I am a senior in high school and I think my teacher caught me cheating on a quiz. I regret not even trying to learn and I would never do it again. But I am scared if my teacher will report academic dishonesty without even telling me. He hasn’t talked to me about academic dishonesty so far, but is there any chance he might report it without letting me know?
Will it show on my transcript? Where can I see academic honesty? I am so scared right now.
Many High Schools have student handbooks with a policy on cheating.
At our children’s high school, there is a hierarchy of action and what a teacher needs to do according to that hierarchy.
You might want to see if you have such a policy and find out what your role and your parents’ role will be.
Question: Why did you feel the need to cheat?
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If I do not see anything about academic dishonesty on my transcript, then am I fine?
I cheated because I felt so pressured to get a good grade on the quiz. The quizzes in the class are so difficult so I was worried. But I learned my lesson now and would rather get a bad score by trying instead of getting a good score by cheating
No, you are not fine. You think that not seeing something on your transcript makes it go away? Condoning this behavior is not a good thing.
Fess up to your parents and to your teacher and let them know what you just posted. You cannot throw your parents and your teachers for a loop.
You cheated and you were busted.
Now, fess up and come clean. It will go a long way towards those letters from your counselor and teacher to the colleges.
The colleges make a huge deal about cheating. It’s called integrity. It’s also called expulsion.
When you sign those admissions applications online, the colleges expect you to be truthful, honest and have some integrity.
If you quickly take and admit the blame now, it will go a long way with everyone.
Please give teachers some credit. They’re pretty good at finding out and hearing the excuses.
If you delay your apologies, it will only make it worse.
The transcript is usually only grades and scores.
Every school, however, is very different.
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TBH, your post is quite confusing.
- Did you cheat or not?
- If so, did your teacher discover it?
- What exactly is your concern? To try to hope the teacher doesn’t report it? I refer back to bullet points 1 and 2.
If there is a “teachable moment” for you, it is never cheating again. It WILL catch up to you somehow/someway.
I am no expert, but @aunt_bea seems to be on point.
Also, I hope you are not using your real name as your CC username. If so, you need to change that right away.
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I teach college, not high school, but I would assume that it won’t be all that different. If I have a student cheat on a quiz, and them come forward and tell me that they cheated and regret doing so, they would get a 0 on the quiz, and that generally would be that.
If they cheat , and there is absolutely no way that I would have known without them coming forward, I may even consider lesser consequences, depending on what the activity was.
If I catch them, that would generally leave them with an F in the course and then I would decide what to do further.
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Okay, you didn’t do the work, and you tried to cheat. I agree with prior poster who asked you to think about WHY you cheated. Do you hate this class? Do you hate the material? Are you doing this particular class because of somehow being pressured into it, either by trying to keep up with the highest level of rigor, or because a relative feels that you absolutely must become a [fill in the blank] and hence must take AP[fill in the blank] that you really didn’t want to take?
Are you sure that the teacher did catch you cheating? If you’re sure that they did, I’d go to them first thing tomorrow, tell them the truth, and maybe tell them the rest of it, the why of it. Maybe you need tutoring in the subject. Maybe you need to drop the class, or drop down to a lower level of it. Maybe your confession of the why behind it, and request for help and advice will keep the teacher from reporting it, plus you might get some useful advice and help out of it. In fact, if you’re at the point where you need to cheat, you probably need to do this anyway, whether you got caught or not. Perhaps if you go to the teacher tomorrow AM and tell them how much trouble you’re having in the class, they might say something about what happened during the test, and then you’d know. If they just offer you help, and say nothing about what happened during the test, I’d say you can be pretty sure that they didn’t catch you cheating. But you still probably need to do something to fix the reason you felt the need to cheat.
It was a quiz that we take every week, and my friend showed me her answers and I basically memorized it. But her quiz and my quiz had different questions, but the same answer set.
My teacher talked about it in class saying that somebody in class turned in all correct answers for the quiz that he gave to the other period, but wrong for the quiz in my period.
I assume that he discovered it. But he did not say anything or called me after class.
To be honest, my concern is that if it will go on the record and prevent me from getting accepted to colleges. If the teacher reports academic dishonesty, will the school mail me and notify me about it?
Oh boy. Yes, I’d agree, you’re busted.
So, is the class too hard for you? Do you hate the class? Why are you taking this class? I mean, you must be willfully not learning the material, if you didn’t even read the questions, didn’t notice that the answers that you were filling in for the questions were way off.
I think that your best course of action is to go to the teacher tomorrow and talk with him about what happened, and WHY it happened, and how to move forward. Tutoring? Extra help? Drop down a level if it’s too hard? Don’t bring up being reported - he might not do it. And know that even if he does, you’re going to be okay. This is not the end of the world. You will still go to college, and have the opportunity to become whatever you want to be in life. It’s going to be okay, no matter how it comes out. These things seem enormous when we’re going through them, but in hindsight, it will just have been a minor bump in the road.
You may be facing another issue, too. How will you handle it if/when he asks you whose test did you copy?
My D’s high school was rife with cheating. Most high schools won’t report a first transgression on the transcript. Consider it an opportunity to think through what matters to you - you may be grateful down the line for the life lesson
Thank you. I would do anything to go back to the time before the quiz. I am regretting it so much.
