Top Ways Students Cheat in School

Students at all levels of schooling have a great advantage over those of previous decades. Along with technological advances, students have access to more gadgets and applications that can make studying easier.
Unfortunately, with those advances, also come some abuses. Things that make study life easier can also quickly turn into something that makes cheating easier.
Students are under a lot of pressure to succeed in school. High school students want to achieve high test scores and good grades to get into a good college. Those in college want to achieve the same to get into a good graduate program or other advanced degree program. This can cause strong temptations to cheat when taking a test or even with regular class assignments just to stay ahead. Below are some of the most popular ways that students cheat.

• Homework Copying – This method is the oldest trick in the book. Some college students ask friends for their homework if they are in the same class or if that person has previously taken the class. With the new technology available, you don’t even have to be face to face to copy. Some students simply have the homework scanned and emailed to them so they can copy it without being seen or worrying about the hassle of meeting up with someone to collect the work. Another important aspect of copying homework comes in the form of study groups. Students may get together in a group and just rotate who does the homework while the other group members copy it.
• T.A. Hookup – This isn’t often easy, but for students who are good friends with the teacher’s assistant, they may be able to get an idea of what’s going to be on an upcoming test or even get a copy of it. Teaching assistants have access to tests and often grade them themselves. Some of them have even been known to sell answers to students desperate to avoid studying.
• Text Messaging – Most teachers have gotten hip to this method, but some aren’t. It’s difficult and sometimes time consuming, but some students text friends or classmates for answers to test questions. Some students have even resorted to texting photos of their test and having the answers sent back to them.
• Paying for Papers – There is no shortage of sites on the internet that will write a term paper, book report, English paper or anything else you can think of for a price. These sites will allow the customer to choose the length of the paper, topic and all other details so that all assignment requirements are met. As high as 95 percent of these sites simply plagiarize papers from other locations and teachers have various ways to check a paper’s authenticity.
• Old Fashioned Cheat Sheet – This method has been around for so many years and technology has made it a little easier. Some students might take extensive time to write down all the info they think they need onto a small piece of paper and hide it somewhere in their clothes. Now, there is the ability to place that info on your cell phone for easy access, like in an email or text.

This list is not at all meant to encourage cheating. Instead, it is meant to deter that type of behavior. Many teachers have become aware of these and many other methods of cheating. Some don’t allow any cell phones in their classrooms because of cheating. For most of these methods, if the amount of time spent cheating were devoted to studying, cheating would not be at all necessary.