Megan Hazuga —
The end of the year is approaching quickly, and with it comes the excitement for summer, but also the dreaded finals week.
According to a study in 2015 done by Time Magazine, 82% of college alumni admitted to cheating at some point in their undergraduate career. While many students prepare ruthlessly for their finals, studying day and night the weeks prior to their exams, other students turn to unethical methods of getting a good grade. Their stress to do well often overpowers their willingness to learn and causes them to ignore their morals just to get bumped up a letter grade.
A few students from different majors were willing to share the ways in how they cheated and their reasoning for doing so. They agreed to speak about cheating provided that their identities remain anonymous.
The first student is in the Hotel Restaurant and Tourism Management major. The student cheated on an Intro to Economics final. The class was not a major-specific course but was a graduation requirement. According to the student, the professor was extremely lenient and wasn’t bothered if students showed up for class or not. This student has self proclaimed issues regarding attendance and decided it wasn’t worth going most of the time. Their final was on D2L, and after realizing many other students were leaving shortly after the final began, they left as well and went to a different room on campus to look up the answers for the final. The student ultimately passed the class and final, saying they may have felt bad if the class was for their major because they’d be missing out on learning important information, but because it wasn’t major specific they didn’t feel that bad and would probably do it again.
Another student, who is a Graphic Design major, said they cheated on an English 101 quiz worth 5 points. This student said they did it because they had not read the book that the quiz was on, so they looked over at the student’s paper next to them and copied the answers. The student ultimately got 4 out of 5 points for the quiz, and also said they didn’t feel bad. “I ended up reading the book actually, and it was a really good book”, said the student.
A third student in the Cross Media Graphics major said they cheated on their Music In Our World final. This class was required for them but not major-specific. The student’s final was online, and said they just pulled up another tab on their computer and looked up the answers. They said they didn’t do that well on the final, but still ultimately passed the class. The student told me that even though they felt like they studied very hard for the final and put in a lot of effort for the homework, that they just couldn’t seem to grasp the material.
So whether it’s on a final or a quiz, students seem to cheat when they feel it’s necessary and are in need of a good grade. The ethical implications didn’t stop the students, and they all agreed that they would only feel bad if they actually got caught.