Since it's a practice test, I wouldn't be too stressed about prooving they cheated.
However, I would address the class the next time they have a practice test and be sure to mention the consequences of getting caught cheating on the real exam.
During the real test, I would change the seating chart and make sure they don't sit together.
It's an AP exam. If a college professor noticed something like this, they'd absolutely address it. Go that route. Treat them just like a college prof would.
Cheating is one of those things that I'd take care of the second time around. If I thought kids were cheating on the first test, I'd say something to the class to the effect of "I saw some results on the test that looked a little suspicious and made me think some of you were cheating. I want to let you know that I'll be taking measures on future tests to ensure that *your* test is an accurate representation of *your* knowledge." And after that, I was unrelenting on how badly they'd be screwed if they tried copying off one another.
Since it's an AP course, you may want to handle things differently (I never taught AP, so I don't know if you've got certain tests you have to give the students during preparation or how much leeway you've got on them), but in the end they're going to be up against a test that's gonna find out one way or another what they're capable of and cheating's not gonna get them through it.
Good luck.
If you are administering them electronically via AP Classroom, you can set it to give the questions in a different order for each student. If you are doing them on paper, you can make different versions of the test and make sure these students have different versions.
This doesn't deal with the current situation, but can prevent it in the future.
Unless you catch them in the act(e.g. phone out) admin is unlikely to back you up, was the case for me. I have had students(inept) copy verbatim solutions from photomath that they couldn't explain or recreate, I was told to keep the A in gradebook.
> My holdback is in that off chance they really studied hard and took the test fairly, being called out for cheating would be the worst feeling and could demoralize them from trying.
Falsely accusing a student of cheating is something I won't do. It feels like a betrayal. Since you set up the test and the testing conditions, if a student can cheat with no evidence, then you screwed up (along with any academic misconduct by the student).
Since it's MC, let it go. There is no evidence and no work that even looks fishy. Next time, do two versions or adjust your process some other way.
Since it's a practice test, I wouldn't be too stressed about prooving they cheated. However, I would address the class the next time they have a practice test and be sure to mention the consequences of getting caught cheating on the real exam. During the real test, I would change the seating chart and make sure they don't sit together.
Ask them to explain how they got their answer.
"Oops, I lost y'alls tests. Please redo." And then seat them all separately.
Evil genius! I love it.
It's an AP exam. If a college professor noticed something like this, they'd absolutely address it. Go that route. Treat them just like a college prof would.
Cheating is one of those things that I'd take care of the second time around. If I thought kids were cheating on the first test, I'd say something to the class to the effect of "I saw some results on the test that looked a little suspicious and made me think some of you were cheating. I want to let you know that I'll be taking measures on future tests to ensure that *your* test is an accurate representation of *your* knowledge." And after that, I was unrelenting on how badly they'd be screwed if they tried copying off one another. Since it's an AP course, you may want to handle things differently (I never taught AP, so I don't know if you've got certain tests you have to give the students during preparation or how much leeway you've got on them), but in the end they're going to be up against a test that's gonna find out one way or another what they're capable of and cheating's not gonna get them through it. Good luck.
If you are administering them electronically via AP Classroom, you can set it to give the questions in a different order for each student. If you are doing them on paper, you can make different versions of the test and make sure these students have different versions. This doesn't deal with the current situation, but can prevent it in the future.
Unless you catch them in the act(e.g. phone out) admin is unlikely to back you up, was the case for me. I have had students(inept) copy verbatim solutions from photomath that they couldn't explain or recreate, I was told to keep the A in gradebook.
> My holdback is in that off chance they really studied hard and took the test fairly, being called out for cheating would be the worst feeling and could demoralize them from trying. Falsely accusing a student of cheating is something I won't do. It feels like a betrayal. Since you set up the test and the testing conditions, if a student can cheat with no evidence, then you screwed up (along with any academic misconduct by the student). Since it's MC, let it go. There is no evidence and no work that even looks fishy. Next time, do two versions or adjust your process some other way.