How to politely refuse note sharing I am an undergraduate student. This semester, I'm taking a 1.5 credit course, which is a 1.5 hour lecture once a week from a rotation of different speakers. There will be a final at the end of the semester.

The course coordinator, Mack (Not His Real Name™), cannot come to every lecture. He therefore asked me to give him my notes, both for his review and also as as a basis for the final exam. Because my notes will be a part of the test, he asked that I 1) do not tell anyone that my notes will be a basis for the test 2) do not share my notes with anyone else.

A number of students noticed that I take notes during lecture, and have approached me to ask for a copy of my notes. They're not constantly asking for notes; in fact, at least one of these students (who I know to be a very hard worker in school) does take his own notes, but wants to compare notes just in case he missed something (this is something that he does in every course).

I'm having some difficulty convincing them that they don't want my notes. I told them that I write in partial shorthand (which is true), and that the notes are just rough notes (also true), but some students say they want my notes anyway. I suppose I could always "forget" to give them my notes, but this is neither foolproof nor polite.

How can I politely refuse to share my notes with my classmates in this situation?



I am aware of the XY problem -- I can imagine a solution to the situation where I share the notes anyway, or ask Mack for permission to share my notes. However, I'd like to help Mack (his alternative is to listen to 15 x 1.5 hour recordings), while still remaining on good terms with my classmates, and not ruining the final exam.
I think Mack put you in a very difficult situation. You should not have agreed to his terms, and should ask to change them now.

There is no problem sharing your notes with Mack, though he should probably be getting notes from several students.

You should either have agreed not to share your notes with others, or agreed to keep confidential the fact that they will be used in setting the test, but not both. If you were freely sharing your notes, nobody would pay any special attention to them. If you could say "Mack asked me not to share them so that he can use them in setting his test" people would understand the non-sharing.

There are other ways Mack could have constructed his test. For example, he could have asked each lecturer for a question or two with marking criteria.