Cheating due to time difference

I've just noticed this thread:

http://www.acted.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1074

The student is posting about the exam over 5 hours before it's sat in the UK!! I'm not having a go at MissAussie, I realise she hasn't said anything about the questions, but surely there is a massive potential for less honest candidates to cheat here?? Surely students taking the exam at a different time should be supervised until the exams have been sat *everywhere* in the world? I'm really angry

 

Nice thought, but come on? If you write in Aus, you're up to 10 hours ahead of GMT, then if someone in the States or Canada writes later that day... are you seriously suggesting that the profession should keep everyone under lock and key until everyone's finished? 24 hours possibly?

This has always been a possible flaw in the system. Not a new thing, although given, the 'net does make it easier.

 

International bodies has countered this.

It works this way:

Eg: Exam Day: 20 Aug for all

Ppl in the east (Australia, NZ, etc) take their exam in the late evening/ early night (7-8 pm)
Ppl in the middle (Middle Asia) take their exams mid afternoon
Ppl in the middle East take their exams about noon
PPl in Europe take their exams about 10 am
PPL in USA take their exams early morning about 7-8am.

And no candidate can leave until 3 hours are up.

Hence cheating is not possible.

 

You wouldn't all take a 10am exam at 10am! Some would take it early morning, some late evening, etc. They manage it for GCSE, A Levels, etc.

And I wasn't suggesting anyone would cheat using the ActEd forums - they would have to be pretty stupid to try that one! But the fact someone was free to post on here means they could have easily been on the phone to someone in the UK.

Edit: It's happened here aswell:
http://www.acted.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1073

 

I don't know, if someone in Australia really wants to be stupid enough to tell someone in USA what questions came up, that's their problem. They are only reducing their own chances of passing!

The other thing is, you are not allowed to remove your qn paper from the exam room, so unless you can remember the question word for word, it won't help much. (In CA1 one word in a question can make a HUGE difference to the answer.) I've seen different exam report answers for questions that are roughly the same.

But I do agree that with today's technology there is definitely more chance for cheating in this way, but I don't think there really is anything anyone can do about this issue. If we have a morning and afternoon session, the whole world can't write at the same (GMT) time.

 

agree with Erik, there's no way I'd pass on answers, I want to pass too!!

I appreciate you're not having a go at me, I would be fairly concerned if i was in your situation too. Can't guarantee whether other Aussie students would pass on answers or not. I just hope not... it's very unfair and against the spirit of the exams.

 

We had our exam at 9:30am - 12:30pm this morning.

We probably should have had it from 2pm-5pm to avoid any possible "cheating" going on due to time difference. (I would've liked to sleep in! had to get up at 6am this morning, wrecked my concentration)

How do we make this suggestion to the organisers?

 

My exam was from 10am to 1pm UK time in London. I don't think you can have exams during the day in both Sydney and London with the same paper and not have this potential issue (for example there was another exam from 2 to 5 this afternoon in London - when would you propose having this exam in Sydney? )

It's not a perfect system I agree....

Thomas

 

examinations*actuaries.org.uk ?

Edit: The * should be an at sign. It won't let me type it.

 

Well, it would be a shame if people could only take the exams in the UK. The timetabling is hard enough without trying to get everyone doing it at the same time - that would effectively restrict them to one exam a day. Four week exam period anyone? Otherwise they'd have to set extra exams, with all the extra work that would entail.

How about a bit of trust? We're all members of a professional body (albeit student members). I think we could be trusted not to deliberately cheat in an exam. If not, how will passing a few exams and paying a few bob suddenly create all this honesty, integrity and professionalism?

L

 

Both exams could be taken at the same time in other countries. It's normally a CT and an ST on the same day, so I don't think it would cause many problems. Plus the timetables are published years in advance so students can plan around this.

 

But what if you had two exams left to qualify... say a CT4 retake and an ST exam. They could both fall on the same day, so you'd be forced to delay one of them by 6 months. Bit of a drag!

 

In that (fairly unlikely?) situation you could take both on the same day, but be supervised during your lunch break? That's what they do if you have a clash with A level exams.

 

The Institute has already come accross a case where someone in the UK got hold of the exam papers from abroad prior to the exam:

http://www.actuaries.org.uk/files/pdf/professional_affairs/discipline/tribunalrep_kandasamy.pdf

Although he got kicked out, I don't think they found out who supplied him the papers.

 

Erm, yes, but then to be fair you'd have to have all exams at the same time in ALL countries surely? Or do only non-UK students cheat?

 

The report doesn't say that he got them from abroad though. He could have got them from a leak too, surely? And it just said that he'd had 'prior knowledge'. Now dunno about you, but the communication paper?

Having another 4 hours of prep beforehand (if it was just a time-zone thing) would not really help matters here, not unless the paper was word for word copied.... having it for a day or two, maybe.....

 

Obviously I don't think only non-UK students cheat

Say UK exams start at 10am and 2pm. A non-UK country could start a "double" sitting anytime between 11am and 1pm UK time. This might save them having to sit one of the exams very early in the morning or late at night. This assumes nobody is allowed to leave early of course.

 

Can't we all just get along....?

Here, who wants a hug?

 

lol

well i guess the admins of this forum could always lock the exam discussion thread until after everyone has finished sitting the exams. Of course they can't control what happens outside this forum (unscrupulous students etc)...

 

This guy is posting about the CT3 exam questions over 2 hours before it even starts in the UK:

http://www.acted.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2953

This can't be right! People won't even have left home yet and could now easily cram for the last questions Can't the mods monitor the boards more closely in exam week and delete any such posts?