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Since the exams this year for college is online, there is a timer. Usually, when I start an exam I click a random answer choice or what I think is right at that moment. Once I finish most of it, I go back to look it over.

I got accused of cheating since I answered the questions in 15 mins, and the system recorded that automatically once clicked, instead of recording the time of completing the whole set of questions.

When reviewing my answers after the 15 minutes, I realized I guessed correctly and there was no need to pick another answer. But I got accused since I finished so fast and so accurately.

We were allowed to use cheat sheets with equations and info, allowing me to finish so fast, so I do not understand why I am being accused. And some of the questions were similar to the homework which helped even more. So how do I prove that I did not cheat. It took me an hour and 9 mins to take the exam.

The only information that they kept repeating over and over again was the timing. I clearly stated that I did not look up anything and I had other tests to take the same day. i went over the review powerpoint which had very similar questions to the test once I started taking it. They flagged my test when they were looking for people that posted it on chegg.

There was no other allegation made besides the timing and I have all the proof that I did not cheat. The person telling me the allegation did not give me the chance to clearly defend my self.

Please help me prove that I am not cheating.

Azor Ahai -him-
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    To the close voter(s). I think that this problem is now general enough and serious enough that "personal factors" doesn't really apply anymore. The details may be personal, but we need systemic solutions. – Buffy Nov 16 '20 at 20:26
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    This question is very light on important details. How were you accused of cheating? Did the online exam environment say something to that effect? Did you get an email from your professor? From someone else? A phone call? What exactly was the message? etc. This matters a lot going forward. – marcelm Nov 17 '20 at 12:46
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    The answers will depend on the standards that define how accusations are to be made in your country. What course of action you have in the US will not necessarily be appropriate in other countries. Where are you located? Finally and most importantly, are you presenting ALL aspects of your case honestly? – Jeffrey J Weimer Nov 17 '20 at 23:09
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    Please don’t write answers in comments. It bypasses our quality measures by not having voting (both up and down) available on comments, as well as having other problems detailed on meta. Comments are for clarifying and improving the question; please don’t use them for other purposes. Existing answers in comments and other extended discussion has been moved to chat. – cag51 Nov 19 '20 at 07:13

9 Answers9

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Unfortunately you can't prove a negative. You have been "caught" by a system that is insufficiently accurate to properly evaluate your actions (and those of many others).

All you can really do is insist (and keep insisting) to your professor that you didn't cheat and explain how you actually acted. If you don't get satisfaction then escalate the issue to higher authorities.

And keep insisting. People have an obligation to be fair.

A recent article in the Washington Post explores how badly online testing systems are performing. While the article focuses on fully automated systems, the problem is much wider, even when human "proctors" are used in conjunction with webcams. In my view the real problem is in trying to apply solutions from a different era into the current pandemic/online situation. Those solutions no longer work and the workarounds are badly failing. They make assumptions that are not valid given the range of normal human actions.

Any cheating detection system, automated or not, needs to have the property that it produces zero false positives. The meeting is part of that system and should assure that you aren't accused wrongfully. But it isn't well understood that a system permitting no false positives will almost invariably produce some false negatives. But the consequences of error in a cheating detection system are so asymmetrical that such a rule is required.

Artificial Intelligence is certainly artificial but it is definitely not intelligent.

Note that I hesitated to edit this after so many votes had been cast, not wanting to invalidate decisions made already by users. The advice remains the same. Insist that you didn't cheat and stick with it.

