Scholarship records - storing notes/exams etc from previous classes

[alumni]

The University I attended had the practice of keeping filing cabinets of records from previous classes taken. They were broken down into course number, teacher, year and brothers could put their old notes/exams /projects/etc in there for future use of the organization.

There was A LOT of animosity between greeks and non greeks when it came to test time b/c they would all say that "we" cheated because we already had the tests, blah, blah blah. Well I can say I never used them as I didn't need to as I learned well enough on my own, but I do know a could who wouldn't have graduated, let alone with a 3.5 w/o these old exams which never changed in some majors.

So do all of you people keep scholarship files? I know it isn't against any campus rules and I know MANY GDI's got the benefits of the notes/exams because they were friends. Actually more GDI's (I never used GDI in college, just now makes it easy to describe) used the files than my brothers...

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by alumni

The University I attended had the practice of keeping filing cabinets of records from previous classes taken. They were broken down into course number, teacher, year and brothers could put their old notes/exams /projects/etc in there for future use of the organization.

There was A LOT of animosity between greeks and non greeks when it came to test time b/c they would all say that "we" cheated because we already had the tests, blah, blah blah. Well I can say I never used them as I didn't need to as I learned well enough on my own, but I do know a could who wouldn't have graduated, let alone with a 3.5 w/o these old exams which never changed in some majors.

So do all of you people keep scholarship files? I know it isn't against any campus rules and I know MANY GDI's got the benefits of the notes/exams because they were friends. Actually more GDI's (I never used GDI in college, just now makes it easy to describe) used the files than my brothers...

This is actually why I just make previous exams available to my students. I know that some of them will have access to something like this (not necessarily because they are Greek; some will just have friends who have taken my course before, and who knows what is on a certain site that archives this stuff).

[carnation]

As a professor, I knew that kids have these files and I changed the tests a bit every year, never the same Spanish questions. However, I thank God for the sorority test files from back in the day because I had an Iraqi calculus professor. Enough said.

It wasn't just the social Greeks who had test files, though. Several honor societies, such as the pre-med and ag ones, had files in departmental offices.

[alumni]

Thanks to both of you. Where I went to school, we had teachers that gave the same test for decades at a time. One teacher was using the same overhead projector sheet for notes, with the same mistake, for over 25 years until we found it out, and it was in programming!!!

For any of you who were actively involved with the scholorship records, I would like to talk to you in PM (group PM if possible) about some possibilities.

Did any of you have digitized records or were they all just paper?

[aephi alum]

It was very common for individuals to create "bibles" for classes they'd taken. Typically, a bible would include the person's notes taken during lecture and recitation, handouts, problem sets and their solutions, and exams and their solutions. Problem sets and exams changed often enough that you couldn't just copy the answers from last semester's bible onto this semester's problem set.

Some fraternities and sororities kept everyone's bibles (sometimes going back decades) in a central location in the house, and any brother/sister taking that course could refer to them. Some non-greek living groups kept centralized libraries, too - for example, I lived in a dorm with several floors, and my floor kept a library. So GLO members didn't really have a big advantage over non-GLO members. (As a member of an unhoused sorority, I had access to both my sisters' bibles and my floor's library. )

People often referred back to their own bibles from previous courses, too. Say course X was a prerequisite to course Y - it was often useful to have your bible from course X handy when working on problem sets for course Y.

[pshsx1]

We get accused of cheating within the Greek system. We don't keep any tests or notes (only textbooks) at all b/c we can get expelled by the university and HQ would be quite upset.

[DubaiSis]

I figure if a professor is dumb enough to not change the tests, then this is the obvious result. When I was in school you could buy the last 4 years of chemistry tests at the campus book store. The tests were, I believe, on a 5 year rotation. In lieu of doing anything silly like going to class or learning the material, I figured out if I memorized the "practice tests" I would get exactly median, which I figured was good enough for chemistry.

But seeing test formats, the kinds of questions that will be asked, etc. can be extremely helpful. I wish I had used them in my early days instead of being completely surprised by the tests. I really bombed a few at the beginning of my freshman year, and just seeing a test and some example correct answers would have done me a world of good. By the time I knew enough, I wasn't really taking tests anymore - thank you Journalism and English departments!

[AOII Angel]

We definitely had them, but none of my sisters had taken my courses so it never did me any good. I did get a nice set of tests from a friend for Quant Analysis that got me through that course with an A. In Med School, administration set each freshman up with a sophomore who handed down a whole box of old tests with 5-10 years worth of old anatomy, biochem, statistics, pharmacology, etc tests. I found them very useful, as many questions repeated. My husband, on the other hand, didn't use his box at all.

[adpiucf]

Old exams are an excellent study tool. There's a reason the professors allow you to take them. If they don't and they somehow end up getting passed along to other people, that's a likely honor code violation. But I will never understand why people get upset over Greeks maintaining study banks of past class notes and released exams. I think they're just mad that they don't have access.

[HQWest]

I am conflicted about old exams. On the one hand, they are useful for figuring out the format of an exam and highlighting what that particular professor thinks is the most important. They are the best thing you can do for studying for an MCAT for example. It can be very helpful for things like managing your time and test taking skills. There is even a notetaking service in town that will sell you old notes or old tests.

However, a lot of people seem to "study" by cramming and memorizing the old test the night before instead of doing the homework and reading or recopying notes from class. This inevitably leads to at least one or two people putting the answer to last years exam on this years test.