Investigation into possible plagiarism

Thanks Admin.

So perhaps the guidance needs to be clearer. You are allowed to reference but not copy word for word. What does this mean? If I'm specifically asked a definition question, I can read my notes for reference but then change up the wording of the definition? This is becoming ridiculous and the Institute needs to do something about this before September.

 

Hi JamaicanJem

I feel you won’t get the answer your looking for yet. It will come but now is probably not the time. Acted aren’t in a position to commit to an answer (as they themselves still probably aren’t clear on the IFoA guidance) , and the IFoA won’t give that answer. But there’s around 15,000 people that have viewed this forum, so I’m certain if you a larger proportion are all proactive and email the IFoA asking that very question, they will have to give an answer. Get employers to do it too as they are usually the ones funding the exams so should help carry more weight.

 

Surely from a regulation standpoint, the FAQs are not official exam regulations, one of the questions referred to "I have heard on social media that the exams are open book.. etc etc" - I am sure this is not considered part of the official exam regulations of a Professional Institute - it is only the official "exam regulations" document that we should be referencing as the exam rules.

It would be interesting to hear people's thoughts on this.

 

Priya mentioned this before and I think she is right. We did not agree to the faq I personally didn’t even know it existed(not that it would have changed anything as what even do you mean that you can reference notes - I don’t even know what that means? CAn u paraphrase? Or u can look but you can’t use like some of these Instagram models I follow? . The IFoA have put most of the faq in the new regs so I think people should build an argument based solely based on assessment regulations. Me personally, I’m gonna admit it. I did copy the notes (I was actually impressed with my typing speed if I’m honest) I even got most full stops, commas and even a semi colon in the right place. However I thought personal notes were permitted. I was actually aware of plagiarism rules but paraphrasing is still considered plagiarising so without further guidance I just wrote the definition. E.g even if u paraphrase the core reading/acted for a definition, ur still plagiarising if u don’t list the sources. You’d have thought we were all sitting sa0.

Basically I think we needed more guidance on what was expected. Not a Us/Mexico border between us and the IFoA. I do hope the chief examiner reads my answer to question 1 as that was actually so eloquently written.

 

Ah, my apologies - thank you for clarifying things!

 

This is a good point but:
a) this was updated on 09 June and relates to sept exams
b) students only accepted the assessment regulations (March 2020) this was not in it

If only we had September rules in April to allow us to ascertain this. If only hindsight was useful., Or if the IFoA weren’t so cryptic that we have to decipher like this based on wording

 

In case anyone is interested, I have attached a zip file which has a few files in them relating to the April regulations, these are:

1. FAQ for the April exams
2. Hand book and guidance for sitting online examinations
3. Assessment regulations (dated March, but the ones in force for the sitting as far as I am aware)
4. IFoA exam contingency statement

Thankfully have not been accused of anything personally but best of luck to anyone else and hope that these files help in detailing rules as at April.

 

How is it IFoA don't understand this exactly? Are they suddenly going to understand it once one person says it to them, or two, or twenty... and who exactly in IFoA must this be explained to? Who doesn't get it at IFoA?

 

Perhaps the exam hall set up might be better than the "successful move to online exams".

 

See the assessment regulations paragraph 90. Natural justice, transparency, fairness is what they're meant to follow in their investigation. I don't see how them refusing to provide details of their allegations is consistent with that and people shouldn't be afraid to inform IFoA they aren't treating them as per their own documented processes.

 

Yes, I seem to remember it saying we could use personal notes but no online resources. In my plagarism letter though they have referenced coursenotes and acted notes as online resources. I don't consider these online resources as I have the physical notes in folders and am not aware of them being available online. Were these the online resources that were forbidden in the exam? It's very confusing. I think the wording should have explicitly stated that coursenotes were not permitted if this was the case, "online resources" is just so vague and clearly the coursenotes would be the first port of call for writing personal notes!

 

I thought them claiming the online exams were a "success" when they did, end of May or something, was jumping the gun somewhat when they hadn't even had the chance to mark the online exams yet!

Of course they had positive feedback from students, the online platform didn't fail, which is what we were all expecting given their previous track record and students liked the fact they could have notes rather than remembering hundreds of lists!

 

Hi everyone, sorry to all of those who have received plagiarism letters, I think it’s completely unfair when in the past word for word definitions have obviously been encouraged. I did not sit an exam in April as CM1 was due to be my first but it got cancelled, so I’m now preparing for CM1 and CB2 in Sept. I’m now quite worried after hearing about these accusations, do you think it is worth like recording yourself sitting the exam to use as evidence? Either screen recording or say using your phone to record? I’m not sure whether to sit my exam at home or in the office, say if I do sit it in the office would it be worth asking someone to invigilate for me? I’m trying to understand what sort of evidence they seem suitable (as I imagine many of you in this situation are also confused by).

 

Hello,

I moved house. For those of you who were accused of plagiarism. Did you only receive a physical letter or did you receive an email as well?

 

That should be for IFoA to clarify. If they don't clarify such things they are not running their investigation in accordance with their own documented processes and seems unenforceable.

 

If you get someone to invigilate for you though you'll then probably be accused of collusion!

The IFoA need to come up with a solution to this themselves and not leave it up to students. They could get virtual invigilators or something to watch people over webcam.

 

Exactly, paraphrasing is still plagarism, it's just more hidden plagarism. If they are going to include bookwork questions in future they should allow us to write the source next to it like we did for dissertation etc at uni.

 

Were those who got the letter able to get their results?

 

The onus is on them to prove you acted improperly. As with all typical work place or professional disciplinary processes, they must frame the charges precisely.

 

Have they given you results letter?

 

Key thing is to keep it polite and to the point.
I think the institute might recognise that they have made a hash and come clean