Before I go to bed, I wanted to bring up the subject of cheating.

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Cheating. It's RAMPANT in my school. A MAJORITY of the top 20 cheats. I know for sure that four people out of the top 10 cheats, including the valedictorian. There are probably more that I do not know of.</p>

<p>It makes me so mad. That's why I think ranking is so pointless. It shows NOTHING. There's grade inflation, and half of those people, probably more than half, do not deserve the grade or the ranking. </p>

<p>Just today, we had a group quiz in our AP world history class. A peer in my group kept sharing with and getting answers from the valedictorian's group. I ended up rushing through the quiz so that they would stop. I should've called them out on it, I know, but I don't have the spunk for that. Damn my weak personality. </p>

<p>There are of course punishments for academic dishonesty, but come on, who gets caught? And seriously, who has the guts to turn someone in? I'm pretty sure that person will get socially ostracized.</p>

<p>This isn't a unique case right? How rampant is the cheating in your school? By cheating I mean, telling answers on quizzes/tests to people before the test. For example, this guy -- rank 6 -- had the whole chemistry test that his friend gave to him, and was studying it in world history. And also during tests/quizzes. Apparently, last year, in our AP Human Geography class, some peopel had created a morse code type of system to communicate with each other during tests/quizzes. Some people even made a little group amongst themselves to photocopy the chapter of the book and passed it around. (You were only supposed to use hand-written notes on the quizzes) It didn't help that the teacher was so. FRIKIN. Oblivious. But... Not little trivial things like copying homework and stuff, you know. I mean, please, who hasn't done that? :P</p>

<p>It has been really frustrating me these days... how ineffective the system is, and how amazingly dishonest so many people can be. At least I've sworn to myself I would never do this no matter what. :/ And my close friend are on the same page as me. We are hoping the cheaters will crash and burn soon in their junior year when the classes overwhelm them, but...</p>

<p>Yeah, I guess this is just a vent. Idk, discuss.</p>

2

<p>It’s High School…it means nothing, once these guys get into college they can’t really cheat anymore.</p>

<p>Anyways, I understand why you’re venting, but imo I could care less as long as my grades are fine.</p>

3

<p>Actually, I have never copied homework off of someone else. That is cheating, just as the val had the chemistry test.</p>

<p>Honestly, don’t get too hung up over rank. You can kill yourself for four years and relax about it. Your choice. But you’ll end up at the college that is meant for you, if you present YOURSELF on your application. If you act like someone you are not in high school, you will end up at a school that is wrong for you.</p>

<p>At the same time, if you notice that someone is cheating, then you ought to report it anonymously. If you do not, then you cannot complain that nothing is happening because the only way teachers will know about it is if you tell them.</p>

<p>Maturity goes a long way in high school. However, choose your battles wisely.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, that is true… what annoys me the most is their pretentious attitude; flaunting their grades/high rank… when it was achieved through cheating, and they know so well themselves.</p>

<p>Likeeee that guy who was studying the exact chem quiz that he got from his friend. Oh my god I cannot stand him. He takes on this superior (and almost condescending) tone with his voice when he starts talking about academics, and just… ugh. It’s laughable.</p>

5

<p>I used to be ****ed about people cheating as well. Only me #1 and my friend now at USC on scholarship #2 didn’t cheat. Literally everyone else including the #3 who’s now at the Naval Academy cheated. It made me pretty mad sometimes and I’d vent to my gf, but I got over it. We ended up where we should have.</p>

6

<p>Morse code system?? Seriously? Could it hurt them that much to actually study for once? lmao. Sorry I can’t get over that.</p>

<p>If it really irks you, maybe you could one on one let the teacher know what you think is happening - without mentioning any names at first. Tell the teacher to check more thoroughly and walk around the classroom more when a test is going on as to see if anyone is hiding stuff in their lap or whatever.</p>

<p>At the same time, know that a majority of those “top 20” students in your school will probably struggle or sorely fail once in college. Don’t associate yourself with these people if you find them so annoying. They do their thing, and you do your thing to succeed in your goals. Having stellar grades with no passion in anything is pointless.</p>

