The thing that really knocks my socks off is that they took the exam early in the Library with two other students. Hence, not only were they seated farther apart then had they taken the exam with the other 156+ students, there was a grand total of four students with one TA proctoring them! (As my wife said, I guess they haven't studied probability.)

I was at the Lib to start the exam and stayed for about 15 min before turning it over to my TA. He was sitting between the four students when he looked back and noticed that Jane, who was seated behind him, had written something on her exam and was holding it up for Joe, who was seated a good 4 feet away across the isle, to see.

I have to give a good deal of credit for how my TA handled this. The TA asked to see Jane's exam, circled in pen what he had observed her showing Joe, and then gave it back to Jane. The TA then asked to see Joe's exam, circled what Joe had just been working on, and then returned Joe's exam. Then my TA switched where Joe was sitting so that Joe and Jane were no longer within eye-shot. Finally, the TA wrote out a note with the date, time, and location describing what he had observed and done.

When Joe finished his exam and turned it in, my TA took Joe aside and, looking directly at Joe, asked him if he had cheated on the exam. Amazingly, Joe confessed and said that he had. The TA then thanked him for his honesty and asked him if he would give a written statement to that effect and, for his honesty, the TA would ask me to keep the consequences of this incident just to this exam. The student agreed and wrote out his description of what happened, including his rational for why he attempted to cheat (something about frustration and also having to study for a physics exam). Later, Jane finished her exam and my TA did the same for her. She also confessed and wrote out a description of what happened.

I must say, I think my TA handled this incident very well (even better than I would have handled it myself). He did not stop them or accuse the students during the exam but waited to confront them until after the exam. He also wrote down what he observed and documented it on the student's exams. Finally, he confronted each student individually and, while the confession of both students shocked not only me but my TA, he had them to write down their version of what had occurred.

Later that evening, I received apologies via email from each student (almost simultaneously, but not surprisingly since the whole reason for the early exam was so they could catch a bus to MN, a long ride during which they could discuss what had happened and contemplate the consequences of their actions).

I have not completely resolved what will come of this incident. My current plan is to simply give both of them zeros for this exam. The exam is about 17.5% of their grade or a little less than two letter grades. I may still allow them to get partial credit, but I feel that it should cost at least a letter grade. However, the fact is that even this may well mean that one or even both of these student will as a result fail the course.