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Should I include my latest job on my CV?
I just graduated this April from undergrad and I'm now applying to graduate programs that start September 2019. I'm taking a gap year between undergrad and grad school for various reasons, mostly to travel.
From the past May to August (right after I graduated), I worked in a research lab in exactly the field I'm applying to for grad school (computer hardware). I got a strong letter of recommendation out of it and it made my CV significantly stronger.
From next January to next September I'm going to be travelling. However, I was a bit short on travel funding so I accepted a software development position at a consulting firm this past September that I'm going to quit in December right before I head out. However, after I accepted the job, I soon found out that they only hired me because for various complicated legal reasons, they don't actually have any work for me. So the past 2.5 months, I've just sat at home doing nothing, it's been a paid vacation. Starting Monday, this company finally wants me to start coming in to do some work - however the work is Front End Web development, it doesn't have much to do with the field I'm applying to (computer architecture/hardware).
When I submit my applications to grad school, I'm debating whether or not I should include this latest job on my CV. I was hoping to get some advice on this. Here are my thoughts:
Advantages

I'm taking a gap year, so I'm sure many profs will be concerned about me being away from my field for so long. If my CV says I was working between September to December, it looks I'm only "away" for 8 months instead of 12 (yes, it's a mostly unrelated field, but I'm still working in a computer related field and applying soft engineering skills). It'll make the gap look smaller.

Disadvantages

I haven't done anything for the job yet, and I probably won't do too much in the next 1.5 months either. I won't have much to write about other than my title, and maybe a few vague description points.
My most recent work experience on my CV will now be this joke of a job instead of my research experience over summer. It'll be the first thing the admission committee/prof sees under work experience on my CV, so I'm concerned it won't have as "strong" of a first impression, despite my summer research being right under.

I was hoping I could get some advice, thanks.

An unrelated job can be "spun" as proof of flexibility, "cross-disciplinary" thinking. A gap can be understood as jail time :) (yes, unlikely, gigantic exaggeration)

Yes, you ought to include it. In committee we don't like to see gaps in a CV, it suggests that the person might be unemployable. Whereas there is nothing wrong with spending a year in the wrong job. If it comes up during an interview, you can turn it to your advantage: it was by working at that job that you understood that you were really meant for graduate work.

Yes, anytime you submit your CV as part of an application, it should be current, listing your current position, even if you regard it as only temporary.  An exception might be if your current responsibilities involve asking if you want fries with that or giving people rides in your car.


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Does publishing a paper on Qeios count as a prior publication from the viewpoint of a traditional peer reviewed journal?
More specifically, for mathematics journals. Would a publication in Qeios disqualify a paper from also being published in a traditional mathematics journal?

I don’t know the answer, but my personal experience with Qeios is that they occasionally randomly email me to look at some total crackpot junk, so I always assumed they were a promotion agency for bad papers.

The papers I saw there don’t get published in proper journals, but I can’t tell if that’s because of an official policy or something — they wouldn’t be able to pass peer review anyway.

I don't know about the site you name, but math journals are quite understanding in general about prior publication of in-process papers. This is quite different from some other fields, though many others are coming around to the same policies. But, each journal will have its own policies on preprint publication.
Mathematicians are generally happy when they see results early on which, I'll guess, has led to this situation.
But as noted in the comments, publishing in junk journals or websites isn't a good sign about the quality of the paper. You still need to meet the standards of editors and reviewers. to be formally published.
And, if the consider themselves to be an "open access" journal, then it isn't the same as a preprint server, so many publishers, even in math, might decide it has been previously "published" not just something something something, that isn't quite publishing. Prior to arXiv the world was a bit clearer about what was publishing and what wasn't.

Well, not just "before arXiv", but, more precisely, "before there was an internet, and people could put documents on their .edu homepages"... :)

It's unclear; some may consider it a journal, some may not. I suggest not to take the risk; it seems they offer no advantages over Arxiv.

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What should I do if my professor changes the question mid-exam?
I was writing a 3-question examination today (undergrad) with 1200 other students when our professor comes in after ~2/3 of the exam and changes a question to make it solvable. This was a 1.5 hour exam where each question was designed to take 30 minutes so unless you did the other two questions knowing that question was impossible to solve and waited for an announcement on instructions of how to solve, you would not be able to finish. When I walked out of the exam, you could tell that everyone was mad that this changed question could have impacted their overall mark by 15-20%. What should I do to help out myself and my fellow classmates who were screwed over by this change? Has anyone ever had a similar situation?

If one notices that a question is not solveable, it might be better to switch to one of the other questions immediately. After having solved them, there might or might not be time to switch back to the other one. Or some things might have happened, e. g. what you describe.

@glglgl Exam questions are often difficult. Switching questions the instant you get stuck is going to lead to a lot of context switching. So, in reality, one has to make a decent attempt at a question before giving up on it; that could still waste quite a bit of time.

You mention that each question was designed to take 30 minutes. Was that a stated metric, or one you assume based on number of questions/time given?

Where do you study? In Italy this wouldn't be a such a huge issue. During the oral examination the professors know about this and will handle this accordingly. Don't you have something like this? Was this a part of the exam or the whole singleshot-exam for the course?

@Bakuriu What is a "slingshot-exam"?

Anecdote: This happened to me once ... and worse. It was only the first section that got called out halfway. The other three sections knew about the change at the beginning of the test. People were not happy. Since it was a lab midterm, there was no way to do a make-up test. The solution ended up being some complicated method of scaling everyone's scores based on their cohorts usual performance, as well as their performance on the correct questions, and the attempts they made on the impossible question. I don't envy that professor/TA team ...

@AzorAhai singleshot-exam, i.e. you don't have homework, you don't have lab assignments. You go to lecture for 1 year, you have 2 hours of exam. What you get for those 2 hours are your grade. Period. Nothing you did before matters or contributes to your grading only those 2 hours of examination.

@Bakuriu That sounds terrible. I'm not sure I understand the connection to a slingshot, though?

@AzorAhai I never wrote slingshot, you misread my original message. FYI most exams in Italy are like that with the catch that they (at least most) are not really single-shot. If you fail them you can retry for a certain number of times. But your grade is still just the grade of the single exam session, you cannot earn anything with homework during the year.

@bak Oh haha that makes seane

On a side note: This happened to an Electrical Engineering professor at my university in 2014, and he was fired as a result

Side note:  I knew a numerical analysis professor that provided an unsolvable problem that caused a student to fail a WPE for the second time, and washed him out of the Ph.D. program.  As far as I know, nothing happened to the professor, and the student got nothing.

@glglgl Hard questions often seem unsolvable. Do you really expect students the stressful environment of an exam to recognise a truly unsolvable question? If this particular question was easy to recognise as unsolvable, then the professor must have been truly incompetent.

@BrianDrake I meant to say (more than 2 years ago) that if the question is not solvable now by the student, move on.

@glglgl I would say, if the questions are designed to take 30 minutes each, then none of them are solvable “now” by the student (unless the student is exceptional).

This does happen sometimes, despite a professor's best efforts to check the exam beforehand.  Professors are humans and make mistakes.
You can write a polite email to the professor (or whoever is in charge of grading the exam, if different), letting them know that you feel this had a disproportionate negative impact on your score.
That's about all you can do.  It is ultimately up to the professor (or grading committee, etc) to decide what to do about this issue, if anything.  They might:

Do nothing, reasoning that although the correction was unfortunate, it affected all students equally.
Give credit to students who made an appropriate attempt to solve the impossible version of the problem.
Adjust the "curve" or other statistical correction of the exam score to take this into account.
Discard the question's score, and reweight the scores on the other questions.
Discard the entire exam and hold a new one.
Discard the entire exam and reweight other exams in the course to compensate.

In principle, if you don't agree with the professor's decision, you may be able to appeal to some higher authority.  This would depend on your university's regulations, and my guess is that it would be unlikely to succeed, if the professor did anything halfway reasonable. I'd consider that any of the above options would satisfy that.

Not doing anything doesn't affect all students equally because it makes it complete luck if you started with the other questions or not. Legally (at least in Germany) you'd have a very strong standing because it's generally not allowed to mark students differently based on this kind of luck. This is comparable to announcing the solution to one question midway through, you're not grading the students knowledge anymore, but their luck in choosing which question to start with.

@DonQuiKong Very true. On the other hand, the decision of what to do will be made with the benefit of knowing what the actual marks were. It may be that, in this case, the correction did seem to affect most of the students about equally.

@DonQuiKong I would disagree. Ability to wisely choose rights questions, spot difficult ones, focus on questions yielding most points is part of good strategy, not luck. In old days, universities in Poland based their admissions on exam performance. In maths at Warsaw University questions were scored differently depending on difficulty. Spending too much time on difficult question could prove perilous strategy and applicants were aware of that.

@Konrad difficulty is subjective so the students will have a different order of going through the questions -> not everyone is affected equally. Or are you saying everyone should instantly know a question is impossible without wasting a single second thinking about it? Because else that second would be something someone else has more -> still unfair.

