Took my first grad-school midterm this Thursday in Advanced Linear Optimization. Spent a lonnnnnggggg time studying the more esoteric aspects that could potentially be tested, and felt pretty prepared for the test. What I FORGOT to do was actually practice the simplex algorithm, which is sort of the most basic part of the whole thing. Conceptually it's quite simple (basic addition and subtraction), but in practice it is super easy to make a small mistake and have it propogate through everything else. Basically like Linear Algebra, but a little nastier. Anyways, completely screwed up my simplex algorithm, which probably means I did not do well on the test (next 2 questions required that solution).
But that's not the rant. No, the rant has to do with my fellow students. The vast majority of our class are foreign students from a particular country (which I will not name), but lets just say they have a lot of chai-walla's there. Very few ever come to class. When they turn in homework (a time you would think they would come), one student shows up and turns in a stack of assignments, which makes it seem like they are copying each others work. When they are in class they talk constantly, or show up 10-30 minutes late. Keep in mind, this is a GRADUATE LEVEL ENGINEERING class.
And here's the kicker. The idea that they have to be told to STOP CHEATING in the middle of the test is beyond insane to me. These students were OPENLY cheating in the test. I was sort of ticked that the TA didn't just boot them from the class immediately, but I don't entirely fault the TA for giving them a pass on it once (she said if "I see you cheating again..."), because the end result of one of them being busted for cheating would be them losing their student visa's and being deported. It's an intense responsibility for a TA to have. But for that exact reason, the intensity of the repercussions, I can't imagine what in the world they are thinking, cheating on a test. And this of course ignores the (to me) even more important issue of how you could justify cheating at the graduate level. They will be expected to understand this material beyond this class. They can't cheat their way through a professional career.
I've seen cheating from all walks at the undergraduate level, but I was really shocked to see it in grad school. Is this something unique to the educational systems in certain foreign countries? The Chinese students don't follow this paradigm, they are generally attentive, punctual, respectful, etc.
Anyways. I was appalled. And....I dunno. I struggled really hard on this test, and the homeworks. The idea that other people are cheating their way through it is just shocking.