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Here's the case: It is possible to acquire a test given by a teacher the previous year. Said teacher gave the test back to the students, and a student passed it along to someone in the year below. It is known that this teacher never makes up new tests, and it is almost definite that this will be the same test.

Is it muttar to look at this test? Or would be asur, and considered cheating?

147zcbm
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When I was in Yeshiva, a world renowned Posek* had a Q&A session with us, and the question came up regarding if you know that a teacher takes test questions from some online question bank if you're allowed to search them up and study directly from those questions. He answered emphatically yes.

If I recall correctly (it's been a few years since I heard it, and unfortunately the hard drive where I saved the recording is no longer with us), he said it was permitted even if the teacher explicitly told the kids not to look online for the answers. The Posek said that the teacher had no right to demand that kids not look up the answers; if it's out there, the kids have a right to look at it.

I believe this would apply to an actual copy of the test from previous years that a teacher 'released into the wild'. If the teacher let students keep the test, the teacher can't prevent students from sharing the test with future students. If the teacher collected the tests back and somehow a student got a copy of the test, then the students wouldn't be allowed to use the questions (this would be no different than stealing a test as per @ShmuelBrin's previous answer).

However, I would go so far as to say it would even be permitted, for example, for a student with photographic memory to memorize all the questions and write them all down afterward the test and share them with other students. While the students might not be allowed to have a physical copy of the original test if the teacher collected it back, the teacher can't prevent the information from being spread.

As an aside, the Posek somewhat tongue-in-cheek mentioned that he had no sympathy for teachers who don't make original tests, as he himself is a Halacha teacher in a Yeshiva and still takes the time to write original questions before each test. He said it only takes a few minutes, and if the teacher is too lazy to do that, the teacher can't expect the students to not search for the answers online.

*I apologize, but I have a rule where I don't post anyone's name online without their permission, unless it's something they published. You'll have to take the word of a random 1,300 point user for what it's worth...

Salmononius2
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  • Would you say that since there's a possibly that a student with photographic memory memorized it and gave over the answers, therefore any means of obtaining the test would be permissible? – 147zcbm Apr 04 '16 at 01:30
  • @147zcbm Definitely not. The fact that a certain result could come about in a permitted way doesn't mean that one could do something forbidden to achieve that result. If I wanted to extend the analogy to an extreme: since one could study hard and know all the answers to a test, therefore he could also steal the test and know the answers. I don't think anyone would say that one could steal a test in that case. – Salmononius2 Apr 04 '16 at 01:40
  • To clarify, the Posek didn't explicitly speak about a case where the teacher took back the test but someone memorized it, although I believe his logic would apply there as well (which is why I put it in the answer). – Salmononius2 Apr 04 '16 at 01:42
  • Ahem, that's 1279 – Double AA Apr 04 '16 at 01:55
  • What if the teacher collected the tests, but a student didn’t turn his in (say, he was absent that day - not necessarily intentionally didn’t hand them in). Would you say this is comparable to a teacher demanding that they not seek the answers online, or to a student stealing the test (since he technically shouldn’t have it)? – DonielF Mar 27 '19 at 20:29
  • @DonielF, I'm a little unclear aout what situation you're referring to. The general rule as I see it is that if the student can get the questions in a legitimate manner, then a teacher can't tell the student not to look. In your example, if the test is in the wild legitimately, then IMO it's fair game for anyone to look at it. If the teacher let the cat out of the bag, the students can't be expected to not take advantage of that. – Salmononius2 Mar 28 '19 at 16:06
  • @Salmononius2 It’s not exactly in the wild legitimately. Several of my teachers collected all of our tests at the end of the year, so that we couldn’t pass them on to the next grade. Let’s say that someone was absent that day and therefore didn’t turn his tests in (no, I did not actually do this). So he really isn’t supposed to have the tests, but technically he does has them legitimately. – DonielF Mar 28 '19 at 16:15
  • @DonielF Eh, that sounds to me like it's legitimately out in the wild. I would even say any take-home test would be considered like the teacher let it out in the wild (unless some sort of extreme security measures are in place to ensure it was only used properly and then returned). It would be unreasonable for any teacher to expect that no copies of a test that left a controlled environment would be guaranteed to be 'unleaked'. That's not to say someone who leaks it isn't doing something wrong, but once it's leaked, another student can't be barred from seeing it. – Salmononius2 Mar 28 '19 at 20:41
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R' Moshe Feinstein said that one may not steal the regents exam (even for furthering Torah study), and those that cheat on the regents exam don't just violate Geneivas Daas but are guilty of outright theft from their future employer by falsely representing themselves as having passed the exam.

The issue is not stealing from the Regents board. The issue is that cheating on a test is stealing from future employers by exaggerating one's credentials. This is in addition to Genevias Daas issues.

ertert3terte
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    Yes, but it's not exactly stealing if the teacher gives you the exam.... – 147zcbm Apr 03 '16 at 22:41
  • Was Rabbi Feinstein aware of Barron's study guides? Old Regents exams are readily published not just by Barron's, but even the Regents board puts them online. I'm not sure why Rav Feinstein would declare this to be cheating. – DanF Apr 04 '16 at 02:49
  • @DanF are guilty of outright theft from their future employer** – ertert3terte Apr 04 '16 at 03:06
  • @147zcbm ditto. – ertert3terte Apr 04 '16 at 03:06
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    @DanF I assume that the Regents don't re-use tests. – ertert3terte Apr 04 '16 at 03:07
  • Regents rarely reuse entire tests. However, they have reused questions, or slightly modified them. Regardless, I really don't see how someone studying old Regents that the Regents board themselves publishes constitutes any form of cheating whatsoever. They have outright permission to use old tests. (The bigger problem, incidentally, is that teachers and principals themselves cheat by fudging the grades of the students.) – DanF Apr 04 '16 at 15:00
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    @DanF it's called studying if u look at old regents not cheating and noone said it was – Moshe Goldberg Apr 14 '16 at 01:11