@DonQuiKong I see your point; where I tend to disagree (slightly, as I reckon it's a subtle issue) is that the one may choose to reward students who scan the whole exam paper first and then prioritize questions accordingly over students who progress one-by-one and get stuck in the middle. It's not an obvious strategy,but there are some tests that offer that. Some IQ test do not have fixed number of questions but time limit, skipping difficult questions may prove a good strategy in terms of gaining more points. Ability to assess difficulty and prioritize accordingly may be seen as skill.

@Konrad but there is no such thing a the "correct" strategy in deciding which question to tackle first. You can go for the hard ones and stop after x mins or go for the easy ones or whatever. It boils down to - this mid-exam change affects students differently based on luck. Imagine two exactly equal students. Both know everything perfectly and will finish the exam in the given time. Both chose at random which question to do first. One of them is interrupted mid question with a change of question, the other one hadn't started that question. Now those exactly equal students get different grades

=> the students were tested on something completly unrelated to the course -> their luck. That's unfair and cannot be "legally ok". Whatever the exact legal course of action and possibilites are, there is no retrospectively saying "oh well the students should just have done the questions in a different order or instantly known there was a problem and just corrected it" - that's completly unfair to everyone involved.

@DonQuiKong My point was that you shouldn't choose on random but choose strategically. I reckon that mid-exam interruption complicates the situation further. Nevertheless, if you consider wider context of preparing students for real life, it is pragmatic and desired that law or medical students face cases of different difficulty as this makes them more prepared to real life. The wider goal of an University exam is to test ability and knowledge. The one could argue that variable difficulty makes it more real, although at expense of being less fair, which is a sensible point.

@Konrad I agree. But it's important that the situtation be the same for everyone. That wasn't the case here. So I think it's futil to argue about whether it could be done fairly if done on purpose.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Another option for the professor is to do nothing now, but when calculating final grades, look at any students who were close to the points needed for a higher (letter) grade, and adjust their points if they were harmed by this issue. This option is commonly used by the lecturers that I TA'd for. Also, you're less likely to come across as a "grade grubber" if you say "I'm not asking you to change my grade, but later if I end up on the borderline for a higher grade, I'd appreciate it if you could take this into consideration".

If you are a university professor and can't write a three question exam without major issues (like a whole question isn't solvable), then perhaps you should seek employment elsewhere...

@JeffC: No offense, but that's easy to say for someone who's not a university professor (per your profile).  Everybody makes mistakes, and an unsolvable question can be the result of something as minor as a typo.  Professors have lots of other duties besides writing an exam and don't have the luxury of spending a lot of time checking and re-checking everything.

@NateEldredge Yes, yes, everyone is busy... not just university professors. If you expect students to write complete answers with no mistakes, surely you can be held to the same standard? Minor typos are more understandable but if your typo (or whatever) causes an entire question of a three question exam to be unsolvable, that's not just a ... "that's easy for you to say"... I wonder if this prof's supervisor knows about this and what they think of it. I bet they don't just shrug it off.

@NateEldredge If some math student came to you after an exam and said I typo'd a 3 here when it should have been a 6 and because of that my answer was completely wrong... I want credit for the question because I didn't "have the luxury of spending a lot of time checking and re-checking everything."... I'm sure you would give them full credit, right?

@JeffC: No, I wouldn't give them full credit, but I also wouldn't advise them to drop out of college, which is what your suggestion equates to.  Likewise, I would advise this professor to try to be more careful in future, but I wouldn't suggest that they ought to quit being a professor altogether.  Anyway, I don't care to debate this any further (that whole busy thing) - feel free to have the last word.

@JeffC +1 “If you expect students to write complete answers with no mistakes, surely you can be held to the same standard?” Not only that, but you expect students to write complete answers with no mistakes in limited time, in an artificial environment that deliberately limits students’ ability to work optimally. (I cannot complain about this enough!)

Yes, these things happen. No one is perfect, not even a professor. But what you need is a fair resolution. One would be to just cancel the exam and adjust grading rubric accordingly. Another, not quite as good, would be to reschedule another exam.
But you need to find a, hopefully polite, way to let the professor know that some people spent a lot of time on an impossible question and others did not. Even giving everyone full marks on that question isn't fair due to the frustration that some experienced.
If the professor is focused on teaching and not just on grading, then it should be possible to work out a solution.
With 1200 people it is hard to form a delegation to meet with the professor, but that would be a logical step.
But if this just happened, it may be that the professor will announce a suitable accommodation at the next meeting. If not, you might bring it up with the TAs for the course. I wouldn't escalate it to any formal complaint, however, until you have more evidence about how the professor intends to deal with it.

My advice to the professor, however, is that if you give a diagnostic that you know is invalid, you need to drop it entirely. It can't be finessed.

'One would be to just cancel the exam and adjust grading rubric accordingly' Depending on the OPs location, that one exam could be the only source of grading.

it is far more unfair to adjust the grading system partway through the course than to change an exam problem at the same time for all students. At the least you should get consent from all the students for a major change to the syllabus.

@ASimpleAlgorithm. Hmmm. The grading system has been changed when this happens. Pretty much by definition.

@buffy I'm not even sure what you mean. I doubt the syllabus explicitly promises such details during an exam won't happen. However it likely does promise a certain calculation for grades. Change this, and I would support the complaint of any student who's grade is hurt as a result, as would the administration where I am.

@ASimpleAlgorithm, I don't see how the grade could be hurt by dropping an invalid measure. I clearly see how grades of students who spent time on an impossible question (assuming there wasn't warning prior) could well be hurt by any finessing of it. You are prioritizing grading over teaching. I call that malfeasance. Find a better way.

@buffy What do exam scores have to do with teaching? You say "prioritizing grading over teaching" these seem to have little to do with each other. Grading is only useful for teaching in as much as it's a feedback tool. The other (primary?) goal of grading is providing a rating for future employers, teachers, grant/stipend committees  to help them decide whether the student is qualified for something. From my experience in math (given 1200 students the most likely subject in the US) this kind of issue will harm essentially no one.

@buffy (still assuming math) If the exam was an hour and thirty minutes each of the problems should have taken a well prepared student at most 15 minutes to work out. If you struggle you move on. A really well prepared student should have likely been able to guess or even prove whether the problem was solvable. I've never had this kind of problem on a class wide exam (lot's of revision on that and we were lucky I guess) but I did have it on quizzes. It altered the expected score of any given student by essentially nothing each time. I did redo or drop the quizzes but it had zero effect.

@DRF. It is a mistake to make such assumptions about masses of people. Every student is different. Each approaches exams in a different way. What students "should" do and what they might "reasonably" do are not perfectly aligned. Deal with it.

@Buffy Dropping an invalid grade (without giving additional make up exam/work) increases the weighing of any prior work. Retroactively increasing the weight of work that's already been done punishes anyone who calibrated the effort they applied to that work to the weighting the grade got. An extreme example of this would be, after homework is turned in, announcing that your course grade will be based entirely on that one piece of homework. Obviously, many people would have spent more time on that homework if they knew that. The rubric should be reliable, it's meant to be relied on.

@DavidSchwartz, but what you are describing is an unsupportable course design. If grades are determined by so few measures, whether homework or exams, you have a very poor system. It is very hard to get appropriate feedback from such a system and everything becomes high risk. If you use a sensible design, none of these bad things should happen. And note, please, that my original answer suggested that scheduling a new exam is an option. If the course design is so fragile that everyone needs to be perfect it is a terrible design. Fix it. Otherwise you just punish the innocent.

@buffy I luckily don't have to deal with THAT anymore. I have a job in industry so what I usually have to "deal" with is the outcome of molly coddling students who are utterly unprepared for any real life job and have very unreasonable expectations of both how the world works outside academia and what they actually know. When you sign a contract for developing a piece of hardware and you only figure out that what the customer wanted turns out to be impossible after you've spent 2/3rds of the budget they don't generally go. "Oh sure my bad here's another 2 mil."

@DRF "Grading is only useful for teaching in as much as it's a feedback tool." No, no, no. For the sake of your students, please disabuse yourself of this poisonous misunderstanding as soon as possible. Assessments may well be the single most powerful teaching tool at the disposal of an instructor. The amount of learning that takes place before, after, and even during an examination absolutely dwarfs what goes on during lecture. Among many other learning processes, asessments bring strong emotion to bear, and also instigate cognitive consolidation. Time to reassess assessment!

@DRF If you really want to learn about this, I cannot recommend strongly enough the incredible book, "How People Learn" from the National Academy of Sciences. It goes through all of the basics of what we really know about learning. It is also a simply beautiful book, well written and well sourced by some of the top academics in educational psychology. Assessments designed to simply rank students are simply lost opportunities.

