Icas/unit 10 cheats!

welshwizard

I would like to congratulate the person who decided it would be a good idea to upload the assessment booklet for the ICAS case study and also to the person/people who upload their completed reports for others to plagiarise. I can only assume that they don't care if their identity is uncovered and their reputation is ruined once the AAT and other professional bodies have finished with them.

This behaviour is unethical, unprofessional and could also be breach of copyright (posting published assessments without the copyright owner's permission).

I only hope that no-one who wants to be regarded as trustworthy, honest or ethical is tempted to make use of these documents. I read a small part of one report that was on one of the 'sharing' sites and was amazed how awful it was! I got so much from writing my report (albeit on a case study) and it helped me to develop my analytical and professional writing skills.

I spent 3 long hard years to achieve my AAT Level 4 qualification, I spent time gaining professional experience to be able to put 'MAAT' after my name and feel that behaviour like this devalues my work and the work of people like me. I now teach AAT students and warn every single one of them about cheating and the consequences.

Those who commit such acts deserve everything they receive. Imagine, working hard for 3 years to qualify, then proceeding to ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA etc and nearing completion only to be found guilty of cheating and then being expelled from the professional body. Lose your job (potentially), difficulty in finding another job, wasted time, wasted energy, ruined credibility, reputation.... that is the true reward for cheating.

For those people who have sweated blood, sweat and tears (and those that are still struggling through it all) over their ICAS (or unit 10) report - and those who come close to quitting because they couldn't get it right first time - I would say persevere, you will have such a sense of achievement (and relief) when it is assessed competent! For those of you who want to cheat - I hope you're found out before you go on to develop your academic and professional dishonesty into full blown fraud and theft.

Here endeth the rant.....

Jaylosan

Hear hear for the tears, I found myself in tears a few times and I know some of my classmates did too, a few also almost quit over it, it is hard work and totally blows you away when you realise how much work you are going to have to put into it, I found myself often sitting up til 4am just to try and finish one section of my report! I got mine back twice to things right, but it's finished now (thank god) here's to hoping I pass x

Rinske

Although I am not sure what happened here, it is never a good idea to cheat.

But are you saying that someone uploaded their report on TPB type sites and shared out the case study booklet as well?

welshwizard

Rinske wrote: »

Although I am not sure what happened here, it is never a good idea to cheat.

But are you saying that someone uploaded their report on TPB type sites and shared out the case study booklet as well?

Exactement!

Rinske

I'm not sure what the benefit is for downloading the case study, as I thought they needed to be purchased from the AAT via the provider? So other then a possible copyright infringement, how would this benefit students?

In any case, there might be an easy way to define who purchased a case study or not, when uploading the reports.

As for the report, I find it hard to believe anyone would like to devalue their work this way, but I do wonder how to check if a student downloaded that report, without now sending it all to ALL providers possible and maybe also stop using the case study (which is not very fair to any students working on it now).

I hope you reported it to the AAT and they will take measures.

I just wonder how this could be avoided in the future, as it's not realistic to use case studies only once, considering the amount of time that goes into creating them and to keep checking those sites is not realistic either, considering how many there are and how often new stuff gets posted.

exam panic

I'm agree with you that every one should not cheat unless life threatening .But AAT should not make it too long for 3 years that for me far too long for what it is

welshwizard

Just so people are aware, I had a conversation with one of the compliance team last week. They are aware of the reports etc that are being sold online and anyone caught trying to submit one of these (or even part of one) is likely to have their membership withdrawn - that would be a waste of 3 years , wouldn't it?

hanalav123

The case study on the AAT website is the one for people to use. Our tutor told us to download it from there if we can't find a workplace to base it on, as it is now computer based he said the paper ones no longer apply, I don't think the AAT will provide paper case studies for much longer.