Cheating

How Teens Cheat

Every day, teens come up with new ways to get out of doing schoolwork or taking a test. Whether it's copying work from the Internet or using cheat sheets, most seasoned teachers are aware cheating occurs and are working toward putting a stop to it.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is putting your name to work someone else has done without giving them the proper credit. It can be a term paper, homework assignment or even an essay for a test. If you didn't write it, don't put your name on it. However, with today's access to the Internet pretty much at your fingertips at all times, copying sentences and even whole paragraphs is quite easy to do.

Cheat Sheets

Cheat sheets, also known as crib notes, are small pieces of paper with test answers written on them. They can be hidden in shirt pockets or sleeves, under test papers or elsewhere inconspicuous, including the inside of a water bottle label. Students also write answers on their arms and hands or inside tissues, which they can wad up in their hand if need be.

Cell Phones and Other Technology

With most of today's cell phones no bigger than a deck of playing cards, text messaging and even taking pictures of the tests has definitely grown as a form of cheating. However, this can be done if the teacher is completely unaware of what her students are doing and if someone else took the exact same test. Some schools do not allow cell phones in the classroom, but if they do, the phones must be stored in backpacks or purses. This also goes for Palm Pilots, pagers and in some instances, calculators that can store text information.

Why Cheat?

A 2006 poll by CBSNews.com found that one in every five U.S. teens -- 14 percent of girls and 24 percent of boys -- admits to using the Internet at least once to plagiarize information for school assignments. Their reasons include:

Pressure to Succeed

To get into a good college, a student must have the grades. There's no getting around that. Grades are key to scholarships, student placement and other financial aid. But the pressure to do well may force some teens to cheat on an exam or homework assignment if they feel they may fail. Sometimes the pressure to succeed also comes from parents who want their kids to be at the top of their class.

Lack of Motivation or Confidence

When learning is irrelevant some teenagers, more times than less, they will turn to cheating. These same students don't like to memorize lists such as The Periodic Table of Elements and feel the need to cheat in these instances. As a matter of fact, they have probably been cheating since middle school. Some teens feel they are unable to pass a test unless they cheat. They either don't want to study or feel it isn't enough to pass. They also feel overextended or overworked.

Opportunity Knocks

In some school districts with high student-teacher ratios in classrooms, finding the opportunity to cheat is there, not only for one student but sometimes the entire class. In rare instances, teens break into teachers' desks or offices to steal copies of tests and distribute them to their peers. In these cases, administrators look for trends in right and wrong answers throughout the class.

Cheating Consequences

Every teacher and school district has a different punishment for cheaters, depending on if it was a first offense or done intentionally. In addition to disciplinary action, other personal consequences exist.

They include:

• Automatic failure or lower grade on the assignment
• Detention, suspension or possible expulsion
• Moral stigma or guilt for knowing they cheated
• Not learning the required material and needing to apply it later on in college or in life
• Put on academic probation
• Parents or guardians contacted
• Required to take special tutoring or counseling classes
• Suspension from social activities or sports

Doing What's Right

Usually only a few cheat in any given class, and most of them get caught. But it's up to other students who know this is going on to turn them in or talk them into not doing it. Most students keep quiet. At the very least, those who do not cheat should be cognizant of their role and not allow others to cheat off of them. Cheating causes problems for those honest students by unfairly giving cheaters the academic advantage, which in turn makes it harder for those who did study to get the grades and recognition they deserve.