Consider not doing anything.
The issue isn't time sensitive.  Its not like the grades can't be changed after the fact.  It's very reasonable to believe the professor is going to analyze the grades that came out of the exam and find a solution.
The professor will have information you don't have.  While you know your exam was affected, and you can estimate how it affected 1199 other people, the professor will be making decisions with all 1200 graded exams in front of them.
Now if the professor hands you back the graded papers and doesn't do anything to resolve the issues, that's a good time to start making noise.

One of my professors had a blanket rule that was applied to handle situations like these -
You must solve the question to the best of your ability. If the missing piece of information can be simply substituted by a variable, say 'x', your answer must be in terms of 'x'.
If you think that a question is not solvable, you should prove so in your answer. If you are successfully able to do it, you get full points for that question. Based on the difficulty of said proof, they also awarded bonus points, thus turning a potentially problematic situation on its head.
This worked wonders. The students were thrilled when they were able to successfully do this, and the professor had achieved a higher goal than what a simple exam would do. In fact there were unconfirmed rumours of the professor 'making a mistake' on purpose every once in a while. You can suggest that your professor adopt a similar policy in the future.
As for what you can do now, your options are limited. People make mistakes. You can contact the professor via a polite email and make your concerns known. You can also ask what strategy they would apply, to make it fairer. Whatever they do, it's probably not going to be 100% fair anyway. If they do nothing, or their strategy is blatantly unfair, that would be the time for you to take your complaint further if need be. But any half decent strategy is probably going to get the support of any grading committee(s) and/or department heads.

Can every even integer greater than 2 be written as the sum of two primes? You're free to introduce X if you wish or prove unsolvability.

@DimitryGrigoryev You're simply trying to break the rule without context. OP's issue is one of missing or incorrect information in the question (which is a genuine mistake), not of unsolved problems. But, I'll humor you. In the highly unlikely scenario that a question for an undergrad class test, that seems reasonable at face value, turns out unsolved, I would still like to see the students try. That's where "best of your ability" and "bonus points" come in. Having the students make their best attempt allows the professor to come up with a fairer grading strategy.

Other answers respond to the questions raised in the main body of your message, I'd like to comment on the broader question (asked in the title), What should I do if my professor changes the question mid-exam?, with particular reference to

unless you did the other two questions knowing [the other] question was impossible to solve and waited for an announcement on instructions of how to solve, you would not be able to finish.

Exam strategy can help here: I recommend considering the entire examination script before writing. If you're able to identify an issue with any question, then immediately raise it with invigilators. (They should promptly raise such issues with the professor.) This maximises the window during which a professor can respond to the issue. Divide the remaining time between questions, with the goal of maximising your score. If you were able to identify an issue with a question, then that question should be delayed, because you might receive additional information during the exam. Returning to the question:

What should I do if my professor changes the question mid-exam?

Be prepared: Anticipate this possibility and adopt an exam strategy that optimises your advantage.

Response to comments

You're not answering the question. You're giving advice about [what] one can do before a change [of an exam script] to reduce the impact, not what to do in response to a change.

and

The question of How to preparation for when a professor changes the question mid-exam would be well answered by this. What to do after the fact is the OP's question. Unless you have a time-machine allowing the OP to follow your advice "preemptively", this does not answer the question.

After an event such as the OP's, one must reflect and consider how to improve themselves. My answer explains how the OP should improve themselves for a similar such event in the future. I consider this to be a crucial part of the OP's response.

You're not answering the question. You're giving advice about one can do before a change to reduce the impact, not what to do in response to a change.

@Acccumulation I've answered the question What should I do if my professor changes the question mid-exam? in a pre-emptive fashion, that is, for those who haven't yet experienced a professor changing an exam but might well do so in the future.

@GypsySpellweaver After a bad event, do you not reflect and consider how to improve yourself in the future? My answer explains exactly what the OP should be doing after the fact, namely, improving themselves for a similar such event.

As I explain in my opening, other answers have largely addressed the explicit concerns raised by the OP. I'm addressing a broader aspect which is surely useful to the OP (and explicit in the title) and the wider community.

I assume that you never have a problem assessing whether a question is answerable or not (or how difficult it is) at a glance.  Otherwise, your advice is not particularly useful.

@DavidThornley This isn't about me, this about the body of students. Also, I cannot take credit for the advice, it is a pretty standard exam strategy that is widely taught.

@GypsySpellweaver I disagree: I consider my answer an answer to this question.

@GypsySpellweaver Why don't you ask the OP whether I answered their question? Then you'll have the answer you're searching for.

@GypsySpellweaver I just meant you could comment on the OP's question, if you wanted their answer

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Is it appropriate to phone a researcher/academic? (Germany)
I am applying to do a master's thesis at a German research institute. The institute's website encourages applicants to contact the researchers directly (and does not give more information about the application process). I have been wondering whether initiating this contact over phone could be a way to make a strong first impression, and would make it less likely that my subsequent application mail will disappear in their inbox. The goal of the phone call would be to ask whether their group has an open spot for a master's student etc. On the other hand, I am worried I would be breaking some social code by making such direct contact with someone 'higher up in the hierarchy', or that they would think I am wasting their time by calling in person.
So, my question is: Would it be appropriate to phone a researcher/academic with such inquiries?
I realize this will depend on the person being called, but I think it is still possible to answer whether this is generally acceptable within cultural norms.
Note: Many, but not all, of the researchers list a phone number on the institute's homepage.

I'm in the US, not Germany, but would recommend against it for first contact. A phone call leaves no record, but email or physical mail does.

Modern etiquette expects that a phone call be agreed upon by email, especially if you do not know the person you are calling well. You can then fix a mutually agreeable time.

A hint is whether the person lists the phone number on their website (especially if the website does not appear to come from an automatically generated system). I know some researchers who even give instructions on the intended use of their phone number on their websites.

I don't appreciate being called; it imposes your time schedule on me. Others differ. However, I suspect that email is your safest bet.
The practical problem is that many universities in Germany have been closed due to COVID-19, and the numbers listed will be the work numbers. Either you are calling an empty office, or your call is forwarded to the persons home adress, which may not be what you want.
@MassimoOrtolano makes a good point in emphasizing the unannounced part of a phone call. You could sent an email to make an appointment. I would be fine with that.

Yep, I absolutely hate receiving unannounced phone calls. Moreover, between meetings, teaching and lab activity, I and many people alike are virtually unreachable by phone without an appointment. So, yes, better avoid a phone call.


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My advisor is giving my idea to his new student, what should I do?
Now I'm preparing my manuscript and have one article which is already published, and my thesis has been developed from my previous work.
For my thesis, I derived a model based on the literature review, but my advisor gave my model to his new student. Even though he is working his own, he has similar variables as my studies. And it seems like he is going to publish his article even earlier than me. Since the model has not been used that often in my field, I'm not really happy with this.  My advisor also gave him my original manuscript file. What should I do? I cannot stop thinking about it.

How much has already been published about the model or using it? Published by you or others?

@Buffy the model will be used for my thesis which I'm working on now and my previous article was published a few months ago. The model is a statistical model, just in case to prevent misunderstanding

@CJR I'm not sure whether I can claim for authorship if I'm not going to work more for his article.

If you have published the model, I would expect others to use it. What am I missing here? Did the advisor give your code or something?

What is going on may be entirely ethical, though questions remain. Multiple papers based on a single model is fine, even typical. Such papers can legitimately be written by different authors. Still not a problem.
But the originator of the model needs to be credited with its creation in any papers that result. Citations need to be given when possible. Otherwise it is plagiarism.
I don't think you need to be a co-author on the other student's work but you need credit for your work in anything that results.
And, you also need assurance that you won't be plagiarized and you need to deal with that issue soon, since the other student is not experienced, I expect.
Even giving editable documents to the other student may not be as big a deal as you think, since information can be extracted from pdfs as well.
Talk to your advisor and make sure that appropriate assurances are in place. If the other student is publishing a variation or an expansion of your work it can be completely valid. Perhaps a meeting of the three of you can provide assurance here. If everything is ethical, then no one should object to such a meeting.
You need to assure yourself that no one is "stepping on" your current work or plagiarizing it. But, in general, creating a model is not a "hands off" signal to everyone else.
The question of co-authorship may still be open if parts of your work need to be included in the work of another. But that might also require some additional work on your part to complete the work of the other student. That can be part of any conversation.


text:
Advisor to spend some funds to buy things that make group members feel better working at home. Is it selfish to request a tablet and stuff?
Due to the recent COVID-19 event, all of the members in our group have been working at home. My advisor proposed to get us some items to make us more productive or happy when working at home. I feel like a tablet would be very helpful in reading paper and books. Additionally, I'm working home using my small laptop and the screen is really small. It also helps if I could get a large screen to connect to my laptop. I have a bit of a quandary because those things are kind of not really necessary because, after all, I can use my laptop to read paper and work. On the other hand, they are not cheap. Would it be selfish for me to ask my advisor to fund me to get a monitor and tablet, those things?

Better to ask your supervisor.  Personally, I would suggest that an external monitor would be more practical (my desk at home is covered in them).

