Is asking someone who already completed a test how hard it is, and comparing it with previous exams WITHOUT revealing the exam details an academic offense?
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hi there,
good question! here’s what the code of behaviour on academic matters says (i’ve bolded the clause that’s relevant here):
1. It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:
(a) to forge or in any other way alter or falsify any document or evidence required by the University, or to utter, circulate or make use of any such forged, altered or falsified document, whether the record be in print or electronic form;
(b) to use or possess an unauthorized aid or aids or obtain unauthorized assistance in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work;
(c) to personate another person, or to have another person personate, at any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work;
(d) to represent as one’s own any idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism (for a more detailed account of plagiarism, see Appendix “A”) ;
(e) to submit, without the knowledge and approval of the instructor to whom it is submitted, any academic work for which credit has previously been obtained or is being sought in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere;
(f) to submit any academic work containing a purported statement of fact or reference to a source which has been concocted.
what you’ve described feels sliiiightly grey to me, but only slightly. as far as i know, it’s perfectly okay to ask someone who’s already taken a test how they found it — their assessment of how it went is going to be so subjective that you can’t really obtain an unfair advantage from it. that is, as long as they’re not divulging details about the test, and just telling you whether it was easy or hard.
however, i do wonder what you mean by “comparing it with previous exams.” i’m not quite sure what that entails, since (to me) you’d need to know details about the exam to make a meaningful comparison. also, how do you have access to previous exams? that’s a bit sketchy, unless your instructor/department provided that access.
but that’s just my take, as a fellow student who happens to have an above-average understanding of academic offences. you can try contacting your registrar’s office to ask someone who’d be able to give you a more authoritative answer on this. i don’t think they can hold it against you — and you don’t even really need to give them your name if you contact them via the phone.
i hope this was helpful!
be Boundless,
aska