Among many students, cheating seems to be an essential part of the strangled school systems of America and the only way some can attempt to get good grades in school. According to the dictionary definition, cheating is: “to act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in an examination…” So what in school is considered cheating?

Although it seems like an obvious question, it is becoming a more serious issue in today’s society. Cheating is a trend most commonly found in middle and high school classes and has recently become more common as technology rapidly improves.

The internet is the center for most forms of cheating: tests, homework, study guides, and more. Surprisingly, some teachers seem to use the exact same questions as the person who had math back in 2007 on Yahoo Answers. This may be convenient to students, but where is the line drawn between conventional use and punishment-worthy offenses?

Many traditional forms of cheating include the following: slipping a small piece of paper with notes in the eraser cap of pencils, using a water bottle label, having notes in the cover of a calculator, sharing research papers amongst other classes. Some students blatantly look off of someone else’s paper, and the other student feels obligated to let them because of their “friendship.”

Although some of these methods are still used today, now all a student needs to do is take an electronic device and cleverly hide it during a test or get a pre-written essay or research paper for a paper online. On the internet, there are countless websites where purchasing, downloading, and finding research papers are available, and test answers can be cleverly displayed with just one Google search.

What is okay? Many students use apps like GroupMe and other messaging apps to share and communicate about classes and events. Some students even use it to compare answers to things like study guides, worksheets, and homework. Is this considered cheating? Well, that’s simply debatable, but I would assume not. On the otherhand, using these messaging apps for tests is clearly not okay, but why are students doing either of these anyway? Some students worry about their grades, but what will a little studying hurt?

6 out of 10 high school students perform some sort of after-school activity and use this as an excuse for their cheating “needs.” If this is really an issue to where studying is not able to be accomplished at any point in the day (during or after school), then talking to a teacher is important. 

Although one might get away with cheating many times in one’s life, some teacher somewhere will eventually find out. Sometimes based on the word choice or just the format of the response can be detected. With research papers, this can definitely be spotted, especially if it is stolen from someone of a greater understanding.

Most people will not openly admit to cheating. From a confidential 2012 survey of 12,000 students across the United States, 74%, more than half, have admitted to cheating on an exam, paper, or a regular assignment.

Although cheating will never exactly be solved, it can be prevented. The definite way to not get caught cheating is to simply not do it. Communicating with classmates about a homework problem that may not have made sense or a study guide question that one may have never heard before is one thing, but copying work from someone else, stealing papers, copying answers, and blatantly taking someone else’s hard-earned work and using it to one’s advantage is another.

Help the fight against cheating, by simply not doing it.