Buffy
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    I got flagged at the same time as they were looking for those who posted the entire test online on chegg. So how am I trying to prove a negative? –  Nov 16 '20 at 20:50
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    Proving that you "didn't do something" is what I mean. – Buffy Nov 16 '20 at 20:59
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    @Nan Was the test posted online before or after the start of the exam? – TimRias Nov 17 '20 at 07:57
  • @Nan one more example how other people cheating might affect you. I'll just link this to a question on that subject. – HAEM Nov 17 '20 at 08:13
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    I don't know why the idea that you can't prove a negative perpetuates, but it is not true 1 2. For example, I can prove that my mug on my desk doesn't have any tea in it, by showing you that it is empty. OP could (theoretically) prove that he didn't cheat by recording himself during the exam and submitting the recording. In general, you can (theoretically) prove that you "didn't do something". This happens all the time in court rooms. – JBentley Nov 17 '20 at 09:54
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Brian Drake Nov 17 '20 at 11:40
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    That last one about AI was a good one. I'm saving that one for later. – Chipster Nov 17 '20 at 16:58
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    -1 The linked Washington Post article is a red herring: it's about third-party video surveillance systems, but no such system is being described as used by the OP. In comments the OP says they're on Blackboard which does not have any such feature for surveillance or flagging suspicious activity. It does happen to record time that questions and tests are submitted; the instructor took initiative to manually make use of that data. No part of the OP's story is asserting any attempted use of AI; that's a complete distraction in this answer. – Daniel R. Collins Nov 17 '20 at 18:11
  • @DanielR.Collins, I pointed to the story simply for context about the state of online testing and the uprising against it. I have no specific knowledge of the internals of Blackboard. On this site there have been many questions relating to this issue and how people are being unfairly accused. The WaPo story is simply context. Whether the "automation" is AI or other is not material. A machine judged that the OP cheated. – Buffy Nov 17 '20 at 18:18
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    Who has the burden of proof? If it is the instructor, then they have to prove it. If it is the student, they should ask the professor - how can I prove to you I didn't cheat? – CramerTV Nov 17 '20 at 20:52
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    @Buffy: "A machine judged that the OP cheated." This is absolutely false, to the point of malicious misinformation. I am deeply experienced with Blackboard, and no such machine judgement exists in the system, nor ever has. The story here is purely a manual decision by the human instructor. – Daniel R. Collins Nov 17 '20 at 21:12
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    Hmmmm, @DanielR.Collins, so the instructor times each student? The OP describes something that seems very automated. Or does the OP have it wrong somehow? Maybe just forbidding students to return to already answered questions. There is a discrepancy here. Is it possible that "Blackboard" was used in a generic sense? – Buffy Nov 17 '20 at 21:17
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    @Buffy: None of that. Blackboard logs access and submission times to all works. Assignments, tests, questions, accessing videos, what have you. The instructor has made a proactive choice to manually look at those time logs and make inferences from them. It's one click away from any test submission if one wishes to view them. – Daniel R. Collins Nov 17 '20 at 21:24
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    Depending on where the OP is located, he/she is not responsible to prove the negative. In the USA, the standard of proving guilt is the preponderance of evidence or the harsher beyond a shadow of doubt. Also in the USA, the faculty have an obligation to follow these standards in making accusations, and it is the OP’s right to stand firmly on them. – Jeffrey J Weimer Nov 17 '20 at 23:04
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    It's not that "these systems no longer work". They never worked. They were adopted as a cost-cutting measure. Now there are additional reasons for using them, and they're still trash, but now they hurt more people to a greater extent. There isn't some new, better alternative that isn't utter trash. – hobbs Nov 18 '20 at 03:06
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    The answer uses the phrase “such systems” without really explaining what systems it is referring to. I can see why someone would think the Washington Post story is a red herring. – Brian Drake Nov 18 '20 at 09:39
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    @DanielR.Collins Since you have a good knowledge of Blackboard, can you confirm something? Would Blackboard have recorded that the OP spent a further 54 minutes reviewing their answers after the initial 15 minutes spent answering them? Could OP cite this as evidence in their favour? Everyone seems to be ignoring this point. – Brian Drake Nov 18 '20 at 09:44
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    @DanielR.Collins: The focus isn't on the automated nature of the flagging, but the overreliance on an automatically observed metric (and nothing else). The one who raises the flag, whether it's an algorithm or a person relying solely on the same data that an algorithm would be relying on, is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is that there is no sanity (or redundant) check occurring, but rather a blind adherence to a single flawed metric with a limited scope, without accounting for its flaws. In that, the article is perfectly on topic with the question that was asked here. – Flater Nov 18 '20 at 10:43
