Not really, so long as you are comfortable that you are not disclosing more about yourself than you are comfortable.
As folks here say, it’s College Confidential, after all!
Talking this through with your parents is a good idea.
If you are accused of academic dishonesty, and ultimately it goes on your record, some colleges do ask for that info in their application questions. Some HSs will put that on your transcript, while some don’t (and some states prohibit this info from being put on a transcript)…find out what the case is for your school. But, even if not on your transcript, you would still have to answer a college’s questions about this honestly.
Good luck to you.
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It sounds to me as if the teacher was giving you a chance to come forward, by indicating the discovery but not telling you yet that they know it was you.
I would ask to meet the teacher asap.
How long ago was it that the teacher indicated that a student had 100% correct answers for the other class’ test?
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I agree that it sounds like your teacher let you know they know, and that you need to come forward. Talk to your parents and go see your teacher as soon as possible. This is a learning opportunity, not the end of your academic journey.
Just be sure to learn from the mistake and not do it again because the consequences at a college level can be much more severe. Something similar happened in a college course my D was working as the course grader. Someone got a hold of a different exam and answered those questions, in that other order, instead of what was on the actual exam. The students who came forward were given zeroes but had time to bring up their grade. Those that didn’t come forward had their names given to the dean and dropped from the class with a failing grade with no ability to re-take (which was a required course for the major). That was also grounds for expulsion but my D didn’t hear about the long term consequences.
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I didn’t say there was anything wrong with the advice and mine was indeed the same. I was shocked at the tone, the shaming, the sense of disgust as if this student had commuted a capital crime. It was adults bullying a kid who was already down. There was no need for people to pile on with dire warnings and total disdain.
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I don’t see that all in the posts.
You have gotten sounds advice throughout and I would agree that the teacher is giving you a chance to come forward. You should take advantage of that opportunity.
What does raise concern is that you apparently either didn’t read the questions asked or are so overwhelmed with the subject matter that you didn’t realize how far off your answers were. Either way I would be introspective. Cheating is a shortcut that is ultimately self destructive, but not even reading the question is just sheer (pardon the directness) lazy. I suspect that may be a result of feeling overwhelmed.
Please don’t put so much pressure on your self or take on so much work that you need to resort to such behaviors.
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I could quote each point where the poster was battered and berated. It isn’t each response, but it is there in many. Doing so does nothing to further the discussion, though.
We have two different perspectives, and that’s fine. If you are curious about which comments I found to be unnecessary, send me a message and I can be specific. I’m not being snarky at all – sometimes I really like to understand what someone else is seeing that I don’t.
Alternatively, we could simply focus on the OP. If a post violates ToS, feel free to flag; otherwise, let’s move on.
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And since some are now taking me at my word and flagging posts, let me be clear on concept: not liking what a user says is not a ToS violation. Being frank is not a ToS violation. No user should post with the expectation that other users will sugarcoat the responses.
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I can’t speak for your school, but it’s highly doubtful something like that would show up on your transcript. Learn from it and move on. You’re not the first teenager to cheat on a quiz, and you certainly won’t be the last either. Just know that college professors have a zero tolerance for things like that. I don’t see it affecting you.
Yeeup, this is a pickle. I won’t lie. To the point others have made, if you’re here for absolution, you’re not going to get it. Most people have severely negative views on cheating and it sounds like you cheated, so … facts. But it doesn’t matter, really, what anybody here thinks of you personally, so don’t sweat it. I myself would seek moral guidance about the fact of having cheated elsewhere … from a parent, priest, rabbi or whatever. Personally, I don’t care how you feel about it and my operating assumption is that what you really regret is (maybe) getting caught. But none of that matters or helps. As for what to do now, I would separate the moral from the tactical; because having this show up on your transcript is a biggie.
What you’re really here to ask, I think, is how to gauge the odds of whether you were not in fact observed cheating vs. the odds that you were caught and the teacher isn’t going to rat you out regardless of whether you confess vs. the odds that you were caught and the teacher won’t rat you out only if you fess up. And, of course, nobody here knows. If it were me, I’d assume I’m busted and I’d also assume that my contrition might well be the difference between the teacher reporting it or not. But it’s a gamble; you might be fessing up to something that you really got away with.
Here’s one idea: go talk to your school counselor about colleges. If this doesn’t come up, then your teacher hasn’t turned you in and probably won’t. They tend to deal with these things pretty quickly.
Also, I would not plan on asking this teacher for a LOR, regardless of how this plays out.
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Deleted - avoiding starting a tangent.
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I teach college. In one class my room was tiny. I used to give different versions of the same exam (just on the multiple choice portion), so that no one had the same exam as the person sitting next to them. I had a student cheat off of her neighbor. “Liz” was normally a B student. She decided to cheat off of “Bob”, who was the top student in the class. Liz erased mostly correct answers from her exam, and replaced them all with the answers from Bob’s exam. Bob got nearly all of his answers correct. Which meant they were incorrect for Liz’s version.
Liz had to attend a disciplinary hearing with the honor council. She was found guilty by a jury of her peers (seriously). I could have gotten her kicked out of the class with an F but I decided to be nice and just give her an F on the exam. She nearly got kicked off her athletic team and almost lost her scholarship.
I tried to ask myself what outcome I wanted. Like I said, she was normally a B student so I don’t know what possessed her to make such a foolish choice. To her credit, she was mortified and genuinely remorseful. I decided I wanted her to learn her lesson about cheating, and to learn from the class. I wanted her to come out of the experience as a better person. I knew she was probably busy and overwhelmed.
She never knew I was the one who caught her. She thought one of her classmates (but she didn’t know which one) turned her in. That allowed her to sincerely believe that I had her best interests at heart – which I did. I talked with her about what she needed to do to make sure she got the C she needed in the class to keep her scholarship. She was very appreciative and worked her butt off for the rest of the semester.
I’ve had other students that were habitual cheaters that were only sorry they got caught. That wasn’t Liz. But she made a stupid mistake and I hope getting caught improved her character and taught her not to cheat again.
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You should be able go to your high school guidance counselor and ask to see your student files. While you are there, ask what part of your files are sent to colleges. Ask, If I pull a senior prank and get caught, would that kind of bad behavior be reported. (Laugh when you say it.)
In all likelihood a teacher can’t report your cheating unless they confront you, you deserve a chance to defend yourself. If you cheated and there aren’t any repurcussions/punishment there probably won’t be anything in your “permanent record.” If it’s in there, and you can’t refuse to have it shared with colleges, use it for the teaching moment it was. Colleges like to know you learned your lesson in high school.
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There’s no excuse in cheating… I hope you learned a lesson and don’t cheat again. At our local high school, a teacher caught a student cheating. Unknown to the student, the teacher had a camera inside her classes recording, so student could not really defend himself.
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