Do you know approx. what's his budget?

I think those are the exact things your advisor has in mind. It'd make your work easier and more comfortable.

Depending on how confinement is applied in your area, you might be able to borrow a monitor from your office, with your advisor's permission.

This might be helpful to be asked in https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/ as well if you have trouble in communicating it in a good way.

Realize that the cost of your lost productivity in the long term outweighs the cost of any technical aid. Especially working on a bigger monitor will make a significant difference. And your supervisor is even willing to include the happiness factor!

I beg to differ, an extra screen for your laptop is cheap, and once you get used to working with two displays, you'll wonder how you ever were productive with one.

Newer TVs have hdmi connections which you can connect to newer laptops. Check what type of htmi port you have on your laptop.  You may need an adapter.  New TVs with an hdmi connections are inexpensive.

Would it be selfish for me to ask my advisor to fund me to get a monitor and tablet, those things?

Not at all! It is never selfish to ask, though it might be selfish to insist, and it might likewise be selfish if you did not make it clear that you understand your advisor has the final say in this.
It is an odd feeling asking your advisor to pay for things for you, isn't it? Many students are afraid of coming across as entitled, but the better approach is to be matter-of-fact and professional about it. Simply explain (in a short message to your advisor)

The item(s) you want to get;
In a nutshell (1 sentence), why this item would help you be more productive and comfortable working at home;
The specific estimate on price or price range.

Don't phrase it as a demand; just state what you are thinking of, and then ask: "Would it be possible to reimburse this item?"

My advisor proposed to get us some items to make us more productive or happy when working at home.

Based on your this, I agree with the top answer that it is overwhelmingly likely your advisor will be fine with getting you these items. But articulating (1), (2), and (3) above will help make this more concrete, and phrasing it as a question makes it easy for your advisor to say no if they think that one of the items is excessive.

This is wrong. Asking for something above what is reasonable is taking advantage of the person who might not have the ability to say no.

@VSO How is it taking advantage to ask? They can simply say no. The professor is the one to blame if they grant an unreasonable requests, but this particular request is highly reasonable. Note that the professor is the one in the position of power; if it were the professor asking the student, then it would be a different story.

Saying no is not simple to a lot of people. Sometimes they feel like it's rude. Sometimes they want to be nice, etc. Asking for a screen is one thing, asking for a tablet is just being spoiled.

@VSO First of all, asking an honest question is not being spoiled (demanding would be spoiled). Second, there are many reasons why having a tablet during the pandemic could be very helpful to accomplish research more efficiently. Your premise that this is an unreasonable request is false. In fact, it is unreasonable not to ask out of some preconceived idea that the advisor doesn't want to buy the item, when perhaps buying such items is precisely the advisor's intention.

@VSO If the OP suggests rather than asks, does that address your concern? I.e., the OP could simply say, "here's a list of things I've thought of that I believe would help," explaining for each one why it would help, without specifically saying "Please buy me X and Y." That seems to be what this answer is aiming at.

"explaining for each one why it would help" I think this would make it better, since it gives the person handling the request a reasonable out if they need it.

Surely these are precisely the sorts of things that your advisor envisaged buying when they offered to get "items to make you more productive or happy working at home"? A decent monitor (and keyboard, and mouse) for your laptop are fairly essential if you're going to be using it all day every day for the next N months. A tablet is perhaps a bit more of a luxury, but hardly excessive. Remember, as a fraction of the total cost of supporting a PhD student, an iPad is small change.
If you're concerned, phrase your email making it clear that you are presenting a list of suggestions rather than demands, as you're not sure how much money the advisor will want to spend.

You made a good suggestion, Avid. Thank you!

In addition to this, I would note that you need to think of these as implements to do your research better. The fact that you are asking this suggests that somewhere you have a niggle that you may use these for more "selfish" purposes. It is up to you to ensure that you make adequate use of these tools for research.

It doesn't need to be an iPad.  There are plenty of nice reading tablets that are very affordable and, although they don't have the ripping performance of a $$$$ model, they're more than fine for reading papers and books.  Same goes for a desktop monitor - a business grade 24" screen can be had for almost pocket change.

@Tim: Perhaps not all iPads are $$$$, but even the cheapest is still $$: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-ipad-and-ipad-pro-deals,news-29280.html  10-inch tablets from Samsung, ASUS, &c that are perfectly adequate for reading can be had for half to a third the price of the cheapest iPad.

It probably depends on the funding source or grant and the cost of the item.
Beware that in principle stuff purchased through a grant does not belong to an individual but to the grant organization or to the Uni administering the grant.  (Our work computers have a Uni sticker on them and are part of the official institutional inventory.) Thus, you may have to return said item once the situation is closer to normal.

Not selfish at all, since that's apparently what the advisor wants.  I would make a prioritized "wish list" of things that would help you work better, and suggest that everyone else in the group does the same.  Then the advisor can see how much of that can be done within budget.

Many universities would allow staff to take home computer monitors and keyboards to work from home. This would not cost your PI anything.
Asking for a tablet may be reasonable, but it depends on how often it is essential for your core tasks.

A tablet (particularly if it has an Apple logo on it) is expensive.  And it won't have a bigger screen than your existing laptop.   But a 22" external monitor is quite cheap, as is a full-size USB keyboard.   Isn't this exactly the sort of thing you're being offered?

I have a 30" screen that was very cheap. Even a wireless keyboard is pretty cheap. But an (apple logo) tablet has a lot more functionality, including portability.

@Buffy: Apple tablets are no more portable (as a physical object) than other brands, and might well be less portable in terms of OS, applications, and connectivity.

I can't comment so will give full answer here. Regarding tablet, I ordinarily consider it a luxury but we are in different times now.
I myself have currently lot of tabs open "to read later" with tutorials and interesting stuff related to work which I intend to read and try to lessen my technical knowledge debt. However, since I don't go out (it really depends on your neighborhood, time outside, lots of doors to open in apartment, and my wife is quite worried, we have a child etc) I don't move much, so it has become considerable effort sitting in front of computer.
Having tablet would help quite a bit because you can change positions and continue to read on the bed, sofa, park outside or wherever. My wife is happy using her Samsung Galaxy Tab T590 which is not fast but has big screen for easier browsing. Just make sure to pick something which has biggish screen.


text:
Reporting attempt at cheating
To help finance my studies, I have been offering tutoring services for other students throughout the past year. Business has been good and students have been grateful for the help I have given them.
Today, a student I tutored one year ago e-mailed me and asked me to write an online exam for them, saying that they would compensate me financially for this "service". I was quite frankly offended that they could think, that I would go along with such a scheme.
Obviously I will reject the offer, but how should I go about doing this and what additional steps should I take? Should I simply not respond, or should I follow my inclination to chastise the student for even making the suggestion? While they have yet to actually cheat, I am strongly considering contacting their professor to alert them to the situation; if I reject the offer, the student is likely to contact someone else with lower moral standards.
Below is the full e-mail I received with identifying information redacted:
"I don't know if you remember me, but you help me with [Course 1] during summer 2019. I am taking a [Course 2] deferral exam [on date] and due to the situation right now and the fact that I moved back home temporarily, I am not going to have enough time to study. The exam will be fully online and based on multiple-choice and short-answer questions. That said, I was wondering if you would ever consider taking the exam for me, I would never ask this if the exam will be in person, I am lacking time and I know is feasible because it is only.  You will only need to login into my [student portal] and perform the exam. I will compensate you of course and I am open to the price.  I left a copy of the textbook online and the final exam 2019 ( The professor said that it will be very similar). Please let me know if you decide to proceed with this or not."
Edit 1:
Believe it or not, I have just received yet another request from a different student independently of the first one.
Edit 2:
I gathered the evidence I had and reported both students to the university administration.

wasn't a similar question asked a while back?

Perhaps the second requester is just a friend of the first. Don't read too much into that.

I have just received another request ...   Any chance someone is testing you?

Reply and say that would be fine if the relevant professor agrees, please send their contact info so you can follow up.

A minor point - your name is sufficiently unique that I quickly identified the university you are studying at, what you are doing there, and I could probably quickly start identifying friends of yours on FB that are from the same university etc. It is too late to change, but I believe posts like this are best done anonymously.

You didn't state, but are you a employee/student at the university in question? It's one thing to simply refuse to do this, another to report the student.

@Forgottenscience "It is too late to change.." no it's not. It's better than doing nothing.

@America, sure, but I don't think its that easy to delete an upvoted question with an accepted answer?

@Forgottenscience I wasn't referring to the deletion of the post, I was referring to Ole to change his name to an anonymous name

If your institution has an honor code or similar description of the requirements for academic conduct, it may prescribe what you must do.  The solicitation of a "ringer" to take the exam may itself be an offense.  If there's a prescribed action, follow it.
If not, consider that an accusation of cheating by the professor necessarily creates an adversarial situation.  If you do report this to the professor, please copy the department head, dean, chairman of the honor council.  Copy at least one other person who can support the professor.  Include a copy of the student's email with your report, and retain your own copy for a very long time.
Do not respond to the student.  Chastisement will not do any good, and while the student is awaiting your reply, he or she isn't looking for someone else to take the exam.

