Posted on 05/25/2025 3:57:36 PM PDT by DoodleBob
…Students outsourcing their assignments to AI and cheating their way through college has become so rampant, so quickly, that it has created a market for a product that helps professors ChatGPT-proof school. As it turns out, that product already exists. In fact, you’ve probably used it. You might even dread it.
It’s called a blue book.
…
All of which explains how a paper company in Pennsylvania has unexpectedly found itself on the front lines of the classroom AI wars.
Most blue books for sale in campus bookstores and on Amazon for 23 cents apiece are made by Roaring Spring Paper Products. The family-owned business was founded more than a century ago in Roaring Spring, a small borough outside Altoona that has become the blue-book capital of America. The company now sells a few million of these classic exam books every year and all of them are manufactured in the U.S., said Kristen Allen, its vice president of sales and marketing.
…
Sales of blue books this school year were up more than 30% at Texas A&M University and nearly 50% at the University of Florida. The improbable growth was even more impressive at the University of California, Berkeley. Over the past two academic years, blue-book sales at the Cal Student Store were up 80%.
…
But even professors who have gone analog to defeat the latest technology are deeply conflicted about it. Many of them believe students should be using AI to get smarter. It would be stupid not to. These tools will be a part of their lives and knowing how to use them effectively will be an important advantage in their future workplaces.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Many of them believe students should be using AI to get smarter.
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Professors said this? Tells a lot!
Charlie Kirk has a knack of exposing campus students. He would be an excellent professor for oral exams.
Using AI to get smarter is smart. Using Blue Books for them to prove they’re smarter is smart, too.
They can barely write in print, UP.
Should never have gone away.
AI was like the discovery of nuclear power.
With nuclear power you can then build amazing power plants or blow up the planet.
Humans have done the first—and had some close calls and almost done the second.
Well said.
Applauding your ability and diligence. Bet it had major positive effects on your life to date. Well done!
Remember filling two blue books during my final exam in biology. Still remember the first question of 2. Name, describe function, and illustrate the parts of the plant and animal cell.
The answer is….four?
At some point in middle school, my math teacher brought a (large) handheld calculator that could add, subtract, multiply and divide that her husband used at NASA. She left it on top of her desk and someone stole it. An announcement came over the PA saying it cost some crazy amount and the FBI had been called regarding its disappearance and it better be returned before they arrived.
You can probably buy a calculator that does more for a buck from a bucket at the impulse buy area at the checkout counter today.
Whats college?
Way back in the late 90’s i had to take a proficiency test at work.
My co-worker suggested that i just enter the questions into google.
i was like “huh?”
I have a modest proposal.
Instead of debates for the primaries, give every candidate a Blue Book.
Have them sit down, with a camera in their Blue Book.
Have the moderator ask 20 questions. The candidates have 5 min to write their responses. Once done, hand in the Blue Books.
Livestream these jackwagons writing out their answers. Or, put it on pay per view to pay off the federal debt or upload the scanned-in Blue Books to a paywalled website.
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Oral exams are so open to abuse that it’s scary they’re still allowed in Europe. In today’s litigious victimhood oriented student body, a professor would be insane to give oral exams instead of just requiring anonymous bluebooks or typed exams. (There are exam software packages that just turn the students’ laptops into typewriters with no internet access).
I’ve never heard of them. I only remember those little composition books with the black mottled cover.
I remember those. I am ancient.
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