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Cheating, in many forms, has become more prevalent over the years.
It’s 11 p.m. and you’ve just realized you have a math test worth 10% of your grade tomorrow. Do you (A) drop the rest of your homework to study for the test, (B) finish your homework and wing the test, (C) use tools like ChatGPT to get your homework done faster, then study for the test or (D) pull an all-nighter and get everything done?
This was the scenario presented to 36 students in an anonymous poll conducted recently by The Falcon. The results: 14% said they would set aside their homework to study for the big test, 25% would pull the all-nighter to try to fulfill all their obligations and 28% would take their chances with tomorrow’s math test, even if they didn’t study for it. In other words, regardless of their decision, two-thirds said they would not cheat.
The most popular response, though, was that one third said they would opt to cheat by using an external tool like ChatGPT in order to fit both homework and studying on their plate.
According to an Academic Cheating Fact Sheet by the Educational Testing Service, which analyzes data from both college and high school students, the inclination to cheat has risen significantly over the past 50 years as the pressure to graduate and gain admission into a prestigious college or university has grown.
With the pressure to succeed higher than ever, the urge to excel pushes students to take shortcuts on assignments. Realistically, many students don’t have enough time in a 24-hour day to do everything they are trying to do. Sports, extracurriculars and difficult classes are common reasons for long nights of studying as well as the use of shortcuts like ChatGPT.
The methods that students use to cheat vary. Copying a friend’s homework during tutorial, using external sources on tests online or employing advanced technologies like AI are all ways students have attempted to get work done faster at the expense of academic integrity.
What counts as cheating?
Students have a variety of opinions on what exactly counts as cheating. Methods like copying homework are common and occur often during tutorials.
A 2017 study by robotician Michael Isakov and Stanford mathematician Arnav Tripathy found that college underclassmen were more likely to cheat on tests, homework and routine assignments like notes, summaries and problem sets. As many as 90% of students reported cheating in high school or in college.
According to The Falcon’s recent poll, 50% admit to using shortcuts like SparkNotes to find summaries instead of doing the assigned readings at some point in their high school career.
The frequent use of chapter summaries suggests that students rely on them because they have little fear of getting caught.
However, educators say that in doing so, students are losing out on critical aspects of their education.
Specifically, the usage of chapter summaries cuts out the analysis process, where students learn to revisit the text again and again to form new opinions and ideas based on it. And AI, when used for cheating, is even more insidious, teachers say.
“AI isn’t intelligence as much as it is automation. Writing is critical thinking and original, creative expression. Students will just keep coming up with new ways to try and hide [evidence of cheating], which is disappointing and sad,” English teacher Amy Keys said. “If they would spend the time actually reading, writing and working it out, they would gain so much more.”
With math problems, apps like Quizlet and Chegg offer answer keys for many textbook questions. Since most teachers check homework leniently — only quickly scanning one or two problems out of the entire set — students may be tempted to copy answer keys or provide insufficient work compared to what would be required on a test or quiz.
Such gaps in the system are unrealistic for teachers to fill. New technology and websites create an infinite potential to bypass work, and teachers only have a finite number of ways to counter this behavior.
Preventing cheating can sometimes get in the way of otherwise productive ways of learning for students. Fearing the sharing or collection of tests, some teachers don’t let old exams leave the classroom.
Many teachers rely on the honor system, citing that students who don’t do their homework ethically are more likely to score badly on tests and quizzes in class, where cheating is much harder.
“Sometimes students get desperate, and they go down a bad path where the easy way is to just copy homework,” math teacher Kristen Hamilton said. “Everything’s available on the internet, so it’s easy to not authentically do your homework. When it comes time for an exam, they’re super stressed out because they never really took the time to learn it.”
Common reasons for cheating and how teachers have responded
Academic pressure, out of a variety of issues, is the strongest incentive to cheat. According to the poll, 47% of students said the presence of academic pressure has the biggest impact. Fifty percent say a lack of time to complete assignments pushes them to use shortcuts.
