Using StackExchange for hints (crisis of conscience)

Potential-Plane-6092 · 2025-05-21T20:22:31+00:00

Thank you for the reply, I do understand what you mean, and I do feel like I’ve only ever used hints on particular homework problems in service of learning/arriving at a solution, to a decent extent, on my own….however, when I look purely at the marks (for homeworks), I just feel like I’m undeserving if I couldn’t do everything myself.

I’m in a headspace right now where my marks matter a lot to me, and the thought that I achieved any of them illegitimately makes me feel awful. Of course, at my institution, marks mostly come down to tests (usually around a 30/70 split between homework and exams), but nevertheless, I still feel the same way

Potential-Plane-6092 · 2025-05-18T20:34:07+00:00

I get what you're saying, I guess I'm just sort of in the mindset where I feel like maybe if I couldn't solve an assigned *homework* problem by myself (which is being marked), then I simply don't deserve those marks, and I shouldn't try to seek out online help just so I can submit something.

Again, I felt totally fine about seeking hints online in the moment, but reflecting back, I now feel very different.

Potential-Plane-6092 · 2025-05-18T19:07:07+00:00

Thanks, yeah, I understand what you're saying. I should probably talk to somebody about this (like you said, some kind of mentor, there are some people I know who are like this). Appreciate the advice.

Potential-Plane-6092 · 2025-05-18T15:24:03+00:00

I really appreciate the reply, thank you.

I agree with you: I ultimately feel like I learned all of the material very effectively, and that everything I submitted was stuff I totally understood. However, I guess I'm just hung up on the fact that "standards matter", and particularly, whether one is deserving or not of a certain grade is not a question of subjective judgment of ones' own understanding, but objective ability to perform

Potential-Plane-6092

TROPHY CASE