<p>OP, even though this has been said a lot, it has gone without explanation:</p>
<p>your essay will read like this: the class got hard, so I cracked under the pressure and cheated, even though i knew it was bad, because I really wanted a higher grade
adcoms will say: college classes are going to be hard, too. grades aren't everything. We dont want such number oriented and soulless students.</p>
<p>or something like that</p>