What are some methods that teachers use to catch cheaters?

Question

I am looking for methods that don't involve software such as plagiarism checkers. What I am wondering is what teachers do both in class and on assignments that are turned in to detect and catch those students that attempt to cheat.

Answer 1

seperate the students and put up folders. It will be alot harder for the student to cheat because they will have to look around folders and across alleys between desks which will be easyer for the teacher to catch. If you can catch one or two kids cheating and you give them a serious punishment, then the class will generally stop cheating out of fear. For geting them not to cheat on homework, it is almost impossible. The only way is to give every student that knows eachother a different assignment, not just re-orderd but different questions. However, even then the students can just get their parents to do all of the work for them (yes that does occur) or just look it up on online sites (especially yahoo answers, lol)

Answer 2

A student that usually doesn't do their work and have bad grades, and then all of a sudden gets a high score on their tests or quizzes may have cheated.

Answer 3

You didn't say what you teach, which makes a difference in how you control cheating.  I taught chemistry and used multiple choice tests to speed up grading.  My experience was that most cheating happened between classes rather than in just one class.  Someone in an earlier class would provide the answers to subsequent classes.  They would take photos of the test using their cell phones.

Have a different multiple choice test for each class and give the test on the same day for all classes if you can.  Most test generators can rearrange the questions and answers so that one class cannot give the next class the answers.  

Have a seating assignment that is not based on who wants to sit close to another.  Although seating assignments are mainly used to cut down on talking in classes.  Put the students you think are cheating on your front rows or aisle seats if you can.

Consider any cell phone found out while a test is being taken as proof of cheating.

Give a cheater a 59.4% grade on their test.  You don't want to give a zero as it makes it impossible for a student to get out of the hole they have dug for themselves.   You can also allow them to take the test over (but use a version you used in another classroom).  Also if a student is "sick" the day of the test, give them a test used in another class when they return.  

Assignments are often copied and are the most common thing that students cheat on.  I try to deemphasize the homework and go around the classroom checking it in the first five minutes of a class.  Checking homework at the beginning of the class eliminated those students who copy homework during the class period.  I would give them credit for doing it or a failure if they don't have it to show.  Partial credit if they only do some of it.  I didn't allow late homework unless there is a reasonable excuse like an illness or family had to be out of town.  (Even excuses can be faked.  You only worry about the repeat offenders.)

Be aware that you don't have the energy or time to catch all cheating.  The kids know that and for them it is a game, even in AP classes, although most of the kids there are capable of learning and usually have some self discipline.

If you catch 50% of the cheating that goes on you are doing very well.

Answer 4

I tend to look at the students who are very good friends and sit near each other.  When I compare their written samples, it often looks very similar.

Answer 5

Make two different versions of a multiple choice test, reorder the questions, but make it look exactly the same.

Kids will cheat and copy other answers, but they will be wrong because it is not the same test! This really works well.

Answer 6

Sometimes you can go online on yahoo or google and type in a few sentences of what the students have written and if there are similar articles or stories written online you know they have been plagerized by simply looking at the original author

for tests or class assignments make an a version and b version and make every row different

for example

row 1 a row 2 b row 3 a row 4 b

so it would look like this

a  b  a  b  a  b  a  b

students would either have to talk to the second row over

or turn around

students who turn around are very easy to spot depending on class size

Answer 7

I don't use any methods -- I pretty much know my students and know their writing styles and such. I also do a lot of oral questioning. it's pretty obvious if they can't answer the question orally that they wouldn't suddenly know the answer on the written test.

Answer 8

same handwriting, same exact sentences. stuff like that. Just change the words around a little ***** and don't copy word for  word. They accuse you of cheating, just tell them "what so you think i'm not smart enough I had to cheat!" Do it once, and they'll never accuse you again...

Answer 9

Watch students while they take a test.  If you're talking about essays and take home assignments, you have to be very familiar with the WAY each student writes.  That way, you can tell when the writing is not his.  Give several small writing assignments at the first of the year and keep them for comparison (handwriting, vocabulary, usage, etc.) in case you have a question.

Answer 10

looking back, i feel this is where generL GOOD BEHAVIOUS MATTERS. A BADLY BEHAVED STUDENT IS  assumed to be more likely to cheat. there are other tell tale signs like looking around furitively, not appearing confident, a very big diff in test results

Answer 11

Compare their answers with each other and if they are very similar or identical, then they probably cheated.

If it's a project, and you have to check for plagerism, what I do is I type in part of a sentence into google and search it. And if direct match comes up, I know they plagerized.

If teacher's keep student projects/reports, then say an older brother turned in a report on geology 2 years ago....the younger sibling wouldn't be able to copy directly from that, as teachers have it on record.

During a test/exam, check student's waterbottles for cheat sheet labels and check their calculator lids for cheat sheets...

That's all I can say...

Answer 12

Checking the internet for new cheating methods...