Sudoku

[Icarus]

I busted chemistry at Uni because I was dumb enough to forego cheating.

The lecture series prof issued homework in every session. Said homework was to be graded. Every frat and sorority on or off campus had a file full of ponies. Ponies are the answers to quiz and homework problems. My chem prof had not changed the damned questions in years. Everybody but my second cousin twice removed had a chem lecture pony. It was common knowledge even to the lazy ass prof.

All grading at U of F at the time was done on the curve. Serious stuff competing for grades. I butted heads with the prof because I knew and he knew that cheating was the norm, not the exception. In my infinite wisdom I told him that I would not turn in my homework,  because I did not have nor want the cheat sheets. I wanted to learn the necessary principles of chemistry not merely earn a grade. The Prof  simply told me "your call".  In the final exam I set the curve. The prof gave me an F for the course because I did not turn in my fucking homework. Never mind that I got the best grade of all 240 students who took the final. That final did not have ponies all over campus.

For you students out there....maybe you should not be so naive in a similar circumstance. Cheat if you must. With today's prices at prestigious universities, maybe $350  per credit hour, the chem course, a four credit hour course, costs $1400. That is a lot for your daddy to pay just because you had enough dignity and breeding to reject cheat sheets in favor of actually learning the subject matter.  I am not implying that I had superior breeding. I was going to school by virtue of the GI bill and I was much older than most of the students. I had a somewhat different attitude than the less experienced and much younger students.  I suspect that I might have used the cheat sheets had I been 19 years old like so many of them. Hell, I am pretty sure that i would have.

[xSilverPhinx]

Yeah, I know professors who apply the same tests semester after semester...there are even secret Facebook groups where people trade images of previous (and future) quizzes.

[Dave]

If a prof's reputation partly relies on how many students he/she graduates it can be in his/her interest to ignore cheating. The "system" will also probably ignore it because it is also in the school/college's interest to graduate lots of people.

Of course, this degrades the value of qualifications because employees know it happens. There has been much arguement here regarding reducing standards in school leaving exams - another facet of "false success" to promote an image.

[Icarus]

Somehow we went from little number games to the concept of cheating for which I expounded upon so vociferously.   My apologies for derailing the thread.......Back to Sudoku?

I am a fun math guy who enjoys fiddling with numbers and things. Even so, I never could, or did, get into the Sudoku craze.  I reckon that the Sudoku exercise is mind expanding and worth the mental effort for those gazillions of players.

[xSilverPhinx]

Somehow we went from little number games to the concept of cheating for which I expounded upon so vociferously.   My apologies for derailing the thread.......Back to Sudoku?

I am a fun math guy who enjoys fiddling with numbers and things. Even so, I never could, or did, get into the Sudoku craze.  I reckon that the Sudoku exercise is mind expanding and worth the mental effort for those gazillions of players.

I think I was the one who really sent this thread off the rails, but that's the nature of conversations. Especially conversations with me. 

Anyway, back to sudoku...I think it helps improve my focus overall. At least, that's what I felt when I would obsess over that puzzle game.