7

<p>Majority of the students at my school cheat as well.</p>

<p>Just go up to the teacher sometime later and be like “Hey Mr… With all due respect, I think you should keep a closer eye when we take tests. etc.” I mean I wouldn’t give any names because teachers can’t do anything about that but just letting them know that there’s shady stuff going on in the class will make the teacher more alert.</p>

<p>I agree with everything the OP said so far. Luckily, I’m ranked top (without cheating) and the majority of the people who cheat in my school are the ones who just want a 60-70. And I go to an extremely small school so teachers catch on after a while.</p>

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<p>A lot of people copied homework, but they don’t do it so much anymore. Almost everyone copied Latin translations in 9th grade, but Latin is a required subject that most students hate. In first bell (Honors) English, you would see everyone sharing their translations. (I loved Latin, so I didn’t copy. Actually, I’ve never copied.) Cheating was known to be rampant in Honors, but it was mostly done among the middling honors students, not the top ones. Copying math was also really common through Pre-Cal, but no one does it now because math teachers don’t check homework for Calculus and Stats and stuff like that.</p>

<p>I know most of the tippy top students and with the exception of one kid, they don’t cheat. This one kid isn’t really bad, just copies homework and had this way of getting more extra credit than he deserved, but that’s over now.
The only thing I do that comes close to cheating I guess, is looking through my sister’s old chem folder. I’ve never looked at her quizzes or tests or anything, but if I’m really confused about an HW question, which has only happened once or twice, I look to see how she did it. Or I ask my father, since he’s a retired chem engineer. I do sometimes check my lab responses with hers. I reconsider if I notice I put down the wrong answer for Increase/Decrease/No Change, and then I try to work out the logic of why and how.</p>

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<p>They usually get uncovered in the end, at least based on that one thread we had</p>

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<p>All’s fair as far as I’m concerned. It’s a flawed system anyway. That being said, I’ve never cheated during a test just because I trust my own answers much more than anyone else’s. I have copied homework systematically for some classes, though.</p>

11

<p>At my school all of the cheating goes on in regular courses. Honors there may be occasional HW copying or discussing quizzes/tests and at the AP level there is virtually no cheating whatsoever.</p>

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<p>First x number of slow taps yields the first number, double tap to indicate next number, y number of slow taps yields second number. So tap–tap–tap, taptap, tap–tap would be question #32. Then 1 tap for A, 2 for B, 3 for C, 4 for D, and 5 for E. Letters can also be assigned to different fingers. A three-tap succession would mean, “say again” or “repeat what you said.” In order to stay inconspicuous, taps should be spread out and irregular (except for the quick-taps). That was the system I helped create at our school. </p>

<p>I’ve never used it, because it’s purposely fallible. If the teacher knows what to look for, then the teacher will know who is cheating. That way, if someone is cheating regularly and getting high marks for it, I can rat them out without really being specific. And I’d never be suspected for it.</p>

<p>The kids who cheat at our school are usually the kids in all regular classes, who just want to pass with that B and who aren’t in competition with each other. I would say that the top bracket of our graduating class deserves their rankings, and that their grades were all received legitimately.</p>

13

<p>Cheating also occurred in my AP classes, especially AP World History. Majority of the class cheated because one kid had the textbook test bank book that my teacher used for her test. That one kid then gave it to anyone who asked. However, I manage to get the highest test grades in that class than any of those cheaters by perusing the textbook. (Integrity>Cheating :))Now majority of the top 10 are most likely one of those cheaters. In AP Chem, many people shared answers during the test through notes and texting. From that year, I no longer have any respect for my Class of 2011.</p>

<p>I do let my friends copy my hw, but in the end, they will be tested since tests are the majority of their grade.</p>

<p>However, I did cheat once in APWH, but it was the DBQ. APWH teacher gave us the packet on a monday and let us write notes and stuff before friday, test day. Since the teacher was vague about writing the DBQ, I had to go look at AP Central to see how it was written. Afterward, no more cheating.</p>

