We spoke today about pre-test taking performance enhancing techniques. Unfortunately students in college still feel the pressure to cheat on tests and written assignments. Read the following article and comment on the author’s suggestions to help avoid the temptation to cheat.
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Personally, I would never cheat on anything. Not even a video game. For one thing, it is wrong. And it is also really stupid since by cheating you prove you are either stupid or lazy. By cheating you deprive yourself of the feeling of accomplishment you get when you do well on a test or complete a video game all by yourself. So that part about developing integrity in the article is probably the best way to deal with cheating.
What I found odd about this article is that it made cheating seem bad, immoral, and a risk factor while the book gave better broader explanations to why cheating is bad. Thinking about the important factors of your future and putting them at risk is a better way to look at cheating than marking the statistics and science of it. The article [and the book] mentions that 74-90% students have admitted to cheating. Why would they cheat? Because if it works and they don’t get caught it’s a free ride. While cheating may seem to save time it can take time to hire another person to do your work for you. They have schedules too; you endanger their education as well as your own. Secondly, the person doing it for you isn’t you, a teacher or professor should identify your work by your writing style. Unless you were just diagnosed with multiple personality disorder yesterday there’s no way out. If you DO get caught your education and all the money you put into it is wasted. Think about the money you spent for that cheated report or project then think about the money you spent on school. Remember also that your future employers look at your records. If they see you cheated your way out of school how could they hire you even under extreme desperation? What if the professor or teacher asks a question about the subject you cheated on? What if they give examples from your report or project and you don’t even know what he or she is talking about? Not to make those cheaters double check their methods, but also, if you cheat you’re also cheating your future career. Everyone wants an honest, dependable employee, if you don’t know how to do your own job or you depend on other people to do your work, you are considered a replaceable employee, undependable and dishonest. If cheating works for you, you might say it’s the best thing since sleep, but if you cant live without it you’re not a real worker or professional, once you get caught, the free ride is over. I can understand why the statistics keep going up, because it’s overwhelming. The pressures on, and they look to you to get it all done at 110%! Cheating may appear to save time, work and a few brain cells but no matter what, getting caught or not, it comes back to bite. My morality says that cheating is never the right thing to do. It’s one of those things that can always boomerang back in your future, no article or book needs to tell me that. It’s important to put your future first before anything else.
I would say that of all the points the article makes, the one that I think is strongest and relates to me the most is the second one. The article says that establishing integrity in our students will help to reduce the rate of students that cheat on their academics.
I learned this over time. Cheating, even though it makes things a TON easier, doesn’t help me overall. In the end, I don’t feel the same feeling of accomplishment as if I had done it the right way. It all comes down to three things for me :
1) I don’t have a feeling of accomplishment after cheating.
2) I’ts far easier not to cheat than to deal with the consequences or worrying about getting caught.
3) It’s just wrong.
All of these things prevent me from cheating, despite how tempting it is. This shows that by teaching people good integrity, they are tought not to do things such as cheat on their academics.
It disturbs me that honest students lose opportunities to cheaters. The article says that technology will help prevent cheating, but the only reasonable way to attack this problem is to reduce the demand for these cheat sheets. When it comes to technology versus technology battles, the “bad side” has a tendency to prevail. These sites are a legitimate form of organized crime. They usually have enough money to stay ahead of the technology battle. They are also incredibly difficult to prosecute due to the first amendment. Even if one test help website is removed from the internet, another one will quickly take its place as long as there is a demand for cheat sheets. That being said, the colleges need to put less emphasis on technology and more emphasis on hiring professors that pay more attention to the students and their work. Hopefully, a renewed sense of self worth among the student mass will reduce the percentage of cheaters.
Having read the article, I am surprised the see such a staggering percentage of cheaters. However, I do understand why students would turn to cheating. Cheating is the easy way out of anything, and as the article said, the internet has made cheating very easy. All the student has to do is log on, and to quote the article, the first paragraph states how students believe copy and pasting a few sentences is fine.
The consequences of cheating are not worth it in the long run however. Cheaters have the constant threat of being found out, and then possibly kicked from their class or even the college because of the severity of cheating. Cheaters walk a very fine, and dangerous line.
Cheating has always been one thing that I could not understand. I do understand the pressures of college and the hardships of tests, but here’s the thing: College students should realize that they are in college for their own benefit, to learn and eventually pursue a good career. I realized a long time ago that copying answers from other students will not help you understand the material. This has an impact on more than just the person cheating. Would you trust a brain surgeon who cheated their way through college to operate on your brain? You have to look at the bigger picture here.
If more students are cheating in college then that means more students aren’t taking the time they need to prepare and are also afraid of failing. Cheating is a bad measure to take because not only will you definetly get caught, if you have any dignity you’ll feel guilty if you get a passing grade. To keep myself from feeling the need to cheat I’ll study and be prepared and if I’m not then I’ll fail like I would if I cheated anyway because I’d be a failure either way.
Cheating is bad and so is plagiarism. Not everybody gets caught while cheating. That doesn’t mean you are in the clear. All it means is that you are unaware of the information you were taught. You learn stuff at college to get a job. If you fail tests necessary for a certain job, you will have to wait longer to get that job. Copying down all information word by word is plagiarism. So teachers and college professors always incourage students to put it in their own words. However, it is okay if the sentence is almost the same as long as it’s not exactly the same. Plagiarism also occurs when words are copied that the student does not understand. So whenever I see a word that I don’t understand, I would look it up on the internet.