So do you think my first academic dishonesty will not show on my record?
I think you have the wrong priority.
Own up to your transgression. Go to the teacher tomorrow and OWN it.
If you don’t own it immediately, depending on school policy, it may end up on your school record.
Only your staff knows.
I worked at our local high school and our policy was that we expected students to make mistakes and errors in judgment because no one is perfect and teens wear many stressful hats. But, after mistakes were made, any students who pressured themselves to cheat would be “forgiven” if they immediately took ownership and showed some integrity.
I’m reading your comments and am saddened that the only reason you seem to be asking is because you don’t want to ruin your college admission chances. No embarrassment, humiliation or significant remorse?
You can show that you are ready to go to college by being a little bit adult about it and going to your teacher and reporting how you feel about the cheat. Then hand him a positive card thanking him for working hard to help you.
Teachers and staff do talk. The longer you wait, the worse it will get. Your other teachers wont trust you with each and every test or quiz. Your counselor will have “code” vocabulary to indicate that your integrity may be compromised. Own it immediately. You can make this up but your priority has to be your honesty and maturity.
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I am regretting it a lot and I am so disappointed in myself. I basically ignored the work of my teacher and I even feel disgusted in myself for doing that.
But I am so scared to go to the teacher and talk about it. If I do, then he is going to ask me who is the person who gave me the answers. I am afraid of getting my friend in trouble.
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I am a bit shocked at the replies here.
Yes, the poster said several times that she regrets her actions, learned a lesson, would take a bad grade the next time, and wishes she could take her actions back.
Yes, she also indicated that part a large part of the reason she is regretful is the potential impact on college admissions.
This board is filled with posts about kids taking 6 APs in a year, extreme grade competition, Covid-school educational gaps, parental and social pressure for college admissions, rampant mental health issues, and more. Knowing this pressure, are you all who are shaming this kid really this shocked that it happened given the circumstances? You can still disapprove of the actions and simultaneously give grace to a kid. The reports about cheating during the pandemic lead me to believe that is statistically probable some of you likely have kids who have engaged in similar activities.
email the teacher and ask for a meeting. Tell her what you did and apologize. Don’t make excuses or place blame. Do not do it again. It’s unlikely that any punishment for a first offense will prevent you from getting a college acceptance.
If colleges are indeed notified and you aren’t accepted where you expected, all is still not lost. You are not doomed. There are second chances. Maybe you will go to your safety school. Perhaps you will go to community college and then transfer. I don’t know what the path would be, but there will be a path.
Also, change your user name if it resembles your real name.
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It’s good that you realize that cheating is not the way. Talk to the teacher. Just say that you wanted to talk and apologize. Most people are reasonable and they like their students.
Change your name if it is similar to your real one.
I will tell you another reason for which you should not cheat. If a college does not take you because of a lower grade somewhere, maybe it’s your luck. Not being good enough, yet being in a cutthroat environment drives people mad. There is always a way to restart.
I taught in college too, in Europe. In Europe, we grade the students harshly, but we do not use the grades for entering university. We have exams for the really good places; the other ones are open for free. Grades should tell students what they are good at and help them choose their speciality/major wisely.
I am shocked by the amount of pressure that’s put on US kids and I hope that most of them do not crack under pressure by cheating or doing other stupid things. She needs to understand that what she did was wrong, nothing more.
Thank you for the reply.
The website does not let me change my username. Should I message the admin about changing the username?
The username is not my real name though.
Just cover yourself. If you go privately to your teacher, he will understand because he knows it takes a LOT for you to admit to an error. Nowadays, school pressures are insane. You should be able to clear your conscience once you speak privately to your teacher without having to implicate others.
It shouldn’t show up on your transcript, or your counselor’s record, if you just speak privately to the teacher. If you delay it, the teacher may not be as sympathetic later. You’ve learned from it, and it’s time to move on from this lesson.
Why are you shocked? You’re basically advising OP to do the same thing that other posters are recommending.
(Also, you still have the OP’s original UN in your post).
@roundglasses74: you mentioned not getting your friend who gave you the answers in trouble. I wouldn’t worry about your friend, but rather about yourself. The issue at the moment is what YOU did, not your friend. You wouldn’t be posting here if you weren’t concerned about you, right?
There is nothing “selfish” in telling your teacher exactly what happened and why it won’t happen again. If that includes telling your teacher who gave you the answers to the earlier quiz, then so be it. The issue here is you.
Also, have you spoken to your parents? Before taking advice here, I would strongly recommend you speak to them and discuss what you should do.
Wishing you the very best!
Thank you. I am planning to discuss about it with my parents next day.
Also, does showing my original UN here matter a lot?
Making sure your UN and your real name aren’t the same is for your confidentiality. If you have any concerns, I would suggest you flag your own post and discuss it with the admins/mods. They are great at getting back to you.
I am so glad you are talking to your parents. Take the suggestions here to help you in speaking to them. They are very likely your greatest supporters, and it really helps to talk to them. Don’t hold back a thing, and see what they say.
You can always come back here if you need more thoughts.
Given that your teacher knows that there was cheating, the best next step is to come clean. But again, talk with your folks.
It’s hard, we know, but you will get through it. Learn from this!
Best of luck to you!
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