USING TEST BANKS: Cheating or Not?
If a lot of you do not feel secure in buying and using test banks as basis for your academic studies because you feel like it’s going to cause you trouble, you must know that using test banks is NOT considered as direct cheating.
There are several reasons why using test banks is not considered as direct cheating. A lot of you may think that when you start using a test bank, it violates the policies of your school organization. Many may have even read about the same articles concerning the usage of test banks by students. But here are some facts you should know first before you conclude your initial thoughts about test banks.
First, you should know what test banks are and what kind of information it can give. According to the Oxford University Press, “it is tailored to the contents of an individual textbook.”
test bank is a ready-made electronic testing resource that can be customized by lecturers for their teaching.
Feedback is often provided on answers given by students, containing page references to the book.
Giving emphasis to the first and last sentences, in the first sentence it was said that
test banks are resources that can be customized by lecturers for their teaching,
meaning that lecturers aren’t advised to copy the whole questions from the test
banks, and that they can completely revise the whole question if ever they want to.
Meanwhile in the last sentence, it was said that answers are often given by students
with references. It was made clear that not only the test makers are responsible for
answering the questions but students who gave their own answers as well. The
clean part here is that references were given in which they provide supporting basis
and as well as additional reviewers for the people who would be using them.
With that said, it can be easily sort out in two ways in which it won’t be described
as cheating: 1.) Lecturers aren’t required to copy the whole question from test
banks so their knowledge would still apply with the usage of their profession in
that field of teaching. If lecturers do copy the exact questions and words from the
test banks because some of them are too fully-loaded to create their own, then it
would be of their choice, knowing that the answer keys can always be found
anywhere in the internet nowadays. 2.) Students are often the ones providing
answers and solutions for the test banks. We all know that students learn from what
they have read, what were taught to them, and what they have gained throughout
their previous activities. If in the test banks, they have indicated references to
where they’ve learned, they obviously want other users of test banks to learn and
not just copy everything without having to know how it was done.
Second, of course everyone knows what the meaning of cheating is, but not all we
know as cheating is considered exactly as cheating. According to the Webster’s
Dictionary, cheating is a way of being dishonest to have an advantage from others
in a game or examination, it is also a way to trick or deceive.
If you think deeper about the meaning of cheating, you can say that students using
test banks is not really considered as cheating. To elaborate this, when a student
uses test banks it doesn’t at all mean that he/she is tricking someone or deceiving
them in any way. It is also not an act of dishonesty since no rules were
implemented about students are not allowed to use test banks, so it isn’t at all
illegal. Having an advantage in academics is part of being a student in which they
have their own strategies to advance in their studies. Being gumptious, smart,
stern, talkative, etc… are ways of having an advantage, but it isn’t at all cheating,
is it?
Third, you should also lock in mind what the meaning of studying really is. Again,
according to the Webster’s Dictionary, studying is to devote time in acquiring
knowledge in any subject matter by reading books, attending educational courses,
and/or by simply reflections and analysis.
When students use test banks, it is also a way to study and gain information. Let’s
also add up the fact that learning does not only focus entirely on gaining
information by their own work of analysis and understanding, but it also evolved
throughout the centuries in which memorizing, pictographic memory, and other
ways of memory recalling were added as a new way of learning. A lot of students
also found this new way of learning much easier than understanding the whole
lesson. Since it has been that way for years up until now, many professors out there
have been implementing and promoting the skill of memorization.
Knowing that learning and studying have been revised and provocatively changed
over the centuries, a lot have taken a huge amount of effort to memorize and
skillfully remember what was written on the test banks as their own way of
skillfully adjusting and learning about the present curriculums.
Many of you may have already realized that a lot has changed over the centuries
when it comes to academics and learning. Not all can be understood in such ways
that they were taught, and not all were given the right way of gaining information
because some lecturers weren’t effective enough to implement the information in
to the students’ heads.
Not all that we have gotten used to are ways that we should be doing for the rest of
our lives. Some things change in a way that the world revolves around the sun and
acquires different changes every day. Not all are permanently addressed to what
was considered right or wrong. A lot of people should also realize that change is
inevitable, and that not everything they know will be carved in their lifestyles
forever. Labelling something as wrong without knowing the different ways it was
done will always be unjust. Prior to the defense of many, as long as it has not yet
been written in any of the rule books, it is practically safe to establish your own
ways of coping in your everyday lives.