Apropos of nothing - a random HP thought.

[ridicully]

Where does half the fandom get the impression that Harry is cheating by using a book with notes in it?

They are allowed to use their book while brewing and are supposed to have read up on the potion they are preparing in class.
And in written tests, I doubt they are allowed to use their books anyway, so the notes won't be any help to him there.
The only difference I see between Harry and a Ravenclaw (in this instance) is that the Ravenclaw would have made the notes himself - and probably not in the book, but on a spare bit of paper.

Having better reference material is rarely considered cheating. No matter how much of an advantage it gives you.

Comments

[juju-bean.livejournal.com]

Snape grades the potions they make in class. Same as a quiz.

And if Snape didn't teach or explain anything, I don't think anyone would've made it as far as they have. Everyone would've failed their OWLS. Harry had to learn something from him to be able to make it into sixth year potions.

[ryf.livejournal.com]

I am taking an Inorganic Chemistry lab course at the moment. I am graded for what I do there. If I had a friend who majors in Chemistry who helps me before every class and I then say what he told me when questioned, is that cheating? No, because that's how school/uni works. If you have friends who can help you, that's not cheating at all.

[grrliz.livejournal.com]

There is a fine difference that threeoranges pointed out above: your friend is (presumably) guiding you through your chem lab difficulties and trying to help you understand it (as Hermione might), he's not doing your homework for you and at the end of the day you take credit for it (as Harry does with the textbook).

[ryf.livejournal.com]

It's only one textbooks with maybe a few sentences of notes on each page. How exactly can this do every homework for him? It doesn't have the answers for every assignment written out, he still has to research parts and he has to actually write the assignments. It makes it easier, but that's not forbidden and not cheating. ItÄs just letting someone or something help you with pointing out where to start.

and at the end of the day you take credit for it

Atb the end of the day, I only got 63/90 points in Physics because my boyfriend studies it and helped me with every assignment (which weren't graded, I'll grant that, but he also would have helped if they were graded) and every topic. I sort of took credit for his work. It's the way it works. Also, at school people pay money so that other students help them with homework and preparing for tests. Not everyone can afford that and still it's not teaching. If I found a good way to learn math formulas, wrote it down and passed it to someone else, would that be cheating?

As I said, elsewhere, Potions isn't about understanding things, it's about memorising how to put things together and basic stuff like weighing and stiring. The outcome is important, not how you achieve it and if Harry didn't already have the skills to do a decent potion, he would have never been successful even with the book.

[ryf.livejournal.com]

And if Snape didn't teach or explain anything, I don't think anyone would've made it as far as they have.

Thing is, he never explains how Potions work. Just like it is of course never explained how magic works. They are just in this class to stir things and learn 'recipes' inside out, so they can do that without Snape's supervision. While that is probably the dumbest class concept I have ever seen, it also means that it is totally okay to apply what he learned from the book, because that does the same thing. Only telling what to do, not why.