A Brown University professor suspects most of his class used AI to cheat after a take-home exam averaged 96 percent, while an in-person test produced the lowest scores ever. Two large studies confirm this pattern: where students rely on AI for homework, proctored exam scores collapse.
Roberto Serrano, an economics professor at Brown University, believes the majority of his 86 students used AI to cheat on an exam. The test was a take-home exam, and the class average came in at 96 percent. Historically, that number runs between 65 and 80 percent.
Serrano ran the questions through ChatGPT and got nearly identical answers. Many students used a convoluted mathematical proof that ChatGPT also chose, rather than the more obvious direct approach.
Serrano warned his students and made the final a proctored, in-person exam. The results proved his point. Eighteen students dropped the course, and nine didn't even show up for the test. The average fell to 48.6 percent, the worst result the course has ever seen, Inside Higher Ed reports.
Only a handful of students scored anywhere close to their take-home results. Nineteen students failed outright. Serrano voided the midterm and weighted the final at 80 percent of the course grade.