This is the correct thing to do: follow the institution's code of conduct.

The honor code may very likely have a clause stating that failure to report knowledge of a violation is itself a violation.

@pjs Correct.  The West Point Honor Code should be a model for all others: "A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do."  It is the or tolerate part that requires reporting.  Soliciting help to cheat would likely be an offense at West Point because "attempting" to lie, cheat, or steal is an offense.  However, other institutions do things differently, which is why OP needs to read his own institutions regulations.

Sure, but expect the student tries to deny it by saying someone else accessed their email account, or that it was a prank. Seems to me the dept would require more verifiable proof than two emails from an unverified sender. So that might involve setting up a follow-up phone call.

@smci  Well, a student who cheats will lie.  That's why I wrote, "necessarily creates an adversarial situation."  The Honor Council, Dean, Department Head, or someone will eventually have to make a decision.  Setting up a phone call seems very dangerous to me.  I wouldn't advise doing it unless asked by Dean, etc.

@BobBrown: two emails from unverifiable source is zero verifiable evidence for disciplining someone, person wouldn't even need to hire a lawyer to get it overturned. I said I expect the university would follow up to request actual verifiable proof that the student themselves made the request. Identity of email senders is not verifiable. That's all. It's up to the university how/if they proceed, at all.

@smci  As a former chair of an honor council, I assure you that there's at least one institution that would take the allegation seriously.  Further, at least in the United States, many institutions consider email from a university account to have been electronically signed.  (OP didn't tell us whether university email was involved.)  As comments are not meant for discussion, I won't have anything further to say on this matter.

@BobBrown: obviously they wouldn't send it from their university email, if they had a clue they'd use another account. So take it it's unverifiable. Then all the university has is an unverifiable allegation. Not enough to suspend someone for.

@smci The burden of proof will likely be on the person who owns the mail. If it had been hijacked, they will have to find a plausibility argument for that. Universities do not operate like courts. They can make decisions on weaker criteria than courts or decide not to pursue on stronger criteria than courts would let pass. Unis do not have the resources of a jurisdictive system, and some rare (fortunately, only few) students blatantly lie, building a whole card house of lies on top of each other, bringing the next one forward, when the last one is dismantled.

@CaptainEmacs: you're not listening to me. So if you get an email from 'throwaway_account@gmail.com', you can't prove who 'owns' it. Assume anyone with half a brain wouldn't send it from their own university account. That's why I already said 'unverifiable source'.

@smci I am quite surprised at the tone you take with me. You have no idea how much experience I have in matters. Perhaps I have none. Perhaps I have more than you. Who knows?  There is no indication that this student is anonymous to the tutor. You said yourself "expect the student tries to deny it by saying someone else accessed their email account" - this already indicates it would be possible to know whose email account it is. The story that "others accessed it" does not have to be believed by an academic committee. It's not a court, they can choose to disbelieve that statement.

@CaptainEmacs: commonsense would suggest that anyone trying to cheat would likely do it from an unverifiable email or phone account. If someone emails you from an unverifiable account and says "Hi this is Bob", it doesn't prove it's Bob; it's moot whether that's "anonymous". And it's easy to impersonate another student, or access their email or phone unauthorized. And ""expect the student tries to deny it by saying someone else accessed their email account" never said "their official universty email account". So, we come back to whether the identity is verifiable.

@smci If you read the précis of OP's question, you will see that the student asks the OP to take the exam for the student. This means, not only is the student identifiable, but it seems they will also have to provide the student's online credentials (considered a proof of identity). I can imagine a contrived situation where someone wants to harm the student by knowing their precise failure pattern (deferral/referral), stealing their credentials (and possibly paying the tutor to be examined in their lieu). But any board will assume the rather more obvious case that this student tried to cheat.

@CaptainEmacs: I had read it, multiple times. It appears to say "A person claiming to be (or with access to the email of) a student [OP] tutored one year ago e-mailed them". Didn't say from which account. And no it doesn't say anywhere they have yet provided the student's online credentials, it only says "You will only need to login into my [student portal]"; obviously (if this was really them) they would have to, if this is really them and if they proceeded with this plan. Hence as I said above, further email/phone contact is likely needed to verify it actually was that student.

I won't argue against reporting the student as Bob Brown suggests. But also suggest that if you advertise your services in any way that you make it clear in your advertising that you won't aid students in any dishonest work and, if you feel strongly enough about it, that you will report requests. Even if you don't advertise you could tell each client that you will only perform ethical services.
That would head off future requests, I think.
But if you aren't willing to report this student at this time, I'd suggest that you let them know that you don't do such things and that you will report future requests.
The devil on my right shoulder is, of course, whispering in my ear suggesting that you fail the exam for the student, though the angel on my left is trying to suggest more sensible alternatives. Listen to the angel.

"The devil on my right shoulder " Do not even start listening to him. By doing so you will leave a trail of you agreeing to unhonest action, receiving login credential and possibly getting paid. This will open you to blackmail and possible career problems.

@Revolver_Ocelot Agreed. The fact that the student cheats should not turn OP into a cheater. I recommend removing this part of the response, it might tempt some readers. I do agree with the idea of preempting such questions in the future by announcing that on your service site, including the reporting. Then, nobody will be able to complain when OP does that.

In your advertisement of services you might also want to put a link to the institution's honor code, including --- if it exists --- a link to the part that requires you to report instances of attempted cheating.

suggesting that you fail the exam for the student  This is even more abhhorent than the original request.  Why would you even suggest such a thing in a respected forum like this?  It's so grossly irresponsible that it's not even funny as a joke.

I specifically point it out @J..., because others will think of it and I want to recommend against it. Devil... Get it? Jokes sometimes have a serious intent. I would expect people here to be sophisticated enough to grok that. But maybe I'm wrong and need to be bloody literal minded in all things. And you are clearly quoting out of context.  Naughty Naughty

@Buffy you may wish to add, then, the lawyer standing between the two who points out that even a "neutral" examination of the issue points to that being not just ethically unsound, but a terribly dangerous idea personally for a number of objective/pragmatic reasons, primarily the chances of getting caught at it (multiple ways this can happen) and thereby found guilty of academic misconduct on OP's part, and possibly even criminal fraud among other possibilities if it went beyond the University looking into it, even ignoring the possibility of retaliation via extortion/etc.

@Buffy On the internet, jokes are dangerous. For a joke, you need to know your audience. I often delete the by far funniest/best part of my responses before posting them, for precisely that reason. And every time my devil tempts me to include them, the little lawyer raises its finger and says: "no". Anyway, I hope whoever reads your response and is tempted will also read the comment section.

@CaptainEmacs A longstanding problem with a longstanding solution: "I propose that [sic] the following character sequence for joke markers:   :-)" (Fahlman 1982)

@Ray Voted your comment up. Nonetheless, it may still not be enough for misunderstandings which can be unintentional or intentional or sometimes even of unclear intentionality to the person who misunderstands until after the $%!# has hit the fan... :-)

There is typically an office which is in charge of enforcing academic integrity. For example, the Office of the Provost and Vice-president for Academic Affairs. Simply forward the email to them. There is nothing gained by responding to the student.

In response to (now-deleted) comments: As impressed as I am by the effort, I'm not convinced trying to track and broadcast personal information (even if using only publicly-available sources) is a good idea.

Ole, keep in mind that we all make mistakes at some point in our lives, the younger the more silly things one could end up doing..
I'd simply reply to the student saying that,

that's dishonest, unethical and that's counterproductive to him/her, if not now, maybe later.. independently of the situation we're passing through. And that you sincerely hope to think twice about it. And given that this is the first time saying such things, you won't report them. If they insist, report them to the professor.

In some places, the punishment for cheating or attempting to cheat are very severe. I don't know in which case they are, keep that in mind also.
Also, if reporting them, most likely their name wouldn't be the 'same' again, because professors tend to share their experiences with students, with other professors.

Just refuse, and offer them help to practice/tutor. This leaves the bridge intact (instead of burned, blown up and then burned again) for a future cooperation while keeping you moral and professional. Probably gets the word of mouth around, and no other students will reach you with the same request.


text:
Is it a good idea to spend one year on a pre-PhD diploma to learn advance research methods?
I am recently graduated with a degree of MS in Physics. I am very interested in condensed matter physics, that is why I chose a topic from this field for my MS thesis. But it was very hard for me to complete this thesis because I have not taken any advance course about condensed matter physics. I had to learn many theories by myself.
I am aiming to find a PhD position in Europe, and as you know in Europe, there is no course work in PhD program. So, before going for a PhD level research project, I want to attend a pre-PhD diploma in which research level courses of condensed matter physics will be taught.
My question is: is it a good idea to spend one year just to learn advance theories? (I am not in any rush to get a PhD degree).
Also
How should I write a motivation letter for this pre-PhD diploma? I mean everyone applying there would obviously write "I want to learn advance theories". How can my application be different than others?

