I have taught this course more than one semester. It has been more than 5 years in fact. I am not saying that I am an expert in this subject matter but I know the difficulty of remembering many theories related to personality which belong to different schools of thoughts. It is not easy. So, to help the students in this matter, I allow them to bring few pages (A4 size) of notes that they can bring to the exam hall.
But I never thought that they would exchange their notes among themselves during the exam. I never anticipate this thing could happen. This was the first incident that happened in five years (and I hope this would be the last). This is akin to cheating because you are looking at other people’s notes, rather than on your own. I was informed by a student who saw this and I double checked it. When I walked around nearby the conspirators, I noticed that there were notes with different hand-writing on both sides of them. I knew instantly that what had been reported is true. Indeed.
I didn’t want to spoil the “mood” so, I just kept it to myself. But I would definitely not let this thing go without any punishment. This is a classic example of “Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile” or in Malay “Diberi betis hendak peha“