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    @DanielR.Collins I do agree with you that "A machine judged that the OP cheated." is an incorrect description of the question. However, what is a correct description is that "The professor blindly believes that a machine judged that the OP cheated." If the professor defers to the machine's report, then the machine has in fact done (or at least singlehandedly caused) the judging, albeit indirectly. But again, the point of the article is not to point out who made the final ruling, but rather that blindly relying on arbitrary metrics is going to lead to frequesnt false flagging. – Flater Nov 18 '20 at 10:48
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    "You have been "caught" by an automated system that is insufficiently accurate to properly evaluate your actions (and those of many others)." Who cares? In my country you need to be proven guilty, not innocent. Can they prove you cheated in front of a court? No they can't, how would they with that silly software and everything else is irrelevant. As way to often with these issues on academia SE: Don't bother with the prof, escalate it to the next instance. In Germany this would be the "Prüfungsausschuss". Nuclear option: Get legal advise from your students union lawyer and threaten to sue. –  Nov 18 '20 at 14:30
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    @TheoreticalMinimum You seem to be thinking of criminal offences, which probably don’t apply here. – Brian Drake Nov 18 '20 at 14:32
  • @BrianDrake Of course the presumption of innocence applies. At least in the jurisdiction I'm familiar with. If some prof would make up rules inverting this principle in Germany I'm 98% sure this would give a fun little law suit, as it is a violation of the State University Act. More likely it would trigger direct intervention by the university administration, overruling the professor and putting him back in place. –  Nov 18 '20 at 14:36
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    @BrianDrake (Looking at access data from my Blackboard tests this week): The system only logs clock time when individual questions are saved and when the overall test is finally submitted, plus a time-delta from the last event (labeled "Time Spent"). There's no record of what happens between then. Footnote on the log says, "* The times appearing under the Time Spent column may not accurately represent the time the student spent on each question. The student may have looked at other questions before answering and saving individual questions."... – Daniel R. Collins Nov 18 '20 at 17:34
  • There's even the possibility, say, that a student quickly fills in answers, closes the web browser, and then the system auto-submits the test when a timer elapses later on. So there's no data that a student was specifically viewing or reviewing questions at any time -- at best, a big unexplained gap between last saved question and final test submission. – Daniel R. Collins Nov 18 '20 at 17:37
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    @Buffy Thanks. For the record, I don’t think editing misinformation after votes is misleading — it’s definitely standard practice across the network. And your answers get upvoted because they’re good, not because users agree with specific mistakes (if they do — that’s too bad for them; they can revoke their vote after the edit, if they catch it; but this shouldn’t prevent you from editing). – Konrad Rudolph Nov 18 '20 at 19:11
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    @TheoreticalMinimum Presumption of innocence is a red herring. The question is whether the professor needs to know beyond a reasonable doubt, or be 51% sure. If this is in the USA, this isn't criminal-law (the government isn't attempting to arrest you, fine you, etc). This is probably a civil lawsuit, which usually uses the 51% standard. I agree the OP should fight this, but the professor is unlikely to need to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt (unless that happens to be the university's policy). – Patrick M Nov 18 '20 at 21:32
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    @PatrickM, The standard you suggest is an ethical minefield. It is an invitation to unfairness. How can you imagine that there is enough certainty to apply such a standard. An unfair accusation of cheating can be devastating to a person's future. It isn't a game to win or lose. – Buffy Nov 18 '20 at 21:38
  • @Buffy You're talking about the ideal though. It is far more likely to be the scenario Patrick described though, and that's the situation OP needs to deal with. – DKNguyen Nov 19 '20 at 00:51
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    @Buffy The standard I described is an ethical minefield. I am not trying to suggest how the school should handle cheating. I am doing my best to guess how the school currently handles cheating, based on my knowledge of US law, and reading the policies of collages I’ve attended. – Patrick M Nov 19 '20 at 01:06
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Brian Drake Nov 19 '20 at 14:52
  • I’ll just leave this bit here: your suggestion of taking legal action is an answer, and answers belong in answers, not comments. – Brian Drake Nov 19 '20 at 14:56
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    @TheoreticalMinimum Some of your comments have been copied to the chatroom and should be deleted. Please delete them, then flag this comment for deletion too. – Brian Drake Nov 19 '20 at 15:00
  • No. I advise to escalate it internally and make clear you are willing to pursue this further (by legal action) if necessary. –  Nov 19 '20 at 15:16
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A simple solution would be to demonstrate the flaw in the system to the professor by recreating the scenario in which you were accused of cheating.

