Do you cheat?

[JoeG]

So fellow IB people, do you cheat on tests, quizzes, or other assignments?

Also, by cheat, I don't mean asking Susy Q what the answer to #5 on your homework was. By cheating I mean deliberatly copying numerous answers from people on assignments, looking at other people's tests, and writing answers on your hand, bits of paper, etc.

I myself almost never cheat. The reason I say this is that I have taken advantage of my graphing calculator in the past lol, and it wouldn't be honest to say No in the poll. Although, I show my work anyway, and most of the things I use were already per-programmed.

The reason I'm asking is that I see alot of my fellow classmates cheating on their tests, regularly, and in an obvious manner.

Edited June 29, 2010 by JoeGuff

[Grumps]

I'm going to be a lamer and say that I have never cheated. It's not because I think it's morally wrong, it's just that my Spanish pride doesn't allow me to believe anyone's judgement is better than my own.

Everyone in my chem class cheats, though. Literally everyone is all like copying off each other and my teacher doesn't see ****.

[__inthemaking]

I always found cheating rather pointless because come exam time, you're on your own anyways (unless you manage to cheat during the IB exams too, which would be an amazing feat), so might as well learn everything now. Also, I never trusted anyone else enough to cheat off them, it would suck to cheat and do worse than if you had actually attempted it on your own.

Plus I'm now in university and if you get caught cheating/plagarizing, you're kicked out and it stays on your academic record. Not something I want to apply to grad school with.

[Sandwich]

I used to cheat a bit in my Chinese lessons 'cause it was all a bit of a joke anyway xP Whenever my friend and I got stuck, if the other person had managed to think up an answer, the other one copied it. Mostly it was me! Although somehow I always came out which higher marks, which wasn't really fair at all, ahah... I was terrible at Chinese! And of course with class tests and stuff, my friends and I would share answers all the time, especially in vocab. tests for Spanish and such. Much easier if you only have to memorise half the list

In IB Chem we also used to get given exams it was very easy to find past paper answers for Sooo once, on the basis that we were all failing flat out anyway (on account of having no teacher, bah) some of us just read all the past paper answers and tried to remember them before we did the exam. Still only got a 5, and that was the highest of all of us who'd read the answers! Better than the people who didn't look at the answers in advance, but still a bit of a fail there.

Generally we were very well invigilated, so even if it was a pointless internal exam you'd all be sitting too far away from each other to cheat even if you were motivated to xP Except for one year where our invigilator kept walking out the room and then the whole Religious Studies department was amazed by how acutely religious we were, all getting 90%+ Never cheat in a real exam, folks!

[x___x]

I used to cheat in Middle school, i know, that morally sucks, but I wasn't really into morals at that age . My religion also forbids that, but again, I wasn't that much into religion in middle school. BTW, this does not imply that i totally suck, but to a certain extent, yeah (I admit it) I did !

Mostly I was cheating in Social Studies, which I’m really bad at.

High school was different, though. I gradually stop it, so I didn't cheat anymore. So you see, my records are not that clean, but I’m trying to make up for my "dirty" history !!

[Tilia]

Well, I got quite a lot of help with my maths IA, howver I wrote it myself, but I got a lot of feedback. Not sure how much help is allowed.

In my opinion, cheating is really pointless. You can't cheat on an exam (it's stupid even to try), so cheating on quizzes is not to recommend. My coordinator said that "Cheating on mocks is like cheating on a pregnancy test", and I think that's true.

[IOwnAndPwnU]

As the saying goes, by cheating you are just cheating yourself.

IMHO cheating is pointless because all the tests and exams are completed individually, so you might as well learn how to do the work yourself. Additionally, some people cheat on assignments because they are unsure of themselves, and this hesitation may continue into their exam, producing a negative effect on their overall mark.

If you can cheat flawlessly on the exam, go ahead, but if you get that 7, can you really say its yours? I kind of think of it like that, I want all my marks to be earned.

[Tsubaki]

I can't remember ever cheating, mostly because the only chances our class had to cheat were all in chemistry class, (because we'd have tests during which the teacher would just leave, and we'd kinda talk the entire time) and there was no one in my chemistry class I trusted to get anything right. We were a pretty terrible chemistry class, I must say.

