Physics Final Recycles Problems

A final examination in Physics 153, “Electrodynamics” on Wednesday morning had students crying foul when it was learned that others in the course brought already-completed answers to several of the questions into the exam.

The final, to which students were allowed to bring in their class notes and textbook, reused four of the questions from an exam administered in 2004, which was posted on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ online archive of previous exams.

The course head, Professor of Physics Mikhail D. Lukin, said that he was unaware of the availability of the 2004 exam online. “I never gave anyone a permission to publicize an old exam from two years ago,” he wrote yesterday.

According to a student in the course, Elizabeth R. Shope ’09, a “rumor” circulated in the class that a small group of students were advised by a friend to complete the 2004 edition of the test. They were then able to take advantage of the fact that four questions from that version reappeared on Wednesday’s exam, which featured a total of six problems, of which students chose five to complete.

In an e-mail sent to the entire class after receiving complaints about the allegations, Lukin announced that he would take steps to address the issue.

Reminding his students that the goal of the class was “learning and not getting good grades,” and calling the situation “unfortunate,” he announced that he would be adjusting the value of the final from 40 percent of the total course grade to 30 percent.

“This is a high level class and I assumed that only those who wanted to learn the subject matter would take it,” Lukin wrote to The Crimson. “The academic honesty was assumed.”

“It’s fair in that everyone technically had access to the exam, but [Lukin] has to somehow remedy the system,” Shope said.

One of the students who was part of the study group that completed the problems on the 2004 final exam wrote in an e-mail that working on old exams was “a standard finals period ritual.” The student wrote to The Crimson on the condition of anonymity.

The group “realized that there was a strong correlation between the old exam questions and the otherwise tangential topics discussed in the review section,” the student wrote.

The student also said that after completing the 2004 final exam, “some friends of the study group who had previously taken the class in 2005 confirmed” that the 2005 exam also shared similar questions with the 2004 final exam.

After completing the final, Heather E. Carmichael ’09 said she was surprised to overhear a student say he had little trouble with the test and had done the past exam posted online.

“I wasn’t happy about my performance on the exam. I definitely felt it would have been a huge advantage to have seen the problems beforehand,” said Carmichael, who said that she “personally didn’t realize there was a final posted online for the class.”

Despite her personal disappointment, she insisted that she did not hold the students in question accountable. “It was an advantage they acquired by means that weren’t cheating,” she said.

Shope agreed, saying, “I completely don’t fault the kids.”

—Staff writer Nicholas A. Ciani can be reached at nciani@fas.harvard.edu.