Sac cheating.. 3/4

[passbleh24]

Hey guys,

So recently I found out that one of my classmates had access to SACs for a couple of my school's assessments before they actually sat the SAC. The most recent Unit 4 SAC which led to the discovery was where this person actually got 100%, whilst the second highest score was 75%... It was a super tough SAC with some questions being out of the study design which was a tad dodgy and an extension question that most people were unable to complete. Usually the same people get A's and A+'s but were not able to for this SAC as it was shockingly difficult.

Now the school is aware about the most recent SAC but this person actually had some of the SAC's for Unit 3 as well.. making their Unit 3, rank 1, not accurate. The deadline for submitting Unit 3 marks is actually this Monday and i'm worried that the school won't be able to do anything about this.

Also is it even considered cheating? Since they did the SAC's for practice beforehand and technically were not 100% sure what to expect. I personally think they were aware since our school has used the same company for a few SACs but there is no way to prove this.

Just a bit confused and annoyed as to why they chose to keep it quiet for soo long.
Any advice?

[Aaron]

So they were given the SAC as a practice and given the exact same one for the actual SAC?

Some points:
* If they were legitimately given the SAC by the teacher (or found the SAC online etc) and it matched what they were actually given, it is not the student's fault so they can't be blamed. If anything, the responsibility re: this lies with the teacher not the student to comply with VCAA guidelines.
* The only time that this student could be penalised would be if they obtained the SAC by illegal means e.g. hacking teacher's laptop, collecting off their desk in a staff only area (and even if this was true, the teacher has to ensure SACs are kept secure) etc.
* I find it quite strange that items were included in the SAC that weren't in the study design. Are you sure this is the case? If so, you may contact somebody at the school with your concerns.

and an extension question that most people were unable to complete.

Eh, this part is common. Extension questions are just that, extension. They aren't designed for everybody to get full marks for. This is definitely allowed.


In a general sense, schools and teachers are responsible for ensuring that the company/commercial SACs they use aren't repeated, meet the study design requirements for the current year etc. So.. unfortunately in your case the student is not at fault unless again, they obtained via illegal means. If you want to direct any sort of blame, your teacher would be a good place to start for allowing it to be used without checking.

tl;dr :
- student not to blame if teacher recycled SAC / used commercial without checking. Exception to this is if they illegally obtained a copy before the actual SAC.
- responsibility lies with the teacher/school to comply with VCAA guidelines for SACs.

[S200]

Not to discourage, but I'd blame the school...

Back in Yr 10 I figured out that our school used the Pearson Places test for our topic tests (unedited) and I downloaded them and used them as revision. Was it cheating? Only when I printed them out in miniature and took them into a test...

[Sine]

If the SAC is one of those SACs you can only obtain if you are purchasing as a school it's probably on the side of cheating but I don't think the teacher should have the power in this situation since it's really up to the company to take any action.

If the student just happened to do a "legal" practice SAC the student isn't really to blame.

Beyond the study design questions are fine - they probably shouldn't be doing it but it isn't too uncommon especially when a teacher needs to separate a few students in the rankings.

[passbleh24]

So they were given the SAC as a practice and given the exact same one for the actual SAC?

So what this student did was get Sacs from her friend’s schools and her tutors... Unfortunately there was also a way for this student to double check as my teacher tells us the mark distributions and general topics on the test.

* If they were legitimately given the SAC by the teacher (or found the SAC online etc) and it matched what they were actually given, it is not the student's fault so they can't be blamed. If anything, the responsibility re: this lies with the teacher not the student to comply with VCAA guidelines.

If you want to direct any sort of blame, your teacher would be a good place to start for allowing it to be used without checking.

Yes the school is ultimately at fault for being lazy and not making their own SACs. The reason why I think the student is also at fault is because they chose to keep quiet about it and keep this advantage to themselves ( no one else had access) and as a result their rank is not a true indication of their potential and everyone else in the cohort has been negatively effected. They also pretended like they hadn’t seen the SAC which is quite deceiving.

Will the school be able to modify their unit 3 marks even if it is the schools fault ultimately? Because there was an unfair advantage...

If the SAC is one of those SACs you can only obtain if you are purchasing as a school it's probably on the side of cheating but I don't think the teacher should have the power in this situation since it's really up to the company to take any action.

I’ll have to find out about this. Since she gained access to the SACs from friends and tutors maybe the distributors are also at fault?

Not to discourage, but I'd blame the school...

Back in Yr 10 I figured out that our school used the Pearson Places test for our topic tests (unedited) and I downloaded them and used them as revision. Was it cheating? Only when I printed them out in miniature and took them into a test...

Would doing this multiple times on a 3/4 SACs that contribute to rankings and study scores make it cheating? Most of my cohort is pretty annoyed.. I understand that the school is at fault and I’ll probably have to speak with someone that has higher authority than my teacher.

Thank you everyone for contributing. I’ll make sure to discuss these points with my school on Monday!!

[Lear]

Can’t comment intelligently on who is in the wrong and who deserves to be punished, but I sincerely hope your school manage to fix this situation. I can definitely imagine your cohort’s frustration at being disadvantaged compared to this person.