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    This. The main problem here is that the university administration believes that the online system records the time it takes for a student to complete the exam, and it simply does not do that. – A. I. Breveleri Nov 17 '20 at 15:57
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    And I would definitely downplay the "random guessing". I really hope you didn't already tell the administration that. It's really difficult to believe that all the questions you guessed on just happened to be correct the first time, especially in an college exam involving equations (or any exam involving equations). It's a little bit more believable if you only ever picked the answer you initially thought was correct. – DKNguyen Nov 17 '20 at 23:29
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    @DKNguyen Yes, I assumed OP really meant something more like "educated guessing." – Kevin Carlson Nov 18 '20 at 00:12
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    Reproduce the things you did to demonstrate the facts. Note that if the OP was online and logged in to a system, there should be records on servers that show that that (and as it's an exam, the institution should still have them). If the OP was logged in much longer than they timing system claims it took, then it backs up the OP's claim. – StephenG - Help Ukraine Nov 19 '20 at 06:58
  • @DKNguyen It was in the question right from the start (before it was edited): “Usually, when I start an exam I click a random answer choice or what I think is right at that moment.” (emphasis added) – Brian Drake Nov 19 '20 at 13:18
  • @BrianDrake I know that, but also having educated guesses in addition to random guesses in no way increases the probability of those random guesses all being correct. – DKNguyen Nov 19 '20 at 14:10
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    @DKNguyen Actually, it does increase the probability of the random guesses all being correct, by decreasing the number of random guesses. Also, none of the guesses are truly random. Or at least, they shouldn’t be, assuming the student actually knows the material. – Brian Drake Nov 19 '20 at 14:32
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    @BrianDrake That's splitting hairs. It doesn't increase the chance of the random guesses actually taken being correct. And why would the professor assume the student knows the material if he think he's cheating? If the student says he guessed even some questions randomly that just adds fuel to the fire. That's exactly why you should not say that. – DKNguyen Nov 19 '20 at 14:34
  • @DKNguyen It kinda does. If you have a 4 choice question and your educated guess eliminates two of those, you've gone from a 1/4 chance to a 1/2. – JS Lavertu Nov 27 '20 at 15:36
  • @JSLavertu You are ignoring that OP specifically said random guesses are in the mix too. The questions with educated guesses do not increase the chances of your randomly guessed questions being correct. – DKNguyen Nov 27 '20 at 15:39
  • @DKNguyen I get what you mean now, my bad for the misreading. That being said without knowing the number of questions and their number of choices for each, we can't really make a judgement about the odds of the situation happening. Randomly guessing 100 questions and 5 educated guesses is extremely suspicious, but the reverse isn't. – JS Lavertu Nov 27 '20 at 15:44
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    @JSLavertu Even 95 non-guessed questions with 5 random guessed questions all being correct is suspicuous. <0.1% chance with 4 choices. – DKNguyen Nov 27 '20 at 15:48
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When questioning or complaining about a decision, it is best to offer a solution.

