Talk:Pass by catastrophe

Umm... how are you supposed to find factual citations for an urban legend!? Hyphz 04:20, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Snopes.com?--TheZachMorrisExperience (talk) 01:22, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

What to do with this article?
I just spent about an hour trying to document the information in this article. The only such legend I could actually verify was the one that a student will receive straight As if their roommate commits suicide. (By "verify" I mean "confirm its existence as a legend". I didn't mean "verify the truth of the legend," since probably none of them are true.) The rest of the article appears to be original research at best, made up at worst. That includes all the other versions of a "pass by catastrophe" rule, and all the uncited information under "validity". So what should we do with this article? Possibilities: 1) Somebody else could do a better job of searching, and could confirm the existence of some of the other variations of the legend. 2) We could strip out everything except the one verified legend, namely the "roommate suicide" story, and possible retitle the article somehow. 3) We could nominate the article for deletion. Thoughts? --MelanieN (talk) 15:26, 12 May 2015 (UTC)


 * Until we find sources for the other claims, it's probably wise to only include the variation of the legend regarding roommate suicide. I've had a quick look around, but haven't found anything reliable in relation to students dying during exams and the like. This September 1998 article archived by Snopes mentions that the "suicide rule" legend may have arisen due to corruptions of stories over time, as universities have in the past provided psychological and academic assistance to students following incidents (unrelated to the granting of grades), and these incidents have been misinterpreted as they've been retold over and over. We could expand the article based on the suicide rule as the main topic for now, until we find sources regarding the other variations; I don't think AfD is absolutely necessary at this point. However, this article has been getting a spike in attention within recent days, hence the rise in nonsense edits by IP editors prior to page semi-protection. The surge in traffic is due to this page becoming "viral" in the past few days after someone took a screenshot of this article and spread it on various social media outlets (e.g. Facebook, see example). Given the recent interest, it would probably be a good idea to deal with the dubious information within the article as soon as possible; I get the feeling that this page might become partially responsible for the futher spread of misinformation. -- benlisquare T•C•E 16:26, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks, user:benlisquare. I agree that we need to act quickly, while the page is still a hot topic on the internet. How do you think we should "deal with" the unverified information? It is already tagged "citation needed"; because of the widespread interest in this article's claims about dying during a test etc., I think we should probably not simply delete those sections; maybe a "dubious" tag for the paragraph? I am going to delete all the unreferenced claims about how previous cases of disruption of the academic process were handled. --MelanieN (talk) 23:01, 12 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Update: I moved the "roommate suicide" story to its own section, since it is the only documented legend. I lumped all the others together in an "accuracy disputed" paragraph, and deleted all the unsourced reports about how things have been done in specific instances. --MelanieN (talk) 23:24, 12 May 2015 (UTC)

I have just found a source which could possibly be of use. This document details the processes of applying for a Special Consideration in the event of abnormal exam conditions (applies to the UK). Interestingly, it details in section 5.2 that if a candidate dies, or is terminally ill, before taking the exam, then their estate may request an 'Honorary Certificate' for that qualification, perhaps giving credit to the myth that dying will give somebody an automatic pass. Spikitiger (talk) 16:16, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Well, that's interesting, I gather this is for some kind of nationwide standardized exam? (Pardon my ignorance on the subject.) We could add something along these lines. It would at least give us something in that vast void that is currently the "Other legends" section of the article. Here's a possible wording - comments? --MelanieN (talk) 20:48, 13 May 2015 (UTC) "In the United Kingdom, the Joint Council for Qualifications allows candidates to apply for an adjustment of their score (up to 5%) if they have met all the qualifications for the exam but suffer 'temporary illness, temporary injury or other indisposition at the time of the assessment.' If an eligible candidate dies before completing the examination, an 'honorary certificate' can be requested."

I was unable to find support for this statement in the cited source: "Although if a candidate should die during the examination the remaining candidates will pass by catastrophe." Did I miss something? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Keyser42soze (talk • contribs) 15:57, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

Recent edit
Where did "*If Jarrod Herman is in your class, all students pass as his existence drives people to the brink of suicide." come from? I cannot find any reference to a 'Jarrod Herman' anywhere - please check this seemingly recent edit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110.143.1.120 (talk) 10:22, 16 March 2016 (UTC)
 * It was vandalism and it's been reverted. --MelanieN (talk) 13:54, 16 March 2016 (UTC)