I'm going to suggest that spending a year would not be a good use of your time. The end-all and be-all of doctoral education isn't the methodology, but using the methodology to do something interesting in your field.
I would answer differently if you thought your background is weak and that you would only be accepted by spending this year, but with an MS that isn't likely true. If it were a matter of a summer spent on methodology then, again, it might be worth it. But a year feels like spinning wheels.
On the other hand, the course you suggest is in your field. If it can also get you closer to the research frontier in that field then it would have value for that, rather than methodology. At some point you need to cross that frontier so you need to approach it somehow.
Of course, this isn't my field, and I don't know how difficult the methodology is, but I suspect that you can muddle through and pick it up - especially knowing that you have a need. It would probably delay your completion less than spending a dedicated year that might not even give you a benefit in your application.

Thank you for your reply. Honestly speaking, I have not taken even a single course about condensed matter physics. Just 3 courses about solid state physics which is closely connected to condensed matter physics. However, I can learn the the advance methodology by myself. But the pace of research would be very slow. Also I am not getting very good response of my PhD applications with these transcripts of my MS an BS.

That is a different matter, then. Perhaps it would have value, but not just for the methodology. Perhaps your stated question has the wrong focus given your needs.

I am sorry if my question confused you. Can you please give a point or two about writing a nice motivation letter for this diploma?

Sorry, I'm no help for that. A local advisor would probably be a good source.

@SanaUllah Solid state isn't just closely related to condensed matter, it's part of it...

@Anyon yes it is, no doubt.

I know of only one program that calls itself a "pre-PhD diploma" program: The pre-PhD program at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). This seems to likely be the program you are speaking of. This program is at least pretty well regarded from what I can determine. It would likely help formalize some of what you need to learn if you want to study condensed matter physics. If time is not an issue, then the program could be helpful.
This being said, I will add my personal opinion that doing a pre-PhD seems a bit redundant. If you are able to get into a funded PhD program, why not begin your PhD immediately? You might not be in a hurry to finish now, but I'm also not sure that you will still feel that way five years down the road. Having all the time in the world is fine when you are 25. It becomes much harder when you reach your 30s.
The finances are also of consideration here. It seems that the ICTP's program is unfunded unless you are from specific countries. (Maybe this is your case, which is fine).
Moreover, note that a pre-PhD program is probably one of two things:

So fast that it covers nothing in enough depth to allow you to actually complete a PhD on the subject.
So fast that you will not be able to absorb the blitzkrieg of information you are being taught.

Simply put, one does not easily learn the principles of advanced condensed matter physics in a rapid-fire program.
Also be aware that a "pre-PhD" sounds a bit like something one would get from an online pay-to-learn website. For those not familiar with the program, it may not be given much weight.

As far as convincing an admissions committee that you will be successful in studying condensed matter physics, you may have a tough time doing such if you have zero courses in the subject. In my opinion, stating "_________ really is interesting to me" never gets an applicant through the door if they have zero experience in studying the subject. (Which you have taken note of above). You could try including an explanation of the personal work you have done in studying the subject. If you can speak somewhat at length to the actual efforts you have given on the topic, that may bode more favorably for your cause. Because this pre-PhD is so niche, it is very hard to know what they are looking for.
I will add some general thoughts on getting into graduate programs on the whole:

Bad GPA/Test Scores are very hard to overcome. Passion is not enough.
Letters of recommendation matter. Immensely so, at times.
Expressing interest in studying a very niche field will usually result in very narrow acceptance parameters.

Yes exactly, I am talking about ICTP's pre-PhD diploma. And I have tried my luck with this transcript of MS which has no course about condensed matter physics, I am not able to find any PhD position. That's why the thought of diploma came into my mind. But after two answers from experts, I feel like it was a stupid thought.

I want to thank you once again for such an explained answer.

@SanaUllah Not knowing the full situation, it is hard for me to comment fully, but it may be that your not being admitted into PhD programs has less to do with your application and more to do with your choosing a (seemingly) very niche field to attempt to enter.

Yes it is possible as the topic on which I have worked in MSc is not very well known. May be this is the reason behind my failure of getting a PhD position


text:
I am leaving current PhD position to move to X university. Should I inform X university that I am currently a PhD student?
I am currently a 2nd semester PhD student at Y university. My MS is from the same Y university and under the same supervisor. In last months of my MS, I told my supervisor that I want to change university after MS. He said that it's okay to look for better PhD positions but we should first finish the project that we have started. (We are working on a project which will be completed in next one or two months)
I was agree with him and decided to stay at Y university. Now, I have an interview call from X university.
My question is, what should I say when they ask me "Why do you want to leave your current PhD position?"

What's the honest answer? Why not / why can't you use that?

what should I say when they ask me "Why do you want to leave your current PhD position?" — You should tell them why you want to leave your current PhD position.

I don't see any reason not to just lay it out as you have here. "I think that the program here would better suit my needs and I think I'll get better research and career advice here."
People understand that other people want to change and move "up" when possible.
But I would also take some care that you fulfill your promise to your current advisor about finishing the research to the maximum level possible. You say it is a short-term commitment, so I think it wouldn't be overly burdensome to continue until it is done or until circumstances make it impossible to continue. In case you have to leave it, try to do what you can to leave it in a stable state in which others can, if necessary carry it on. That way your current advisor is more likely to remain a supporter in your future.
But your proposal and your actions seem perfectly normal and natural to me.

I would play it a bit like Buffy said.  In the grand scheme of things you are moving from MS at Y to Ph.D. at X (or X1, X2, etc.).
The fact that you did a little time in Y with advanced course work is not a big deal unless you really WANT to be seen as a transfer student.  But this makes more sense for a year of Ph.D. post bachelors.  Given you are post masters, they know you already have some of the initial direct to Ph.D. coursework done.
So if you can at all truthfully do so, I would just say your plan was always to apply to new schools for Ph.D. but the timing made it work out so you did a little Ph.D. work at the other place.  And I wouldn't even bring it up unless needed.
P.s.  It is extremely normal to move from a terminal masters at one school to a Ph.D. at another.  So it's not like some special explanation is needed.
P.s.s.  There is always some (minor, but some) movement of grad students in Ph.D. programs.  I have seen it among my friends for two reasons:  (1) spouse got job or school in new city, or (2) "trading up" (e.g. Ohio State to Harvard).  I wouldn't want to be seen as a "hopper" (after all they want you to finish at the new school), but some movements are not unheard of.  If you are a "good catch" it should not be a concern, even.


text:
Citation in examination
In a course, the professor sets an open book exam with the restriction that students can use only class notes and textbook in any electronic device(mobile, laptop, etc). In short, no internet during exam.
A student came across few previous year exams from another university which has exact same syllabus for the course. The student went through these exams(with solutions) one day before the exam and the student could remember most of it. It turned out that the exact same questions appeared in that student's exam next day. The student wrote down similar answers.
Now the professor accuses the student for academic dishonesty and says that the answers should have been cited in the exam.
Questions:

Should the answers be cited by the student in exam? With no internet access how would the student get the link of reference.
Should the questions be cited as well by the professor in the exam. Even these are taken from another university exams (word-by-word) ?
Does academic integrity apply to only students or can it apply to even professors? Can any action be taken on the professor if any student happens to have lots of evidence that not just exam questions but all of the coursework including slides of powerpoint are copied from another university coursework with no sign of citation?

Unfortunately, too frequently, what should be better done in a certain situation may be quite different from what a professor wants to be done.

Hi and welcome.  Question 1 is not really related to questions 2 and 3, so they should really be in two separate posts.  (See also Tu quoque fallacy; whether the professor is wrong is irrelevant to whether the student is.)

Questions 2 and 3 have been addressed here.

The real issue, that you did not add as a question, is that the professor was paid to write the exam, which clearly he did not do. Is this ethical?

If the case is fairly stated then the professor is not being reasonable. Students shouldn't have to cite what they study prior to the exam. In fact, in order to provide a proper citation the student might actually have to return to the site to get the proper citation, breaking the rule in order to uphold it - Catch 22.
However, since "innocent until proven guilty" may not be the operative standard (sadly) it may be difficult for the student to make the case. But it is worth making and should be made forcefully. Appeal to higher authority if necessary.
I will leave your last two questions unanswered as they are treated elsewhere on this site and don't really affect the outcome for the student, which I treat as paramount here.

There's also a difference between acknowledging that you didn't come up with something yourself and providing a full and complete bibliographic citation. For example, you can say "According to Heimdall's Theorem from the early 1920's, both sides of the equation reduce to zero during a spline reticulation where x > 3", or simply zero out the equation and write "Heimdall's Theorem" next to it. You don't need a full name, journal name, date (was it 1/3/1923, or did it come out in the Math on Christmas volume of 1922?) , page number, etc. like you might if you were writing a term paper.