All correspondence should now be in writing (or at least email) so that you have a record of anything said and any accusations made. People will be cautious of accusing you of anything in writing. If things go badly, you can copy your emails to a senior person and be open about that.

Never say anything in anger and never accuse or criticise. Simply state the facts in a dispassionate way.

For example

You could offer in writing to take a similar test whilst being observed.

It is unlikely that you will be taken up on this but the fact that you have offered will make them think twice.

If there is any disciplinary action, you can then point out that you were willing to demonstrate your strategy and your ability. Of course you have to make sure that the new test is not made especially hard, so specify "at the same level of difficulty".

Important

Never act in the heat of the moment. Take your time, stay polite but be insistent. Do not give up.

Example email

Dear X

With regard to our conversation about possible cheating.

I note that the automated timing system may have indicated something unusual. My exam strategy is to hurry through all the questions and then return to check my answers. In this case the initial stage took me about 15 minutes and the checking stage took a further x minutes. I checked thoroughly but did not need to correct any answers.

If there is any doubt at all of my skills or ability I will be willing to take a further such test (at the same level) under supervision

I am willing to take such a test online or manually with an observer present.

Nan

chasly - supports Monica
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    Note I have added a sample email. Use your own words and check the content carefully before sending. I take no responsibility for the result - I'm just saying what I would do. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 17 '20 at 10:19
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    I don't have much experience in this, but is it really necessary to offer to take an additional test? OP did the exam like everybody else. If the universities policing strategies are not effective, why should it be the students' problem? They really cannot prove OP was cheating, it looks like they can be at best suspicious, not sure. Taking another exam on these ground is not only a great source of stress, it's unfair on many levels. – user2723984 Nov 17 '20 at 11:54
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    @user2723984 - There is a very good reason. If this escalates, the OP has shown willing to provide a way out. Merely having a "he said, she said" argument causes bitterness and resolves nothing. The only argument that actually proves the competence of the student is another test. The test is unlikely to take place but the offer puts the student in a very strong position. The reply to any question by the opposition is, "Fine, Let's have another test!" The offer to prove oneself takes away a cloud of suspicion that would otherwise hang over the student for the rest of their studies. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 17 '20 at 12:11
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    I see your argument, however doesn't this amount to an admission that something may have gone wrong with the initial assessment? I think it somehow implicitly states that the university is right to trust this system and if the system says "cheat" then at least a re-test should be done. I wouldn't be inclined to grant them this. – Christian Hennig Nov 17 '20 at 12:34
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    @Lewian - I don't quite understand your argument. How else can someone objectively prove their innocence in this situation? My point is that, whether or not the re-test is administered, the offer is there. When and if the OP wishes to escalate to a higher level a method of proof of innocence has been offered. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 17 '20 at 12:41
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    I don't buy that the student has to prove their innocence if there's actually no evidence at all of their guilt. (What was presented in the question surely doesn't constitute evidence of guilt in any credible sense.) Apart from this a re-test doesn't prove innocence. Just because you pass a re-test doesn't imply you haven't cheated in the initial one. – Christian Hennig Nov 17 '20 at 12:46
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    @Lewian - I see what you are saying, however the OP's question is "So how do I prove that I did not cheat ... Please help me prove that I am not cheating." (final sentences of the question). I am simply answering that question as requested. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 17 '20 at 12:52
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    @chasly-supportsMonica also what if all questions were correct in the first exam, and second a few wrong, should he then accept a B? or is it proof of cheating an gets an F? – lalala Nov 17 '20 at 15:35
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    @lalala - That is for the OP to judge. Firstly I don't think it will come to that but if the OP shows confidence about getting a good result even if assessed under strict conditions, the accusers will have to choose between re-testing or accepting the original result. They can't have it both ways. If it were me, I would insist (in writing) on having either a withdrawal of the allegations or a re-test. Being accused of cheating is a serious matter in academia - people who are accused should be allowed to clear their name. I would keep insisting and escalating until one or the other was done. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 17 '20 at 17:09
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    Showing you are willing to take a second test to prove your innocence might appear to be the most logical course of action - but when witches are being hunted for, logic doesn't come into the equation. In the same perverse way that those who drowned were judged innocent while those who floated were supposedly witches, showing willingness to cooperate is likely to be perceived as an attempt to sway the accusers to your side because you are guilty. Don't make that offer - you know you are innocent, other answers (e.g. @Buraian's) have suggested far better ways you can prove it. – Ian Kemp Nov 17 '20 at 17:34
  • @chasly-supportsMonica you are conflating demonstrating competence and proving innocence. Your stated reason for suggesting that OP retakes or offers to retake the exam is that you are answering the direct question about proving innocence. You are not, because it does not. – Corey Nov 18 '20 at 00:20
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    @Corey - My answer is aimed at proving competence. A demonstration of competence gets as near as can be obtained in real life to proving that one did not cheat (or, more accurately, that one did not need to cheat). I can see no other way of proving it without the OP having access to a time-machine. If you have one then I shall be very interested to hear it. – chasly - supports Monica Nov 18 '20 at 01:46
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The problem is, from experience, that explanation sounds fake -- what someone caught cheating makes-up. An explanation of the weirdness and an acknowledgement about how weird it is might do some good. Instructors don't always know how on-line tests work, so pointing out the format and problems types and how your process isn't completely crazy might help:

