Hypothetical Ethical Dilemma I Just Thought Up...

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

A little ethical question inspired by an online chat I just had with a couple of friends:

Suppose in order to prepare for finals, a student spends all night going over everything covered in class, and compiles an extensive, multi-page review sheet for the tests. Other, less-prepared students notice said sheet, and request a copy so they can be prepared too.

Would such a request be a sensible request, or freeloadoing off of the hard work of others?

[darthdavid]

Option 3, which you forgot to put. The student isn't obliged to do anything. They would be being a good friend and a general nice person if they did, but if the other people were rude about it or they just didn't feel like it they're not obligated to do shit.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

I would say this is not so much a question of morality. The student is of course not obliged to give his sheet to the iothers, nor would he be helping freeloaders by giving it. It would simply be the kinder thing to do.

[Pezzoni]

There is no obligation for the student to give the sheet, but would be 'nice' if he did.
At the end of the day, the stuff on the sheet isn't going to leap into the heads of the other students, they will also have to put a fair ammount of work in, so I don't think the 'freeloading' situation would really be realistic.

[Korvan]

Copying someone else's study sheet is basically worthless. The real value of such sheets is in the actual preperation of them rather than the review. In making up such a sheet, you will retain much more information for longer than reading someone else's.

I once copied someone's review sheet for a vector calculus midterm when I totally slacked off and put off studying to the absolute last minute. The result, dead last with a pathetic 21%. I busted my ass for the final, though and ended up passing with a sympathy 50% for the course. (To get a real 50%, I would've had to score a 90% on the final. I got 88% and fortunately had a generous Prof.)

[The Grim Squeaker]

Copying someone else's study sheet is basically worthless. The real value of such sheets is in the actual preperation of them rather than the review.
In making up such a sheet, you will retain much more information for longer than reading someone else's.

Not always true, it depends on how your memory works, mine works best from writing something down and re-working it in the process; the major "ways" of "memorizing" are:
Visual [Reading], Audible [Hearing, possibly speaking], and "physical" [Writing].
Generally though just reading something is less effective than writing it or re-working it yourself unless you're lucky enough to have a memory based on merely reading something [passive] rather than also writing and organizing it mentally in the process.

That aside, as the student I would generally simply only let anyone who hasn't seriously ticked me off [95% roughly of the kids in most of my classes] study with me and help me practice the questions, although I would let them copy it from me if it didn't interfere with my studying, no sense in being selfish [it would also impede on my admitedly troublesome social status anyway], in short I would let people copy due to selfish reasons [not wanting to appear to be a sociopathic dick] rather than a true feeling of generosity.

Still, no student should be forced to give up copies to his lazy "freeloading" classmates and due to the lack of an option 3, I'm voting for option 2 [no forced free-loading, I despise it when I end up doing the brunt of a project]

[The Grim Squeaker]

What the hell , I know I pressed the "Stop" button before posting .
Can a mod please delete the first two versions please?

[gizmojumpjet]

Wow, you really are a spam bot, aren't you?

[wolveraptor]

There is nothing particularly immoral about copying another person's review sheet (with consent, of course), but the student who did the work is never obliged to do it. It's a choice that's most likely based on the interactions between the two students in the past, rather than any sort of morality.

[Batman]

As others have said, this isn't much of an ethical dilemma, so I say what the student should do is offer to sell the review sheet and try to make some dough.

[Azazal]

As others have said, this isn't much of an ethical dilemma, so I say what the student should do is offer to sell the review sheet and try to make some dough.

You hit the nail on the head, I thought the same thing when reading the OP

[Davis 51]

As others have said, this isn't much of an ethical dilemma, so I say what the student should do is offer to sell the review sheet and try to make some dough.

You hit the nail on the head, I thought the same thing when reading the OP

I'm surprised it took this long for someone to say "sell it."

I would probably give it to my closest friends, and sell it to all the assholes.

[Zornhau]

...at least for serious exams. In other words, percentages aren't absolute.

Thus, by sharing the sheets and upping everybody's absolute grade, the student actually does themselves harm. (They also hard their friends by helping them avoid collision with reality in a safe environment.)

On the other hand, it would be fine for the student to sell the sheets.

[Darth Wong]

Oh for fuck's sake, are you all dense or something? The correct course of action is to offer the sheets for a cash payment.

If you have something of value, then it is only reasonable to demand a significant payment for the labour value of the documents, especially if you think he plans to distribute it among the others.

There were times in university that I asked to borrow somebody's notes. I always paid for this service, since it is a service of value. It is totally unreasonable to demand something of value without offering something of value in return.