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Graduating in 4 years vs graduating in 6 years
I'm considering graduating from undergraduate school in 6 years in 2024 to build up my resume and pursue interests for graduate school admissions. I feel that I would not feel ready to attend graduate school if I graduate undergraduate school in 4 years. However, most successful people (past U.S. Presidents, successful scientists, people in high political offices, etc.) have graduated undergrad in 4 years. I've no idea what to do.

This is too personal for a real answer here. It depends. You can follow either path and be a success. Factors outside your control will have an impact as well, such as the general state of the economy when you finish.

I am assuming you are a freshman. Do not over think it now. finish your first year with great grades and see how things are going. try to meet and talk with other graduates students in your field of interests and see how they end up there. GOOD LUCK and enjoy university life!

If you are not ready after 4 years, why do you think 6 will help? Grad schools are used to seeing applications from people graduating after 4 years, with deviations from that coming with a good reason (long internships, financial issues, ...). Folks will wonder why you spent 6 years doing 4 years of work...

From the point of view of a graduate admissions committee*, the undergraduate degree is just one step in the sequence:

elementary school
middle school
high school
undergraduate
graduate
postdoc
tenure-track
associate prof.
prof.
named professorship
chair, dean, provost, chancellor, ...

*although they'll realize that many applicants will want to stop going down this list after the graduate degree.
It's okay to take extra time in any of these, but it does delay moving on to the next one.

I think it partly depends on what your major is. But speaking generally...
I think this is a creative approach to tailoring college to your needs and wants, as well as being strategic. You sound like a smart and - observant person. Take it from someone who got a liberal arts degree in 6 years of school time, and 2 years out of school. It took me 8 years to graduate after starring my fist semester of college. I changed majors once which set me back only a semester. Three semesters before I was to graduate, I made the decision to move unexpectedly across the country with my family who I was living with while in college, rather than staying and paying more to go to school in my hometown while living in a dorm or bad apartment. Long story on why but I didn't enroll in a new college until almost 2 years after I moved to my new state. Then it took me 5 semesters to finish rather than the 3 I was told upon transfer of my credits. During the 2 years away from school I got a job at a sandwich shop, quickly became a manager, gained a couple skills in the process.
That job is the main thing that got me the job I have now - not my liberal arts degree.
Nobody cares how long it took you to get where you're going. It doesn't matter. What matters is why and what you did to make that time meaningful. Work through some semesters to gain some real life experience. Earn a promotion at that job. Make a change in that company, however small. THAT is what employers want to see.
You will hear every new graduate complain that they can't find a job because employers want experience but to get experience you need to get a job. So get a job. Or don't and volunteer if you want to keep more control over your time. Better yet - hold your own project completely.
Take the extra 2 years. And make it count.


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How important is attending graduate school for a PhD for physics/mathematics/astrophysics research?
Is it possible for one to publish high quality research papers in the aforementioned fields without attending a graduate school? I feel that you can read online material and books about research/graduate school and that would make a satisfactory substitute.

What is your goal? Are you planning to publish just one or two papers, or keep publishing for many years? Do you want to hold a job as a researcher, or just do research as a hobby?

As I also mention in my answer, you are asking about publishing research but the title of your question is about PhD. Two totally different things.

When you say "Graduate School", do you mean a graduate school, or doing a PhD (which is not the same e.g. traditionally in Europe)?

In many fields, you won't even understand the questions that matter without going through a PhD.

One issue that may exist (to which degree I'm not certain) in physics (but not so much maths) is with experimentation. Physics research may involve experiments using expensive tools that you'd get to use for free if you're at a university that has those tools. If you want to do that research by yourself, you'd limit what you can research, you'd need connections that can provide access to those tools or you'd need a whole lot of money to buy those tools.

In secondary school (high school here in the USA) and even university, a "research paper" means you come up with a topic and a point of view, go to the library, read a bunch of material, and synthesize a wonderful argument about the topic at hand. This approach has nothing to do with actual research in physics.
For actual research, you need to know what is going on at the forefront of the area. This is not in books in the library, but is some amalgamation of specialized journal articles, seminars with latest results, what you've seen or heard at conferences, and a healthy dose of your own thoughts and experiences. You and your collaborators come up with some new thought, figure out a conceivable way to test that thought, go carry out the experiment (lab work, simulation, theory) to see if you can test it, re-examine your thought since the experiment ended up with a different result than you imagined, and distill it all down into a journal article showing what you did was new information.
The process of doing this is what you learn in graduate school. Everything from getting the needed background, identifying new areas, working with collaborators, doing the experiments, and writing a clear detailed journal article is part of it.
Could you make contributions to physics research without a PhD? Well, yes, I have staff scientists with masters degrees who do quite well, including those who have been named to our Distinguished level. One important thing to note is they got some excellent mentoring early in their careers in how to do real research.
But, no, reading online material and books is no substitute for graduate school. It is but one small part of performing actual research that pushes the boundaries of human knowledge.

"This is not in books in the library, but is some amalgamation of specialized journal articles, seminars with latest results, what you've seen or heard at conferences"  It's mostly ArXiv, which the asker can access.

I think this is an excellent answer, and I would really be interested to know the reason for the downvote.

@JochenGlueck The fourth paragraph is a good answer.  The first paragraph is condescending and inappropriate.  The second, third, and fifth paragraphs do not effectively explain why graduate school is useful.  The only thing mentioned that cannot be had from the internet is lab work, and a fair number of physicists do not do lab work.

@AnonymousPhysicist I don't think the first paragraph is condescending at all - many people who haven't done research yet don't understand what it entails and how it differs from other things with the same name. Maybe OP doesn't need that paragraph but some other reader of this Q&A might, and if they did it would be unfortunate to leave it out and hard to understand the rest of the answer.

@BryanKrause I don't believe that a reasonable secondary school student would fail to  understand that their research paper homework assignments are not like physics research.

I can attest that when I was in high school I had no idea what physics research was like or how it differed from school projects. (Except that I assumed it was somehow harder, otherwise everyone would do it...)

@AnonymousPhysicist: Also without lab work, the answer mentions various things that cannot be had from the internet: the entire process from coming up with an idea, testing the idea, and writing down the results in a journal article. What can be found on the internet is the result of this process (in the form of articles), but learning this process is completely different from seeing the results. I also don't understand your dismissal of attending seminars and conferences (in your first comment); these have multiple benefits that one can hardly get from reading arXiv papers.

@AnonymousPhysicist: Regarding the "research in secondary school" topic: I think you strongly underestimate how little the vast majority of people understand what scientific research means. Well, I'm a mathematician rather than a physicist; various people explained to me what they think mathematical research means. [...]

[...] The suggestions reached from the claim that there can't be research in math since everything were already known, over the idea that I would be working with numbers all day, over "You say you're not using numbers so much - ah, I see, so you're actually computing with variables", to the idea that the task of a researcher is to study things in books and then be tested on it by omniscient magic beings called "professors" who, for some reason, already know everything there is to know. [...]

[...] Now the misconceptions might be slightly different for physics (e.g. the "there's nothing beyond highschool knowledge" misconception might be less prevalent, since some people have seen a picture of a function with a singularity somewhere and now believe they knew what a black hole is), but I don't see any reason to believe that a large number of people understood even remotely what research in physics means.

As alluded-to in other answers: of course it is possible... but difficult. One thing not mentioned is the "insider information" that, ideally, one gets by being in grad school with a good advisor. Many important, amorphous-but-important ideas exist primarily "off the grid", in the collective minds of experts. You'd miss out on this whole world of ideas if you just look at the more-or-less-formal literature.

I think the inside information piece is key. That said, a slight improvement in the situation exists in my fields — you can often find great, insightful, off-the-cuff remarks in YouTube lectures, and research panels in particular, where you often have several experimentalists and theorists sharing their points of view on the gaps in a specific topic, etc. I found these types of recordings really valuable as a doctoral student over the pandemic — remote graduate school often had me feeling a bit starved of this type of discourse.

For most people it is very important. Graduate school is helpful both in training you as a researcher in some field and in getting your career started through contact with other (expert) researchers. It isn't essential, however, for every individual and it is possible to produce good research output as an independent researcher in some fields.
Graduate school gives you a breadth of knowledge in a general field (math, say) and experience in taking the deep dive into a narrow research area. You learn a lot about what is current and about recent research trends, though in a narrow area.
It is much harder to do this alone. What is available in text books is not usually state of the art. You need to read research papers. But you need to know which research papers are worth the effort.
Having like minded people around in grad school or in an academic (faculty) appointment can be essential for many people to be able to produce. And without a doctorate it is difficult to get an academic appointment.
But, some, a few, people have been successful without doctoral education. Not the easiest or safest path, however. And, again, it is very difficult to actually make a career in research without a doctorate. If you are independently wealthy that may not matter.