  • Many on-line tests don't allow you to go back and change. Checking one at random and assuming you can change it later is very, very, very odd. If you've been using this test format for a while and it's well known the system is "change any time, submit when done", that might make it seem less weird.

  • Guessing an answer and moving onto the next Q is a terrible way to work. So terrible it seems like no one would do it. I mean, you need to do some work to have a decent guess, why not do a little more work right then to get a real answer? Explain the details. Maybe in one Q you picked "B) using Hanson's method" because most titration's use it, and obviously reading the details would take a while and the tests don't have lots of extra time. Or is it a look-up thing? You thought you remembered Whistler was a member of the Surrealists, checked A), then came back and looked it up in your messy notes -- sure enough, Surrealist.

  • 15 minutes? How many Q's? 30? Explain how a Q can be read in 30 seconds and an educated guess made. Pick out 1 or 2 (again, instructors may be doing their best with pre-set quizes they haven't had a great chance to look over).

  • Explain what "random or guess" means. Under a "best guess using 2 minutes" process, it makes much more sense to leave it blank if you have no idea. When you come back, it's a reminder. Sure a random guess is standard, but only at the end of the test. What's the reasoning behind random answers right away?

  • You wrote than you usually do this. If your last quiz was also answered in 15 minutes, but then you changed answers over the next hour, that proves you work this way. If they can't get records of your last quiz, then just how good is this anti-cheat software anyway?