Personally, I would never cheat on anything. Not even a video game. For one thing, it is wrong. And it is also really stupid since by cheating you prove you are either stupid or lazy. By cheating you deprive yourself of the feeling of accomplishment you get when you do well on a test or complete a video game all by yourself. So that part about developing integrity in the article is probably the best way to deal with cheating.
What I found odd about this article is that it made cheating seem bad, immoral, and a risk factor while the book gave better broader explanations to why cheating is bad. Thinking about the important factors of your future and putting them at risk is a better way to look at cheating than marking the statistics and science of it. The article [and the book] mentions that 74-90% students have admitted to cheating. Why would they cheat? Because if it works and they don’t get caught it’s a free ride. While cheating may seem to save time it can take time to hire another person to do your work for you. They have schedules too; you endanger their education as well as your own. Secondly, the person doing it for you isn’t you, a teacher or professor should identify your work by your writing style. Unless you were just diagnosed with multiple personality disorder yesterday there’s no way out. If you DO get caught your education and all the money you put into it is wasted. Think about the money you spent for that cheated report or project then think about the money you spent on school. Remember also that your future employers look at your records. If they see you cheated your way out of school how could they hire you even under extreme desperation? What if the professor or teacher asks a question about the subject you cheated on? What if they give examples from your report or project and you don’t even know what he or she is talking about? Not to make those cheaters double check their methods, but also, if you cheat you’re also cheating your future career. Everyone wants an honest, dependable employee, if you don’t know how to do your own job or you depend on other people to do your work, you are considered a replaceable employee, undependable and dishonest. If cheating works for you, you might say it’s the best thing since sleep, but if you cant live without it you’re not a real worker or professional, once you get caught, the free ride is over. I can understand why the statistics keep going up, because it’s overwhelming. The pressures on, and they look to you to get it all done at 110%! Cheating may appear to save time, work and a few brain cells but no matter what, getting caught or not, it comes back to bite. My morality says that cheating is never the right thing to do. It’s one of those things that can always boomerang back in your future, no article or book needs to tell me that. It’s important to put your future first before anything else.
I would say that of all the points the article makes, the one that I think is strongest and relates to me the most is the second one. The article says that establishing integrity in our students will help to reduce the rate of students that cheat on their academics.
I learned this over time. Cheating, even though it makes things a TON easier, doesn’t help me overall. In the end, I don’t feel the same feeling of accomplishment as if I had done it the right way. It all comes down to three things for me :
1) I don’t have a feeling of accomplishment after cheating.
2) I’ts far easier not to cheat than to deal with the consequences or worrying about getting caught.
3) It’s just wrong.
All of these things prevent me from cheating, despite how tempting it is. This shows that by teaching people good integrity, they are tought not to do things such as cheat on their academics.
It disturbs me that honest students lose opportunities to cheaters. The article says that technology will help prevent cheating, but the only reasonable way to attack this problem is to reduce the demand for these cheat sheets. When it comes to technology versus technology battles, the “bad side” has a tendency to prevail. These sites are a legitimate form of organized crime. They usually have enough money to stay ahead of the technology battle. They are also incredibly difficult to prosecute due to the first amendment. Even if one test help website is removed from the internet, another one will quickly take its place as long as there is a demand for cheat sheets. That being said, the colleges need to put less emphasis on technology and more emphasis on hiring professors that pay more attention to the students and their work. Hopefully, a renewed sense of self worth among the student mass will reduce the percentage of cheaters.
Having read the article, I am surprised the see such a staggering percentage of cheaters. However, I do understand why students would turn to cheating. Cheating is the easy way out of anything, and as the article said, the internet has made cheating very easy. All the student has to do is log on, and to quote the article, the first paragraph states how students believe copy and pasting a few sentences is fine.
The consequences of cheating are not worth it in the long run however. Cheaters have the constant threat of being found out, and then possibly kicked from their class or even the college because of the severity of cheating. Cheaters walk a very fine, and dangerous line.
Cheating has always been one thing that I could not understand. I do understand the pressures of college and the hardships of tests, but here’s the thing: College students should realize that they are in college for their own benefit, to learn and eventually pursue a good career. I realized a long time ago that copying answers from other students will not help you understand the material. This has an impact on more than just the person cheating. Would you trust a brain surgeon who cheated their way through college to operate on your brain? You have to look at the bigger picture here.
If more students are cheating in college then that means more students aren’t taking the time they need to prepare and are also afraid of failing. Cheating is a bad measure to take because not only will you definetly get caught, if you have any dignity you’ll feel guilty if you get a passing grade. To keep myself from feeling the need to cheat I’ll study and be prepared and if I’m not then I’ll fail like I would if I cheated anyway because I’d be a failure either way.
Cheating is bad and so is plagiarism. Not everybody gets caught while cheating. That doesn’t mean you are in the clear. All it means is that you are unaware of the information you were taught. You learn stuff at college to get a job. If you fail tests necessary for a certain job, you will have to wait longer to get that job. Copying down all information word by word is plagiarism. So teachers and college professors always incourage students to put it in their own words. However, it is okay if the sentence is almost the same as long as it’s not exactly the same. Plagiarism also occurs when words are copied that the student does not understand. So whenever I see a word that I don’t understand, I would look it up on the internet.