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How Prevalent is Cheating?

phattonez

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Apparently most everyone does it.

CHEATING TRENDS

College cheating research results are similarly gloomy. See

In his excellent rundown of the research on college cheating Cizek summarizes the results by saying that dozens of studies made at different times by a wide variety of researchers in dissimilar places all concur that more than half of college students responding admit to having cheated. (Cizek, 1999) Of course, it is reasonable to suppose that many cheated but did not admit it.

Interestingly, college cheating seems to vary by major. When, in 1992, Meade surveyed 6,000 students attending 31 different universities, business students reported cheating more than any other majors. (Whether they are more larcenous or simply more honest in reporting their dishonesty we can only speculate.) The chart below summarizes the reported rates by major. (Meade, J., 1992) Note well that taken collectively the students self-reported cheating rate in this 31 university study is a startling 74%.
 
The one method of cheating that I really want to know about is the abuse of drugs meant to treat ADD. I know, it might not technically be cheating, but I'm sure that its use is at an alarming proportion. In fact, I just found some information about adderall abuse.

Yet, what may be even more remarkable is that the rate of Adderall abuse reported at Purdue is still substantially below the rate reported in the story by Catie Courec of 60 minutes, which featured the abuse of Adderall at the University of Kentucky. That story is the most shocking I have heard because of their report of the prevalence of Adderall abuse at UK exceeds any published peer-reviewed studies I have seen. The highest rate of Adderall abuse on college campuses that I had seen in such published peer-reviewed articles was 35% of students without a diagnosis of ADHD were abusing Adderall. 34% of UK students had “used” or abused Adderall, while among juniors and seniors the rate was over 50% and shockingly among those who were Greek, in sororities and fraternities, the number was over 70%.

Purdue University Students Increasing Adderall Abuse or Adderall Use? | Clarity4Health
 
The one method of cheating that I really want to know about is the abuse of drugs meant to treat ADD. I know, it might not technically be cheating, but I'm sure that its use is at an alarming proportion. In fact, I just found some information about adderall abuse.



Purdue University Students Increasing Adderall Abuse or Adderall Use? | Clarity4Health

well..... if you are talking about drug use, I did pop speed a time or two in order to stay awake to study for finals.
 
I cheated in one of my Maths coursework/exam ... and got away with it :shrug:


I got a B. And I ****ing hate Maths, can't factor or add to save my life xD
I wouldn't have cheated if they didn't force me to take Maths as it is a compulsory subject, I'd rather have just dropped it in secondary and focus on subjects I like
 
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Everyone else tried to cheat off me, it was extremely annoying
 
It makes me wonder what real GPA's at my school would if cheating was accounted for. It's a very, very annoying thought.
 
I prided myself on not cheating until my freshman year of high school.

I studied my ass off for a class that was particularly hard. A guy sat next to me, copied off my tests, we both got A's. At the end of the class, I sat down and realized that he had received the same grade I had, done a fraction of the work, and the end result was exactly the same. My A was no better than his, it didnt count for more, and ultimately the universe was no different. Our diplomas were also identical, mine no more valuable than his for my honesty. I also understood that our school placed INCREDIBLE emphasis on test scores and more or less turned a blind eye to how those scores were achieved. We had a rampant test answer selling market (I know because I sold most of the scantrons that got used for those pre-prepared tests :) Oh yes, I was a Capitalist in high school) and the school couldnt have cared less. Test scores were up and the district was happy, that was all they cared.

If a "cheatable" circumstance came up in school after that and was easy pickings, I usually took it. Cheating all the time is stupid, eventually you'll get caught because you dont know something or because you were stupid about how you did it.
 
If you know that cheaters are eventually caught, then didn't you just cheat yourself of an education by engaging in it? I think that's the difference between taking drugs to help you study and actually cheating. If you take drugs then you still have to learn, though it is bad for your health. By cheating though you're just misrepresenting yourself and in the end you'll have to make up for it.
 
If you know that cheaters are eventually caught, then didn't you just cheat yourself of an education by engaging in it?
That argument fell flat when I saw the cheaters around me getting straight A's. The vast majority of them went off to college and got degrees with little problem.

The very sad lesson I picked up from high school is that an education is absolutely meaningless without a piece of paper. Without that piece of paper, you could come up with the cure for cancer and you'll be ignored because you dont have a diploma. Deny that all you want, our society does not have ANY respect for any autodidactual pursuits.
 
The very sad lesson I picked up from high school is that an education is absolutely meaningless without a piece of paper. Without that piece of paper, you could come up with the cure for cancer and you'll be ignored because you dont have a diploma. Deny that all you want, our society does not have ANY respect for any autodidactual pursuits.

