Exam Scams and Classroom Flimflams: Urban Legends as an Alternative Lens for Viewing the College Classroom Experience

Abstract

Campus-based urban legends have the potential to convey and construct student culture in higher education. Basic qualitative and humanistic research methods were used to collect, analyze, and interpret legends related to the academic experience of collegiate life.Key words urban legends . academic culture . academic experience A friend of mine's brother who goes to Central State University was taking Biology 101 last semester; and at the end of the semester, during the final exam, a funny thing happened. It was a large lecture class, with 300 students or so, and to be allowed to turn in the exam students had to show their ID cards so that the professor could make sure that they didn't send in "ringers" to take the test. Well, my friend's brother forgot to take his ID card to the exam. He knew that the professor wouldn't accept his completed exam without the ID card. So when he finished the exam, he went up to the professor and in a haughty voice said "Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am?" "No," said the professor. "Good!" he said, and then he shoved his exam into the middle of the stack of exams the professor had already taken up, and he ran out of the lecture hall! The tale recounted above reveals a common perspective on collegiate education. Indeed, the concept of large lecture classes and impersonal treatment in which that faculty members Innov High Educ (