Owen Reynolds
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    Right, if this were say a 15 question 4-multiple choice calculus test, OPs story is very very implausible. I don't know what the topic or the length of this exam is, so maybe OP is telling the truth. But OP's story is highly highly unlikely with "random" guesses, unless there's very easy ways of being pretty confident of the right answer (in which case you'd expect people finishing the exam in 15 minutes not to be unusual). – Noah Snyder Nov 17 '20 at 20:45
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    It's a common time management strategy. – industry7 Nov 17 '20 at 20:54
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    The online tests which don't allow to go back and change are stupid for a serious exam. I haven't seen any and I do hope they are not so common as you believe. (Also, all such "tests" I have seen make it very clear that you can't go back - you have to not only do the multiple choice, but also click on an "okay" button.) If I had an exam with 50 questions on one page with radio buttons I would as OP assume one can change the answers later. – user111388 Nov 17 '20 at 22:41
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    @NoahSynder: I had such a test (multiple choice linguistics exam, questions were mostly about definitions "The following is an example of which concept?"). Went through the exam (written, not online) and chose my first feeling for every answer I could easily answer. Then I looked through them in more detail and then to the harder questions (maybe 5 percent). What OP describes sounds similar to what I did. – user111388 Nov 17 '20 at 22:45
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    Personally, if I was told that some questions were guessed random and they all happened to be correct the first time, I would be suspicious. Much less so if the OP only said they just pick the answer that initially seems correct. Also depends on the nature of the test and subject itself. The fact that this test had things like equations doesn't help since that decreases the probability of questions with answers that can initially look correct. – DKNguyen Nov 17 '20 at 23:20
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    @NoahSnyder Sure, but I think I address that. As you say you only wrote "every answer I could easily answer". You left some blank. And you probably didn't finish phase-I in 15 minutes of an hour-long test. But then again, the OP's test could be easy, 15 mins being about right, and given an hour just because. – Owen Reynolds Nov 17 '20 at 23:53
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    “… assuming you can change it later is very, very, very odd.” Why? That’s exactly what you would do on a written exam. I hope user111388 was correct that this generally carries over to online exams. – Brian Drake Nov 18 '20 at 09:47
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    "Explain how a Q can be read in 30 seconds and an educated guess made." There are are often good strategies for selecting the right answer to (poor quality) multiple choice questions which don't involve working out the correct answer for yourself. All you have to do is identify the wrong answers as being "obviously wrong" for some reason. – alephzero Nov 18 '20 at 10:57
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    @industry7: It's not the time management strategy that surprises me, it's the guessing 100% correctly part. If it's that easy to guess correctly in 15 minutes then lots of students would be done after 15 minutes, and if it's not easy then depending on the length of the exam this situation is very implausible. – Noah Snyder Nov 18 '20 at 18:45
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    I would +1 this but for the last line: "how good is this anti-cheat software anyway?". There is no anti-cheat software involved in the OP's story, and none exists in the platform they reference (Blackboard). The instructor is manually checking submission time logs and deciding to draw inferences from that. – Daniel R. Collins Nov 18 '20 at 21:46
  • @DanielR.Collins I stand by it as broadly "correct enough". The software logs are an anti-cheat feature. – Owen Reynolds Nov 18 '20 at 22:11
  • @NoahSnyder - Anecdotal, but: When I did my (freeform) maths Abitur exam, due to a miscommunication, I arrived 30 minutes late, without the required books and calculator, had to borrow a pencil and rely on educated guesses and intuition for most questions. Finished 30 minutes early and still got a good grade (with some absurdly accurate guesses). And no, I'm not that good at math, it was 50% luck and 50% ad-hoc reasoning. It happens. – Ruther Rendommeleigh Nov 19 '20 at 12:55
  • @RutherRendommeleigh: Yes, lots of people take exams quickly. Finishing in half the time is quite common. What isn't common is one person finishing way faster than everyone else and getting all the questions correct! – Noah Snyder Nov 19 '20 at 14:11
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    Even well-written questions can sometimes be answered very quickly. I'm thinking of one of my father's (college professor) quizzes. I was in the room because he wanted me to see the film he was showing the class, I took a stab at the quiz afterwards. His questions were dead easy if you knew the material (and woe to the student who didn't--his questions required applying knowledge, open book/open note didn't mean just look up the answer)--and in this case I did. Did the whole thing in 5 minutes and astounded the class--more so when I aced it. – Loren Pechtel Nov 19 '20 at 23:18
  • @LorenPechtel (and Ruther and Noah): Maybe done-in15-minutes shouldn't have been flagged, hard to say. But the OP didn't tell the instructor they finished that quickly.. Maybe a stone-cold cheater would have. And now the oddball explanation is the issue. – Owen Reynolds Nov 20 '20 at 03:08
  • @noah-snyder "or what I think is right at that moment". Again, this is a very common strategy, and in my personal experience, I rarely ended up changing any of my answers. – industry7 Aug 18 '21 at 18:54
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Explain to your professor that you did not cheat, and that you think the automated system is measuring something other than 'cheating.' Speed is not cheating after all.

If the professor will not consider your arguments and decides to fail you anyway, there is a process you can follow. It is called a grievance. File a grievance with the university, and the Dean or other administrators will have to conduct a fair hearing based on evidence. Hearings like this usually include your academic peers, and there may even be academic attorneys who can be hired to assist you.

Rab
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    I can't imagine the instructor being willing to fight this in grievance. "What evidence do you present?" "Time logs. This student is too fast." "... Okay but what evidence of cheating? What did they do to cheat?" "I don't know, I just know they did!" If the OP's description is accurate, there's no way the instructor's case can hold up. This answer hopefully will help future students in the same position who read this though to know what to expect if the advice in the top voted answers don't resolve their issue. – Davy M Nov 18 '20 at 18:27
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Long story short, consider offering to retake the test, to validate your innocence.

