Any falsification of information was labeled cheating. Answer sheets that failed the test for independent marking received a score of zero. Students wanting to protest to the Student Disciplinary Committee were offered assistance. Not one student protested. Cheating complaints by classmates dropped to near zero. Students named the software The Cheat Checker.
The Cheat Checker examines similar pairs of answer sheets for independent marking. Any pair that fails the test is labeled presumptive cheating. The Cheat Checker then examines the uniqueness of this pair with respect to the entire class. A significant finding for uniqueness and for presumptive cheating is labeled confirmed. Cheating has always been a problem with multiple choice tests. The Cheat Checker helped honest students relax knowing they did not have to compete with those who did cheat.
The original Cheat Checker examined one version of a test at a time. There was little need for multiple version tests when using the Cheat Checker in classes of 120 students. There was one exception: When a student was reported to the Student Disciplinary Committee for cheating, only one member fully understood the significance of the results. The committee quickly discovered that the lower the grade, the easier to detect cheating. This was considered unfair. Faculty are more familiar with and accepting of multiple version test results.
Students have learned to breach the expected security given by multiple version tests. The current Cheat Checker examines all versions of a test as marked.
The structure for each answer file is: nine character ID:one space:answer string. The answer key ID is 999000111. Student records follow the answer key.
A Rule of Thumb for Cheating is five to seven consecutive identical pairs of wrong answers distributed in a string of paired right answers.
