matthewnguyen

Theory: No communication allowed

Why aren't we allowed to communicate whilst having an exam? Cheating obviously, but while bludging for about 10 minutes in the Chemistry exam, I realised stuff. If I talk to someone like Tracy who was behind me, why would I get a zero mark? I simply chatted tis all. Even if it was about the answers. I would be more obliged to get that zero mark if I touched my paper AFTER communicating with someone. Or if Tracy did that too. Because cheating only applies in my opinion if a party uses the obtained information to their advantage, whether they get the question right or wrong doesn't matter, they utilised it after all.

Now this situation only applies to a two person examination. But the exams we have aren't only for two people. Now in a three people situation, such as how Andy sat in front of me in the exam, cheating is viable. While I discuss with Tracy the answers, there is the slight possibility that Andy can overhear us and use that information to his advantage. However, if I talk to Tracy and none of us touch the paper, including Andy, there is no cheating since no information has been used at all.

Now, applying this logic to a large scale situation such as the actual examination, I have deduced the following:
- When one person talks, there is a possibility that everyone can hear what they're saying despite how soft they speak. Information can be leaked through superhearing for example.
- Everyone finishes at different times and people recheck their answers, constantly changing them so talking and not editing is nigh impossible for everyone due to the first deduction.

Therefore I have come to a sole conclusion: allow us to walk out of the examination hall once we hand our exam papers in. Of course no talking is allowed when handing the paper, but none of us want to be cooped up in a long exam twiddling our thumbs and such. But then again, some of us recheck and find errors while other don't bother rechecking at all. So maybe the wasted time we spend there makes us want to use it for rechecking? And thus, I have proved completely nothing and observed nothing through this post. A useless post indeed.