Moral based question:

Honestly though, we all know putting formulas into your calculator isn't sanctioned by most professors. I don't think you can justify it without asking the professor where they stand on the issue. ToE and jamf make good points.

Perhaps not sanctioned, but if something is not known as illegal, is it? That's the real meat of the argument. I'm trying to figure out what would make something 'cheating.' It may not be looked upon favorably, but it also hasn't been addressed at all. I think it's somewhat harsh to punish someone who didn't know and has no way of knowing if something is sanctioned or not.

Just to be clear, I'm not going to put the formulas in, simply because even if there were a 100% chance I was caught and a 5% chance that it meant honor committee I wouldn't take the chance. I'm not going to sacrifice my diploma for a few points. It's not worth it. This just struck me as a good 'real world' type of example.

See this completely depends on the class and what is specified by the professor. In high school during our AP Stat test we were encouraged to put calc programs to help us speed up the calculations, infact our teacher frantically uploaded the program on several peoples calculators before the exam, because they didn't clear the calculator for the AP exam.

In other classes, like my calc ones it was expected you cleared your calculator and if you didn't have work to prove you knew what was up, you would get in trouble. But honestly if you can pick your calculator and it says nothing in the syllabus then honor committee shouldn't be able to do jack shit.

Perhaps not sanctioned, but if something is not known as illegal, is it? That's the real meat of the argument. I'm trying to figure out what would make something 'cheating.' It may not be looked upon favorably, but it also hasn't been addressed at all. I think it's somewhat harsh to punish someone who didn't know and has no way of knowing if something is sanctioned or not.

Just to be clear, I'm not going to put the formulas in, simply because even if there were a 100% chance I was caught and a 5% chance that it meant honor committee I wouldn't take the chance. I'm not going to sacrifice my diploma for a few points. It's not worth it. This just struck me as a good 'real world' type of example.

In the "real world", if it's against the rules and you break the rules to gain an advantage, it's cheating. Pretty plain and simple. If you don't know or suspect it's against the rules, and you actively seek to be ignorant of the rules then it is still cheating if it's against the rules. By definition, it's not cheating if it's not against the rules. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse. What's the ethical thing to do? Seek clarification and obey the rules to ensure a fair test for all.

The real question on ethics is this: You ask your teacher and he/she says it's okay, but only for those students who seek prior approval. Later, your friend says to you "Boy, I sure wish I could program formulas into my calculator". Do you say nothing or tell them it's okay (note, he did not ask a question so silence is not a lie). Suppose it's not a friend but someone you don't like. Further, suppose the test is graded on a curve rather than a straight scale.

I'd say it's cheating and you probably already know it.

Did you ask the professor?

dont cheat. if your not sure, ask.

LOL...We faced a similar predicament in our Calculus II during our finals and let me tell you the result for one particular cheater (yes, putting it on your calculator is cheating) was not pretty. The professor was able to somehow tell that he was cheating and came to his seat, asked him for his calculator, checked to see if there were formulas typed into it, took the exam papers from him and told him he's free to go home. The professor then proceeded to tell the entire class that if anyone else has formulas on their calculator they'll suffer the same fate and will be brought up for violating the school's code of conduct.

The moral of the story is don't cheat, it's not worth it.

p.s. We were told we can have a single cheat-sheet and that we may not store formulas into our calculators for the final exam.

That's the way my profs always did it too with the cheat sheet. Anything you could fit on one piece of paper was fair game.

Daseal, you have to check your school's honor policy. At Richmond, we had a strict one and anyone found guilty of cheating was automatically expelled for good, with readmittance 100% not an option. If your school is like mine, I wouldn't eff around.

The kids on the honor council sit in classes with you, you never know if one of them is sitting near you.

As to whether this is cheating, it's a gray area. But depending on the honor policy it may not be worth it.

Who is to say that your prof makes everybody delete any saved info before the test starts. If you were not prepared this would really suck.