Brown Professor Voids Midterm After 96 Average, Shifts Final In Person Over Suspected AI Cheating
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 15
Brown Professor Voids Midterm After 96 Average, Shifts Final In Person Over Suspected AI Cheating
3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Jul 15
Summary
Roberto Serrano scrapped a take-home midterm in Brown’s advanced mathematical economics class after scores averaged 96 and nearly half of students earned 100s, far above the usual 60s-to-80s range.
ChatGPT produced the same convoluted solution path that appeared in many student answers, leading Serrano to conclude the results were best explained by widespread AI-assisted cheating.
After Serrano replaced the take-home final with a three-hour in-person exam, 27 students dropped the course — 22 of them had scored 100 on the midterm — and the final average fell to 48.6.
Brown said it is reviewing what happened in the class, days after an internal AI report urged updates to academic-integrity rules as universities revive proctored exams, oral tests and device limits.
Pew found 59% of teens say AI cheating is a regular occurrence at their school, underscoring how fast-moving tools are forcing colleges to rethink how they test whether students are actually learning.