Alleged cheating forces math class to retake exam

Students in one section of Math 104 were forced to retake an exam this month after the professor suspected cheating had occurred as students handed in their tests.

According to several students in the class, the alleged cheating occurred on Wednesday, Oct. 2, after professor Peter Quast announced that the test was over.

That's when, students said, the class grew loud and hectic, prompting Quast's suspicion that students may have exchanged answers before handing their tests in.

Quast informed the class the following Monday that he was disappointed with the dismissal at the exam.

He told the class there would be a mandatory retake - prompting some anger and confusion among the about 150 students in the class, section 002 of Math 104.

Quast did not respond to e-mails or phone calls for comment.

In an e-mail to the class listserv obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian, Quast wrote, "The best way of offering fair chances to all the class is probably to redo this first midterm again."

He added in the e-mail that he had consulted with department officials in the decision, and the topics on the retake would be the same as on the original exam.

Despite improving her grade from a C to an A on the retake, Jessica Dignam, a College freshman, said she was frustrated by the situation.

"We had no time to prepare for anything," Dignam said. "It was really unfair to make us go through all the trouble of taking an exam over again."

College freshman Julian Domanico said he thought the cheating accusation wasn't entirely substantiated and that "it was more like [Quast] speculated there was cheating instead of there being hard evidence."

Domanico was not alone in his sentiment that the cheating accusation may have been false.

"I didn't really notice anything," said Hilary O'Shea, a Wharton freshman. O'Shea did say that when the test was over, students stood up and there was a lot of chatter going on.

During the retake of the exam, O'Shea said Quast had another professor come into class to monitor the activity and to make sure students did not share answers with one another.

O'Shea said she received the same grade on both exams.

This is not the only recent instance of cheating at the University.

In September, Graduate Management Admissions Test scores were canceled for three Wharton students due to accusations of cheating.

And last fall, a number of Wharton freshmen were under investigation for suspected cheating on their Operations and Information Management 101 group projects.

The students were suspected of plagiarizing parts of the projects.

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