Has it become too easy to cheat? I believe it has become too easy for students to cheat off other students’ tests, homework assignments and notes. The threat of receiving a zero doesn’t affect the cheating students that I see; They search the room for answers to copy off of their fellow peers. Some teachers are not cracking down enough on cheating during tests and quizzes. They don’t notice homework assignments that are exactly the same,and do nothing about it. It has been made even easier to cheat with the accessibility of cell phones and the internet. According to a study done by Stanford University, high school students are more likely to cheat because it is “not cool” to tattle on your friends.

I am completely against the practice of cheating. This problem is affecting the grading system. I do not want my answers stolen from someone who did not earn the grade. It is not okay that students can just breeze through high school without doing their own work.

Students overall grades are being affected. The hard working straight A students are being belittled because so many people receive the same scores without doing the work. The slackers/cheaters are receiving those good grades for the wrong reasons. According to the same Stanford study 73 percent of all test takers admit to have cheated at one point during their lives.

I personally have witnessed students cheating off other students. I am also asked frequently if I will let them copy my homework assignment. Students cheating on tests should be punished by receiving a zero, and a call home to their parents. The most severe punishment could result in being suspended or expelled. Teachers have different views on cheating. Most take away the test and give the cheater a zero on their test grade.

The school policy for cheating according to the Student Handbook  is “Students may be denied credit on a test or paper or for the entire course. Students may also receive a behavior consequence including in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, or community service.”

Cheating is bad. Students are not benefiting. Hard working students appear mediocre because of the slackers that cheat off of them on homework and tests.The cheaters are also affected because they are not doing their own work and relying on other people too much.

Teachers need to be more attentive while students are taking tests, not just grading papers or working on lesson plans. Making test dividers, spacing out desks beforehand so the students do not have the chance to sit too close to others during the test may be one idea for curbing cheating. Students need to understand how bad plagiarism and cheating on tests really are. Awareness needs to be higher and so do consequences if students are caught cheating. Cell phones and internet access need to be made completely unavailable during tests. As for homework assignments, the school system does have a plagiarism tester to see if the student just copy and pasted the work. This system is on Blackboard and is used, however I believe it should be used more. Overall, school systems need to be more aware of the cheating problem increasing.