14

<p>u should see some of the kids in our NHS. its just shameful. </p>

<p>unfortunately, my high school selectively picks certain students, and tends to focus on them. [thats why alot of them are in all of the clubs offered at our school and have all been selected by teachers for positions] and … alot of them are known as cheaters. one girl is already at risk of being thrown out of nhs, but because college apps are in, there would be no pt. sad situation.</p>

<p>im not saying everyone in NHS is bad. there are some kids who work super hard, and I applaud them for that. but the ones who cheat OPENLY and change their answers on an assignment in front of me. its just plain sad and wrong.</p>

15

<p>HeY. CheATING is a victimless crime. Get over it.</p>

16

<p>No, it is not a victimless crime. Most cheaters don’t care about the ‘you’re cheating yourself out of a good education and sense of satisfaction’ (I believe that’s true). However, even if you don’t believe that they are hurting themselves, they are truly hurting their classmates. It’s simply not fair when cheaters outrank honest students.</p>

17

<p>Cheating isn’t nearly as bad in my school as in yours, although it does happen. There are very few multiple choice tests so it’s difficult to form a code system or something to that effect. Occasionally some students in my IB History class will cheat on the multiple choice quizzes, as in the ******* who sits behind me will ask me what the answer is. I tell him but mostly because I feel sorry for him and don’t want him to fail.</p>

18

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<p>I was talking about cheating with a few friends the other day, and one one person said “I never really cared about people cheating… until I realized they were applying to the same schools as I was.” You are the victim if you’re applying to the same schools as the cheaters. </p>

<p>For the most part, I felt equally ambivalent in the past, but I never realized how rampant cheating was at my school. This year, I realized how much cheating goes on in the top (and lower) ranks at my school… </p>

<p>I could respect these kids for getting into a top-tier school I want to go to. I could respect them as competition for admittance to a top-tier school. I could respect them for being smart, ambitious, and hard-working. I could respect top-tier schools for admitting smart, ambitious, hard-working students. I do NOT respect these kids for getting into any school by cheating. </p>

<p>And cheating at my school somehow goes beyond sharing answers on tests and homework. People sometimes say they’re “playing the system” (gaining an unofficial advantage on standardized assignments, aka cheating). They find excuse to take the test after the weekend; although they don’t ask people for answers, they take an extra few days to study the material. They work with other hard-working people, but allow the other person to do the work and take equal credit for it. </p>

<p>Ugh, I agree with you Purplicious, I’m really frustrated by it too.</p>

19

<p>I have a pretty progressive stance on cheating. And by that I mean it’s potentially regressive.</p>

<p>I don’t care if people cheat. I especially don’t care if people cheat on meaningless assignments. The 32nd weekly Biology quiz on inane details of the liver is not something I’m going to study for. The unit exam on the a broad understanding of the human organism IS something I’ll consider studying for. I’m not going to spend 4 hours on a multiple choice packet that’s taken verbatim from the book. I’m not going to spend 4 hours on pre-calc homework if I understand how to take the derivative. I’m not going to spend 4 hours memorizing the names and dates of the U.S. Presidents for a test when we’ve learned nothing about them.</p>

<p>Call me crazy. I look at it this way: I use word docs for everything because I type faster than I write. I ride a bike because it’s faster than walking. I cheat because high school is home to so many inane assignments, I’m not going to waste countless hours on them.</p>

20

<p>I didn’t read the replies, but I would personally feel so frustrated if that was happening. People still cheat here, but we actually have a pretty strong Honor Code. Cheating is not as rampant as it sounds there. I can completely understand being reluctant to turn someone in if you were sure they knew it was you who did it, but in most cases…how would they know you turned them in? At my school, it’s very, very private. It’s like Teacher: “Oh, So and So isn’t here yet for class” Another person: “Yeah, she had a honor council meeting.” That’s it. We know someone had some kind of violation but usually we usually don’t know who or why. The Honor Council actually has honorable people in it luckily. </p>

<p>I hope you figure something out! I would consider turning them in.</p>