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[farm_boy]

OK, the flakes are starting to appear.

"Jenny" has missed 5 weeks of class, but she shows up for the scheduled quiz (in a senior-level Business Spanish class).  During the test, which is partly on vocab, she opens her dictionary to look up some of the words.  I walk over to her and whisper that she can't use the dictionary duing the test.  She looks surprised, smiles, and says "OK."

Is this... odd??

(At least it was a paper version of a dictionary, and not an electronic one)

[karmie]

Farm_boy, is "Jenny" a non-native speaker of English?  In my experience, the students who have (and use) dictionaries during class are not fluent in English (There are plenty of students who are native speakers of English who should be using a dictionary as well, but I digress...).

I agree: when a quiz is testing for comprehension of certain terminology/vocabulary, using a dictionary defeats the purpose of the assessment. 

[melba_frilkins]

Farm_boy, is "Jenny" a non-native speaker of English?  In my experience, the students who have (and use) dictionaries during class are not fluent in English (There are plenty of students who are native speakers of English who should be using a dictionary as well, but I digress...).

I agree: when a quiz is testing for comprehension of certain terminology/vocabulary, using a dictionary defeats the purpose of the assessment. 

I agree too. That reminds me of when I'll have multiple choice exam questions along the lines of "Which of the following is an example of ~term from chapter~". And during the test, a student will come and ask me "What does ~term from chapter~ mean?". Uh, that is what I am testing you on!

[glowdart]

There was a thread a few weeks back about a student who opened up the textbook during an exam and played dumb when called on it.  I think the resounding chorus there was to fail her. 

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,63865.30.html

[magistra]

Some instructors allow dictionaries for exams, especially in classes like Reading X Language and Business X Language.  She may have been allowed previously, and since she'd been absent, she may have assumed this was ok.  It's pretty stupid, especially since obviously no-one else had dictionaries out, but the intent may not be there.

Since it was just a quiz I wouldn't worry about it.  After all, she's sure to fail on absences and general cluelessness, so why get into something that she might fight you over?  After all, a Stupidity Fail is recorded the same as a Cheating Fail.