USMLE investigates discussion forums...

[Fermi]

According to this press release from the USMLE, they have investigated several examinees this year who have posted exam material in internet forums, and have placed an "irregularity" on their USMLE transcript. This is the same distinction as cheating in the testing room.

My question is, how did they find out exactly who these people are based on a discussion board ID? They would have to do some digging in some cases to verify exactly who the poster is. It made me nervous about posting a (very, very vague) comments about certain questions.

Food for thought!

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[jaeida8]

Yeah I heard about this when kaplan came to talk to our school a couple of weeks ago. They said this has happened to about 14 people so far and they said something like you will not be allowed to take the usmle again for 3 years or something along those lines, but i remember it being a pretty severe. They said specifically that if you are posting information about questions on the test in chatrooms or message boards this can happen to you.

 

[Dr. Lector]

Oh **** they are coming to get us.

 

[theodore]

I don t know, it sounds too extreme to me to be true. If even the site doesn t have your name and/or you re using a public computer when checking sdn, the only possible way would be through your e mail address. And i m not sure how easy(or legal, or even possible) it is to find someone s real ID through his/her email account(especially in case of free mail services like hotmail or Yahoo). Maybe it s just to scare people..

 

[Fermi]

I don't think the USMLE would send out a false news release just to scare people. I'm sure if they found someone who was in clear violation of their policy, e.g. posting questions word-for-word and giving the answers, they could go to the website administrators and requisition the user's account information, the IP addresses they've logged, and anything else that might help them positively identify the offender. Given the serious charges, though, , it would be awfully hard to prove. You could just say that someone else used your account, like if you left yourself logged into SDN at a computer lab.

Still, it kind of makes you wonder any of this happened on this message board. I haven't seen anything, but there have been some posts that skirt the line as far as providing specific details.

 

[bustbones26]

I don't understand why this is such a problem. Is anybody going to be abel to recite the exam questions and muttiple choice options word for word as they appear on teh exam? No?

Somebody giving advice on what material is on the barods is not different than your profs doing so. In fact, tis no different than a board review course.

 

[Idiopathic]

Originally posted by Fermi
I don't think the USMLE would send out a false news release just to scare people. I'm sure if they found someone who was in clear violation of their policy, e.g. posting questions word-for-word and giving the answers, they could go to the website administrators and requisition the user's account information, the IP addresses they've logged, and anything else that might help them positively identify the offender. Given the serious charges, though, , it would be awfully hard to prove. You could just say that someone else used your account, like if you left yourself logged into SDN at a computer lab.

Still, it kind of makes you wonder any of this happened on this message board. I haven't seen anything, but there have been some posts that skirt the line as far as providing specific details.

They could, and the material is copyrighted, but why would an IP or an internet forum give up this information? I dont see that they would be under any obligation to do so.

 

[jaeida8]

Well I watched a Forensic Files on TLC and they were able to trace back a murderer to a map he had printed out and written a letter on that he had gotten from expedia or a site like that. They subpoenaed expedia and got his IP and his ISP and everything and found the guy's name. So I guess if you are breaking the law your stuff could technically be subpoenaed.

 

[HiddenTruth]

Originally posted by jaeida8
Well I watched a Forensic Files on TLC and they were able to trace back a murderer

Yea but I think that is strictly for murder or extreme cases. I dont know how legal it is for a court to give a subpeona to USMLE peeps...who knows...in any case...i think the situationw as to the extreme (very deatiled, specific) rather than the discussions u usually see in these forums..i dont think we have too much to worry...

.....so you guys wanna know the exact 400 questions with the mult chioce answers to the exam i took yesterday....

lets be a bit more practical here....

 

[monet]

Can they trace our home computers?

 

[Sessamoid]

Most forum software logs IP addresses for messages, so if an authority was able to convince/coerce a web site into giving them access to the information, they would probably be able to trace any given message back to a physical location.

 

[The Pill Counter]

So the question falls to Lee Burnett, have you guys cooperated with UMSLE and handed over our information?

 

[ckent]

I would reccomend against posting anything illegal or unethical on SDN. However, SDN does keep user IP addresses confidential unless we are forced to reveal them under court order, and you are correct in that even if an IP address is traced back to say your school, that doesn't provide any evidence that you were the one posting the information. It can be incriminating if your school monitors your computer activity through your network or if you post from home I guess. Bottom line is just abide by the USMLE rules in not posting specific questions or answers and you should be fine. SDN will do everything it can to protect your anonimity.

 

[doc_strange2001]

Kaplans Q-bank is the biggest leaker of exam questions. I swear some of the real ones were carbon copy to q-bank. I wonder why they dont go after them? I bet kaplan is paying USMLE off

 

[The Pill Counter]

I hope that's true since I just dropped $149 yesterday

 

[doc_strange2001]

It was money well spent my friend. Do all the questions and read all the answers and you should not have any problems