Over 600 students had to take the midterm exam. The exam was given over a 5-day period. In order to discourage cheating, the exam was given via a computer lab, with the questions varying each time the test was given. The questions were automatically drawn from the pool of questions based on the testbank. There were over 600 potential questions, and each exam used 55 of them.

Over 22% of the students got an A. Where based on previous results, only 5 or 6% would have. A statistical analysis of the exam results showed that approximately 200 students cheated on the exam. Now consider that the students who cheated had memorize the as many of the 600 answers they could or they could not have pulled off A’s. It does require effort to memorize that many questions and answers. Why would they bother unless they suspected that the test would be based on them. Still, that’s easier then actually trying to actually understand the material.

Although it is relatively easy to get access to Instructor Manuals through disreputable websites, that does not, in any sense, excuse students who do so. Cheating is cheating, even if it’s easy.

I am amazed how much people are trying to rationalize cheating. A group of students bought a copy of the INSTRUCTOR'S MANUAL for the textbook that class was using! The IM is supposed to be sold only to teachers who are using the corresponding textbook to teach the class. It is unlikely that at least one of the group of students who purchased the IM, did not know that using the IM was unethical and a violation of the student code of conduct. And approximately 200 students of the 600 in the course got a copy of the testbank from the IM. It is legitimate for a professor to use the testbank, simply because he can be sure the questions have been vetted, thereby ensuring that students who understand the material presented in the textbook, will be able to answer the questions. The point: better understanding of the material should result in better grades on the exam.
Tests are designed to test what students understands of the material. Since testbanks include the answers, it cheats students out of the need to work out the answers for themselves (the best way to really learn the material). Learning answers to questions is not the same as learning *how* to answer questions.
So the students cheat themselves, and they cheat against the other students. They cheat the others by gaining an unfair grade advantage while undermining the point of the test -- measuring how well students have learned the course material. Those who did not cheat may better understand the material, but the cheaters grades would falsely imply otherwise.
But it seems that learning wasn't the goal of these students. The grade was all that counted.