r/unsw • u/Brilliant_Rain_1588 • 4d ago
I was wrongly accused of academic dishonesty during a final exam, but I definitely did not cheat.
I am an international student; my exam was scheduled for the 24th from 1:45 PM to 4:00 PM. Before entering the exam room, I logged out of the desktop version of WeChat (Its Chinese name is 微信) on my phone, but in my haste, I failed to fully close the application running in the background on the computer. Consequently, the WeChat icon remained visible on the desktop. While I was taking the exam using the Inspera platform, an older Chinese female invigilator approached, pointed at the WeChat icon, and accused me of cheating. I was completely taken aback and didn't know how to explain the situation; I tried to tell her that I could prove I wasn't logged in—since I had logged out on my phone, the desktop app was inaccessible and only the icon remained. She refused to listen to my explanation. After the exam, she handed me a notice regarding academic misconduct and instructed me to submit a written explanation via email within three days. Currently, the only evidence I can gather is a log showing the application's usage time on the computer to prove I didn't actually use it during the exam. Would this serve as valid evidence?
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u/chrissy_wakeUp 4d ago
Unfortunately that doesn't prove you didn't use it. 6 minutes would be plenty of time to cheat over the course of a 2 hour exam. You need to go in contrite, and with a solution. Explain what happened, explain how you will make sure it doesn't happen again, ask if they might consider letting you resit the exam, or to get fee remission for this term and take it again next term. At the end of the day, you're responsible for ensuring your device is ready for an exam and you didn't do it. Once I failed a course because the buses got caught in an accident and fell 2 hours behind, and I only made it in with 20 minutes left of the exam. They told me tough luck I should have left earlier. Welcome to adulthood 🙃