[elmar]

I have a few times, but I must say it was pretty justified. It was for my American Gov't class and we were required to know the Declaration of Independence and several paragraphs of The Constitution, word-by-word. I think two kids in the whole class took the assignment seriously. But otherwise, I feel guilty and can't handle it.

[Court Kaye]

What always amazes me is that people who do cheat always do so in the most uninventive ways! And what's more amazing is that teachers rarely ever catch them!!

I've never cheated on a test - but that's because I'm one of those people that feel guilty for the tiniest things and I don't think I could handle the feeling after having cheated on a test.

Also, when writing your IB exams you're on your own (unless you manage to cheat in them - which I have to say would be incredible) and so it'd just be better to fail the test the first time, get help from your teacher and then nail it in the IB exam! This probably makes me out as a total nerd - but I just don't see the value in writing a test if all your thinking about is the grade. Tests are supposed to help you realise what you don't actually know properly, so that you can go back and re-learn it.

Don't get me wrong - we all have that teacher that is incredibly evil when it comes to surprising us with tests, or is a total hard-a*s grader - but cheating isn't going to really help you in a situation like that - afterall, there are always retests!

[Sandwich]

What always amazes me is that people who do cheat always do so in the most uninventive ways! And what's more amazing is that teachers rarely ever catch them!!

I've never cheated on a test - but that's because I'm one of those people that feel guilty for the tiniest things and I don't think I could handle the feeling after having cheated on a test.

Also, when writing your IB exams you're on your own (unless you manage to cheat in them - which I have to say would be incredible) and so it'd just be better to fail the test the first time, get help from your teacher and then nail it in the IB exam! This probably makes me out as a total nerd - but I just don't see the value in writing a test if all your thinking about is the grade. Tests are supposed to help you realise what you don't actually know properly, so that you can go back and re-learn it.

Don't get me wrong - we all have that teacher that is incredibly evil when it comes to surprising us with tests, or is a total hard-a*s grader - but cheating isn't going to really help you in a situation like that - afterall, there are always retests!

Many people are pretty motivated by the fact that your predicted grades get sent off to Universities At least in the UK. Clearly you have to then be confident that you can go on to achieve those grades in the final thing... but the people who don't understand stuff first time round and do what you suggested end up being awarded very poor predicted grades and get instantly rejected from the places they apply to! So it wouldn't have mattered if they learnt from their mistakes and became better at what they initially failed, they'd still not end up where they wanted to be.

[Tilia]

What always amazes me is that people who do cheat always do so in the most uninventive ways! And what's more amazing is that teachers rarely ever catch them!!

There are inventive ways of cheating as well. My ToK teacher told once he had invigilated an exam where a student in some weird way had found out the day before the test which seat he would have, and hidden a paper in the nearby flower pot. If that's not creative and inventive, what is?

[Daedalus]

the best memory i have of attempting to cheat was when i was searching for the term 'dative covalent bond' (or coordinate bond) and i seriously couldn't think of it and i whispered it to a random classmate in the exam... the classmate was confused and shocked, and didn't reply - i chose the wrong person to sit behind - and the proctor's eyes instantly narrowed over my scalp, so i bowed my head and he walked over and glared at me and then i saw his shoes and they were something that might have been cool in the 70s so i said to myself 'dated' and then i had the word. and i was so glad i tried to cheat!

in terms of cheating in general on tests, usually i let my friends see my multiple choice questions if they want to... i think it's a good compromise between principals and friendships.

[julie-h]

I used to cheat, back in the IGCSE days, they seem so far away haha. Never in finals, just in class tests..

But now that i'm doing IB, it's not a question of not being bothered to study anymore. I'm actually scared ****less that I'm not going to do well, so I keep to myself these days in tests and exams.

For finals, I just don't think it's ever worth the risk, whatever exams you're setting..

[kingdomx]

Never in real tests/exams, maybe with random class questions, that don't count for anything.

[ILM]

I think most of us have cheated in an exam before, if you did can you tell us the story...

[carotorres]

I normally do not cheat in most of my classes not because I believe its morally incorrect but for the fact I believe I have or can do better than my peers lol.

However I must say before IB i never cheated, I could not even "help" my fellow classmates cuz i got so nervous lol. but maths is like 'twilight zone' to me and due to my sucky grades I learn how to do it.

[Guest IMBATMAN]

Rarely because I'm mostly confident I can do it myself.

but there was one time in chemistry when I forgot their was a test and taped a piece of paper to the side of my desk.