Bee Kay
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  • But should they take longer than 15 minutes AND not get 100%, wouldn't this validate that they "cheated"? – BryceH Nov 19 '20 at 15:16
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In parallel with following one or more other suggestions, please contact your student union, and specifically your faculty/department/semester representatives if you have them, and whoever is in charge of student rights in academic affairs.

First, they might offer material or procedural advice. Second, they may intervene on your behalf. It is a very different thing to railroad a single isolated student, and to go against something the student union objects to (and, hopefully, will not stand for). I'm not sure if that capability is as strong as it is usually in these days of Covid, but still.

Also, as @Buffy points out, it is not possible to prove a negative - and it's quite likely that some guidelines of rules for disciplinary procedures require that concrete evidence be provided of wrongdoing, rather than merely suspicious circumstances. So you (or your student union rep) might be able to "throw the book" at your professor, so to speak.

einpoklum
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This is a partial answer, to be read in parallel with the other answers.

The question says:

Please help me prove that I am not cheating.

That is not the real question. The question is:

How can I convince the university that I did not cheat?

My partial answer is that before you can convince the university that you did not cheat, you should try to convince others that you did not cheat. You need to learn to clearly state the relevant information. Your question suggests that you have trouble with this.

For example:

I clearly stated that I did not look up anything

Well, of course you would say that. It doesn’t prove anything.

and I had other tests to take the same day.

It is not clear how this is relevant.

i went over the review powerpoint which had very similar questions to the test once I started taking it.

This sounds like you were looking at the review PowerPoint file during the test. I don’t think that’s what you meant.

Other answers have suggested contacting student unions etc; they would probably be best placed to help you with this.

Brian Drake
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Exactly how are you accused of cheating?

I got accused of cheating since I answered the questions in 15 mins

As others have already noted, finishing a exam quickly is not cheating. It could be a visible symptom of cheating, but it could caused by something else. You provides one possible explanation:

I answered the questions in 15 mins, and the system recorded that automatically once clicked, instead of recording the time of completing the whole set of questions. When reviewing my answers after the 15 minutes, I realized I guessed correctly and there was no need to pick another answer.

But you also provide one other small detail that has been overlooked by other answers:

They flagged my test when they were looking for people that posted it on chegg.

And later in a comment to buffy's top rated answer, you reiterate:

I got flagged at the same time as they were looking for those who posted the entire test online on chegg.

This seems to be a major point in the accusation, so I'll focus my answer on it.

An alternate explanation the university may believe for why you finished the exam quickly is that you were copying the answers from the chegg post; which would be rightfully considered cheating.

Others have noted that you can't prove a negative, but in this instance that may not be the case. Quoting from Chegg's Honor Code:

Copying solutions or requesting unexplained final answers promotes completion without comprehension, which is something we don't support at Chegg.

Furthermore, you should be aware that in the event your institution contacts Chegg as part of an investigation into academic integrity, Chegg is authorized under our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to cooperate fully in that investigation and we commonly do. This can include providing information to your institution about your user profile, account, site usage activity, and interactions with Chegg Tutors.

If the university really suspects you of using the answers posted on Chegg to finish the exam quickly, the burden of proof rests with them. If the univeristy is not currently working with Chegg to determine if anyone viewed the answers, it might be beneficial to suggest that course of action instead of continuing to speculate. Being cooperative in the process can only help determine the truth and clear your name more quickly.

Leland Hepworth
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  • I would ask, first, is there any evidence that the OP was using Chegg other than the timing? Does the OP have an account there used for other purposes? Does OP routinely attempt to disguise their identity online (which might itself be considered suspicious, even if it has nothing to do with the current question)? – Brian Drake Nov 19 '20 at 03:41
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    To clarify my earlier comment: The university has already shown a tendency to misinterpret the evidence. So be careful about bringing them new evidence; you should expect them to misinterpret this new evidence too. So I would first ask if there is anything specific about the new evidence that I would expect to be misinterpreted, and see if I can deal with it early on. Still, from the university’s point of view, working with Chegg should be a no-brainer, so good answer overall. – Brian Drake Nov 19 '20 at 14:35