Books and articles written by experts in the field are acceptable references, but a paper written by a student in a previous semester is quite different. Working with someone else in the course, a lab partner, for example, raises questions about plagiarism. You may need a partner, or you may need some advice on procedures, but once the data is gathered, do the work on your own and write your own paper. Even in that case, you should acknowledge your partner's help at the end of the paper. If you have doubts about whether such cooperation is permitted in a course, check with your instructor.
Many people try to leap to the end of a project.
They want to save time, but by skipping the middle parts, they make their job more difficult and wind up wasting time.