate to from what I've learned).

I guess we will know in 2 weeks if the institute uphold their assertions and launch disciplinary proceedings against many of the students who received the letters. I presume any proceedings by them against students at that point will need to include the evidence and the crux will be if the evidence is still that their wording matches the wording of their own study materials.

 

Who exactly wants to tell their employer the IFoA are accusing them of cheating in an exam?!?!

 

If a situation occurred where two people had duplicate answers, then the institute would have to issue a cost threat first. Furthermore the court would separate those described above from the rest in a test case.

 

Nobody would want to but the emotional impact of these letters is (imo) an awful lot for a student to bear alone, particularly younger students with little experience of these exams. Plus they will presumably need to divulge why they haven't applied for the upcoming sitting.

 

I have got a letter accusing me of plagiarism. My employer also received notification stating the process and are not happy at all. When I sat the exam I was so busy with work I didn’t read the FAQ but understood it was open book so though you could use points in acted notes in your answers and if you didn’t relate it to the question the examiner should not give you credit.

The ifoa state their guidance was explicit. That is clearly false as this forum itself represents such a small % of people taking exams and I can tell you for a fact that quite a few people I know were confused(some still are). Anyway like many have said, what a massive mistake it was doing this sitting for me and having not only the first 4 months of my 2020 ruined by trying to revise during pandemic but losing summer weeks worrying. Utter chaos. Especially as after this is all over I may have still failed and on the off chance that they let me sit it in sept I have 6 weeks to prepare as my head just isn’t in revision with this uncertainty.

People are talking about court cases. I just want them to make a decision and hopefully let me continue taking exams and hope the consequences for using acted notes (which I think weren’t material) and April 2005 definitions in my exams don’t get me kicked out as I like my job and do want to qualify as an actuary and continue working in this field especially as my hard work so far has bought me and my mum out of poverty and given me great opportunities to work with great people. I was unclear on the guidance, didn’t know the best way to approach an open book exam so made a judgment call.

I submitted evidence and said I was unclear on the guidance and hopefully the type of questions where I used notes were clearly bookwork questions. I tried to paraphrase but there’s only so much you can do on clear cut bookwork questions.

not a great position to be in this. I feel for all that have got letters.

you know a few years ago I was reading this forum and thought why do people like infinity hate the ifoa so much, but the lack of transparency on their part and clarity on so many issues not just exams I’m actually beginning to see the view from the other side. “The ifoa are never wrong”

 

Actually, I think solicitors with experience of class actions should be able to deal with issues such as this. To be able to join the group, you usually need to have a good case and strengthen the chance of being successful.