I worry this answer over-emphasizes the possibility of success without training. These cases are notable and remarkable specifically because they are so rare. It's the same selection-bias issue as some article saying that the key to making it rich is to be a high school dropout, because Steve Jobs dropped out of high school and made it rich. It isn't that that path is not the easiest or safest, it's that it is guaranteed to fail out to several decimal points of precision.

@BryanKrause Maybe it's important to enumerate all the possibilities here, otherwise there is room to imagine the answer has forgotten about those who did, remarkably, manage without formal education. Everything about Steve Job's life is "long tail of the bell curve" but on the scale of all humans, someone was likely to be there.

@Clumsycat Way more time is already spent talking about those unusual cases than is spent talking about all the failed cases that were misled into following their footsteps.

@BryanKrause, perhaps the issue here is that you and I are in very different fields with very different research processes. I tend to see the possibility of it, and you probably see the difficulty. I'd guess biology is much harder for independent researchers than math, not because of the essence of the ideas, but the support required to develop them.

Wait.
You are asking about publishing research, but the title of your question is about PhD. These are two different things. To get a PhD, you complete grad studies by default.
As about studying on your own to the extent that you can produce publishable research, it is possible in principle but highly improbable. Interaction is needed to make sure you got things right.
Finally, it is next to impossible that you will get to publish said research unless you persuade someone (journal editors, arxiv moderators) that you are or were affiliated in some manner with academia.
Edit: It occured to me that "How important is attending graduate school for a PhD" might not mean "Do I have to go the grad school to get a PhD" (which I thought), but "How important are PhD studies for (...)". OP, it'd be good if you rephrased your question in an unambiguous way.

The first part of your answer is very true. The second one, not so much, especially with double-blind reviews.

@WoJ you forget that before the reviewers there are editors.

it is certainly possible to get published without an academic (or corporate) affiliation.  It’s rare not because it’s impossible but rather because most people with the expertise to do so are affiliated with such organizations.  After all, it takes time (usually spent during regular work hours) to actually do the research and prepare the material for publication.

@ZeroTheHero yes, in the sense that anything is in principle possible. Realistically, this can happen if you have at least once published under such an affiliation.

Is it possible for one to publish high quality research papers in the aforementioned fields without attending a graduate school?

Yes.  A tiny portion of undergraduates do this, so it happens frequently.

Is it possible to get a job paying you to do research in physics without attending graduate school?

Mostly no.  The other applicants have PhDs.  People with PhDs are available and they are preferred.

Suggest you clarify that you made up the 2nd quote, if that's its origin.

Learning to do research usually happens under an apprenticeship model. The most typical situation is as a graduate student who works in the lab of an established researcher, who serves as a mentor. In addition to learning the technical aspects of the research methods, a good mentor will teach you how to perform research rigorously, avoid pitfalls (which may not be mentioned in the literature), write papers, respond to peer-reviews, understand the culture of your field, and write proposals for funding. You can also learn by working with more experienced students in the same lab. There are a lot of mistakes that can be made and semi-obvious ideas that many people have tried that don't work, which are unfortunately not recorded in the literature. A mentor will also help you make connections with other researchers, which can help you develop collaborations as an independent researcher.
Could you obtain such mentoring elsewhere? Yes, you might be able to get mentoring in scientific research from a group leader in a government lab or from a manager in private enterprise. You might even find someone who will mentor you just for altruism's sake. However, most research mentoring happens in graduate school because academics are incentivized to train graduate students and there are some checks involved to ensure quality (PhD committees, preliminary exams, thesis defenses). Of course, you can have a bad mentor in academia (or anywhere else) who doesn't do a good job teaching you what you need to know to be a good researcher. So choosing a good mentor is a major factor in whether going to graduate school is worth the investment.
Are there people who can succeed in research without such mentoring? There might be a few, but it is much harder. The apprenticeship model has been used for centuries to train neophytes in fields where obtaining good results requires a lot of experience and nuanced technique. Having someone look over your shoulder while you work (sometimes literally) and make suggestions is often the best way to learn technical skills.

The title doesn't make sense because a PhD is grad school. But sounds like your question is basically "can I do important research without a PhD?" You almost certainly can. There is nothing magical that happens in PhD school. You just get some coaching as you learn all the basic aspects of research: Reading and writing papers, conferences, designing and conducting experiments, applying to research grants, teaching and mentoring junior students.
At its core, research is a simple process:

Read about field and learn the current state of the art
Come up with a question that nobody knows the answer to yet (whether it's something they're aware of or not)
Come up with some possible answer that makes sense
Prove it according to the scientific method (usually with an experiment)
Announce it to the world (usually by publishing a paper or presenting at a conference)

You can learn all of these by carefully reading existing publications, and maybe also following conferences and writing letters to the researchers themselves. The problem is that it would be a lot of reading. The average PhD student already reads hundreds of papers and goes to many conferences throughout their education, and they also have lots of professors and postdocs to nudge them in the right direction. You will have to work even harder. I'd say you'd end up reading maybe 1000 papers to get to the level of a PhD, but each paper would also take you much longer to read. And how are you finding time for all this reading? Do you have a day job, and want to get into research on the weekends? Because that will probably not work due to the sheer time and energy research requires. Or are you wealthy and thinking of becoming a gentleman scientist in your own time? That might work - but if doing that, why not just do a PhD and save yourself some trouble?


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How to deliver thank you letter and gift to the professor who wrote letter of recommendation for me
I am writing a handwritten thank you letter to my professors who wrote the letter of recommendation for me, and I am also buying them a small gift because they really helped a lot throughout the application process.
I'd love to deliver the letter and gift to them in person, but that's just not the option for me now.
I am wondering will the professors receive my letter and gift if I mail them to their department in the university? or should I drop them off at the department reception?

Just ask him/her for the university postal address.

How is it not possible to deliver the gifts in person, but it is possible to drop them at the department?

Because they are out of town when I'm there, and I'm gone when they are back

You can definitely mail the letter and gift to the department. In fact, if the professor isn't on vacation/sabbatical/traveling etc, the receptionists are more likely than most to know where the professor is.
In my experience, there are letterboxes for everyone, so if your letter & gift are small the receptionists will put them in the letterbox; otherwise they'll email/call the professor and tell her there's a package for her.

Another important point to mention is that you should make sure that your gift is not too generous. Some universities have rules in place against personal gifts that exceed a certain monetary value (I think that in my university it's $100 or so). Anything more than that, and the professor will have to (a) report the gift to HR and (b) most likely won't get to keep it. These rules are in place to prevent academic misconduct, so I would really make sure that your idea of small fits university guidelines on what small means.

As Prof. Santa Claus said, just ask for their mailing address, or look it up online.
As a note for other readers, I would say that, at least in the US, many professors might find a small gift a little weird, depending on your relationship. Someone who has mentored you (like it sounds like they have) would be less unusual than someone who has just taught you in a few classes.


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Applying for bachelors science program, should I include my high-school transcript or just post-secondary transcripts?
I have graduated from a 2 year Computer Systems Technology diploma program at BCIT, and am applying for general sciences at UBC, with the intention of moving forward to get a combined bachelors in Computer Science and Statistics.  They advise submitting a high-school transcript, but it is not mandatory like my post-secondary transcripts are.  My high-school transcript is not flattering.  My grades from high-school were much worse than the grades I got in my time in the CST program at BCIT.  In high school there were a few classes that I came extremely close to failing (Physics 12, Chemistry 12, and precalc 12), and only 1 class I actually excelled in (Advanced Placement Computer Science). Would it look worse on me to submit a bad transcript, or no transcript at all?

This is a no brainer.  It's NOT REQUIRED and it DOESN'T LOOK GOOD.  Skip the high school transcript and just give them the juco transcript.


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What is considered credible evidence in computer science?
Is it books or lab reports or technical reviews or something completely different?

Evidence of what, exactly? That the work is correct, that it's yours, or of priority?

It depends on exactly what kind of thing you're researching, but the gold standard evidence would be source code. This allows anyone to see your code and run it on their own machine, see exactly how the machine is operating, and they can draw their own conclusions.
If you can't provide your source code for whatever reason, you can still have well thought out experiments whose methodology and results are described in conference or journal papers.
In terms of academic credit or progressing towards your degree, the basic unit of scholarly merit in computer science is the conference paper rather than the journal paper. In many fields it's the opposite, where conference papers don't count for much and journal papers are the goal. In CS we still have journal papers that are often published as extensions to a conference paper, and this is an opportunity to address any initial concerns from the community or extend and round out a contribution. These are worthwhile endeavors, especially if the conference paper is highly regarded, but they're not the norm.
This changes some things and doesn't change other things. For example, I know of colleagues in fields where conference papers don't count for anything, but in those fields the conferences are not peer reviewed and essentially a good enough sounding abstract is enough to get accepted to a conference. They still publish rigorous peer reviewed works, but they do those in journals that are not associated with any specific conference.

"the basic unit of scholarly merit in computer science is the conference paper rather than the journal paper" In various areas, there is now significant momentum to change that, with top conferences switching to journal proceedings and top researchers pushing for a shift towards journals.