Why do students cheat?
Is it the pressure to be successful? Is it because the students don’t care? Is it lack of preparation and effort? Is it helping a friend?
None of these are excuses for cheating; however, these things happen every day. Sometimes it seems that students take more pride in cheating than they do in actually learning or earning their grade.
David L. Jaffe, a professor from Stanford University said, “Cheating among high school students has risen dramatically during the past 50 years.”
This information implies that cheating among students who are about to enter their collegiate years is continually rising.
“Cheating no longer carries the stigma that it used to,” Jaffe said, because of the fact that these students will do anything that they can to perform well in an effort to go to their college of choice.
If cheating has risen among high school students over the past 50 years, why would it stop during college if the rules of academic integrity have been ignored before?
The answer is that it has not, and cheating is, in fact, getting worse. Cheating is a growing epidemic, and between 75-98% of college students surveyed each year report having cheated in high school.
Surprisingly, 85% of students believe that cheating is essential, according to the Ad Council and Educational Testing Service.
For students who actually take the time to apply themselves, this reality can be extremely disheartening. Why is it that I sat up, studied and applied myself to earn my grade, but you chose to take the easy way and cheat?
Why is it fair for me to have completed my homework but you walk in asking me for my answers or text a friend and ask them for theirs?
You’re not learning anything if you’re not taking the time to apply yourself.
With access to websites like Quizlet, it’s easy to just type in one statement or question and potentially not only find one
When you think about it in the long run, cheating doesn’t only affect the person who is choosing to do it.
What if a surgeon cheated on their medical exam? What if the pilot who’s flying your airplane to your Spring Break destination cheated on their flight school exam? If you knew that they did that, wouldn’t you find an issue with that?
The mindset of “doing enough to get by” has spread like wildfire. In the moment, it may seem okay. But if you get caught, this could cause you to fail the course and, if done again, could cause you to be expelled from the school.
This infraction goes into your record and creates distrust with the future schools or programs that you attempt to enroll in.
According to a study by bestvalueschools.org, the most common form of cheating is plagiarism. Teachers and professors have resorted to using sites such as turnitin.com and plagiarismchecker.com to help keep the level of plagiarism down and to ensure that each student is turning in their own work and not the work of another student.
Many online classes have made “Lock Down Browsers” a requirement for taking their tests, visiting a proctoring center or the use of web cameras to reduce cheating.
I know of certain social clubs who constantly pass down materials from year to year to their members in order to keep their cumulative GPAs in great academic standing.
But professors have become more in tune with what is occurring and most do not allow you to keep your exams or take photos of them.
From a student standpoint, yes, cheating has become more of an issue in college. But on the flip side of it, the work has become harder and the level of student application has decreased. In no way, shape or form is cheating okay.
Cheating devalues your degree. Did you really earn it? Or did you “do what you had to do” to get through?
When you have children, are you going to hold them to a higher standard because you know what you did to earn your degree? Or are you going to allow them to do the same in order to be successful?
Cheating could also make it harder for you once you get into your career or while searching for a job because you didn’t take the time to actually learn the information for yourself.
In a generation of entitlement, it has to be stressed that each student is responsible for their own work and that your status does not exempt you from upholding academic honesty.