Nationally, between the U.S. and Canada, a study by Wiley Publishing found that 71% say they cheat due to the pressure to get good grades and excel.
Often, students say it feels like they are being pulled in too many directions at once — commitments to academic and social life can clash. Small-scale cheating, including copying homework and using shortcuts like SparkNotes to finish work faster — is largely caused by this pressure to succeed.
The consequences for cheating slightly vary between honors and regular classes, mostly synthesized in the school’s Student Handbook, and have stayed relatively constant over the years, with the exception of AI-specific changes, like the addition of AI checkers.
According to the Handbook, getting caught cheating may mean getting a zero on the first offense, and after repeated offenses, losing access to AP/Honors classes for the school year students or losing the extra grade point. Students may get dropped from the class or receive a mark on their transcripts.
Several departments have made changes to their curriculums based on the frequency of cheating on tests. For one, several teachers in the history department allow test debriefs where students can discuss or retake a test and earn up to 80% in some cases, making tests less stressful for students and reducing the incentive to cheat. The policy started over a decade ago during assistant principal Matt Torrens’ time as an AP U.S. History teacher.
Teachers in the math and science departments often post answer keys to straightforward problem sets or basic homework assignments for students to check their answers. While this has often resulted in students copying answer keys, the keys are also necessary for students to know what problems they did wrong. Without an answer key, students may seek other sites to check their work, some of which might have inaccurate answers or full solutions that can be copied.
Additionally, the foreign language department allows students to get full credit for assignments on the Vista Higher Learning (VHL) platform, which has practice questions in foreign languages, as long as they answer a certain percentage of questions correctly. Grading such assignments strictly on accuracy would encourage more students to use apps like Google Translate and Quizlet to get full credit. Learning requires making mistakes, so teachers are worried that desperation for a good grade would push students away from a growth mindset and towards an obsession with grades, where the A is all that matters.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about what’s going to help you learn French,” French teacher Elaine Haggerty said. “So if using Google Translate means you never bother learning any French yourself, then no, you can’t use it. I think with Google Translate, we have to come to more of an agreement on what exactly constitutes cheating.”
A resolution not to cheat is necessary for long-term welfare
Over the years, the definition of cheating has changed for both students and teachers. However, many still agree that a student’s incentive to learn, which is lost when cheating occurs, is most important.
“Using ChatGPT [is more of] an academic violation when used for generating ideas rather than asking it to clarify or summarize something, since then you’re not learning, you’re just copying,” one student told The Falcon.
Ultimately, the long-term impacts of cheating are ever present and visible. Studies by Meazure Learning show that those who cheat and are left unpunished are more tempted to continue the behavior in the future. A study by Northern Illinois University recorded that cheating is also shown to cause low self-esteem in the long run, as students feel guilty about their actions.
“There’s a moral dilemma: If you’re going to [cheat] now, are you going to do it in medical school and then be a doctor?” history teacher Mike Davey said.
The question of whether or not cheating is a sustainable practice has already been answered and echoed for decades: The short-term gain isn’t worth it for the long-term loss. Of those who cheat in college, the Open Education Database records that 98% confessed to cheating in high school and 85% said cheating was essential to their education.
According to a study by Sharron Graves of Stephen F. Austin State University, those who cheat in school are 13 times more likely to take shortcuts and engage in unethical behaviors in the workplace.
“You should learn everything authentically for your own betterment and for your own education,” Hamilton said. “I want to be here for me and learn for my own good, because I will get a better job in my life. [To many students] the idea of wanting to learn to be successful has been lost over the years.”
Many teachers emphasize that if students ever feel desperate to succeed in their class, they should come to talk to them to resolve the issue. Most of the time, they’ll reach a compromise or solution, granting extensions or offering alternatives and study tips. Teachers were all students themselves and can understand the academic pressure to succeed — they ultimately care about students’ welfare.
“If you ever feel like you have to cheat in class, I guarantee you life will be better if you just go talk to your teachers,” English teacher Erick Rector said.
