Also, in the age if the interwebs I typically go on to the class site the semester before I’m going to take it and download all the exam and homework solutions I can. I use these past exams as study guides and they are tremendously helpful. I don’t see it as cheating if the professor posts it on there. I’ve had other professors who write all their own material, don’t let us keep exams, and don’t post the exam solutions or the exams online for the sake of non-cheatery. As a student I’m not fond of not being able to see the solutions of a midterm before a final, but at least it’s a way the professors are getting clever.

I suppose the reality is that people who are determined to cheat will cheat, and there’s not much we can do about it. But, from the results I’m getting from my students overall, I’d say that they’ve wasted their money for the grades some of them are getting.

(And because I’m familiar with their writing b/c of weekly writing assignments, I’ve never had the experience of getting a brilliant paper from a previously marginal writer. The good students tend to write the stronger essays, and the not-so-strong students tend to submit the not-so-strong essays.)

As the latest issue of the Chronicle of Education demonstrates, this is the perfect scenario for custom essays. And students use them. In class writing assessments are a must, otherwise you may only be grading the paper of a custom essay writing company. And they can write to however you specify your assignment.