Especially not in the age of online applications and database level filtering. My IT buddies laugh at me for getting all the certifications I can, but when you are dealing with filters, you have to.
 
That argument fell flat when I saw the cheaters around me getting straight A's. The vast majority of them went off to college and got degrees with little problem.

My point is that they have to learn the material at some point, or else they will be outed.
 
My point is that they have to learn the material at some point, or else they will be outed.
Cheating most often takes the form of someone who already knows the material but doesnt want to do the work involved with studying.
 
Cheating most often takes the form of someone who already knows the material but doesnt want to do the work involved with studying.


if you already know the material...why study and why cheat? that doesn't make any sense.
 
if you already know the material...why study and why cheat? that doesn't make any sense.
Why spend several hours studying to the test when you can just cheat and get the same grade?

Most studying is done with the upcoming test in mind, you're studying to pass that test, not to learn the material. You will pick up some of the material in studying for the test, but more often what happens is you study for the test, retain what you need to know for the test, and then forget it once the test is over.
 
Why spend several hours studying to the test when you can just cheat and get the same grade?

If you know the material, then you shouldn't need to study for several hours.

Most studying is done with the upcoming test in mind, you're studying to pass that test, not to learn the material. You will pick up some of the material in studying for the test, but more often what happens is you study for the test, retain what you need to know for the test, and then forget it once the test is over.

This sounds like so much mealy mouthed equivocation. Basically an excuse for cheating.
 
If you know the material, then you shouldn't need to study for several hours.
You study to retain questions regarding the test, not the material itself as a body of knowledge.

This sounds like so much mealy mouthed equivocation. Basically an excuse for cheating.
Your point? I'm not trying to excuse anything, I'm just explaining why I didnt feel particularly heartbroken cheating in school.

To be totally honest, mostly it was for the challenge of cheating itself. Making a plan, carrying it out, not getting caught or evading trouble if you did get caught. Grades never mattered as much as the intrigue. I should also point out that I sold porn in middle school and fenced stolen school supplies in high school :D A lot of the trouble I got into was for the sheer excitement of it.
 
Most studying is done with the upcoming test in mind, you're studying to pass that test, not to learn the material. You will pick up some of the material in studying for the test, but more often what happens is you study for the test, retain what you need to know for the test, and then forget it once the test is over.

Which is why you're supposed to study over time, not just cram. Sure you can get the grade by cramming, but it won't mean a damn in the real world if you don't actually understand it. It always makes me laugh because while my grades are in the top of the class, I always seem to retain the most information. When I get into a new class and I'm still in that review of old material period, everyone else seems to struggle with it. It makes me feel better about the work that I do.
 
I would wager to say that engineering students have one of the highest amount of cheating of all majors. I have witnessed students copy and paste entire models in excel and turn it in. Of course they got caught, and I was glad because it took me about a month to make my own. Lots of kids will cheat off of each others homeworks and labs too.

I have used solution manuals for some of my dynamics, solids, and physics homework, but I almost always used them as a reference to check and correct my mistakes rather than copy from them. I will admit copying from a solution manual for homework a few times though. It not that I could not do them, it was whether I would have time to do them. I have not cheated on a test or project though.
 
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I would wager to say that engineering students have one of the highest amount of cheating of all majors. I have witnessed students copy and paste entire models in excel and turn it in. Of course they got caught, and I was glad because it took me about a month to make my own. Lots of kids will cheat off of each others homeworks and labs too.

I have used solution manuals for some of my dynamics, solids, and physics homework, but I almost always used them as a reference to check and correct my mistakes rather than copy from them. I will admit copying from a solution manual for homework a few times though. It not that I could not do them, it was whether I would have time to do them. I have not cheated on a test or project though.

Speaking of which, chem labs are the absolute worst. Procedures don't change much from quarter to quarter, so people just use someone else's old lab notebook and copy the procedures, questions and answers, post-labs, everything. It was a horrific course. Professors in those classes didn't care, so I got bad grades while everyone else just had a kickback class and had no idea what they were doing in lab.
 
Speaking of which, chem labs are the absolute worst. Procedures don't change much from quarter to quarter, so people just use someone else's old lab notebook and copy the procedures, questions and answers, post-labs, everything. It was a horrific course. Professors in those classes didn't care, so I got bad grades while everyone else just had a kickback class and had no idea what they were doing in lab.

I hated chemistry. It was probably my least favorite class, I am more of a physics guy. I had to take lab for Chem I, and I did good in the class, but about average in the lab. I never really knew anyone that had been in the lab before and never worked on them with anyone so I never got the benefit of the old lab reports either. I don't really hang out with people who are in my major or go to college, so I am always on my own when it comes to doing labs and HW.

In the first few engineering classes I had we would write VBA code and do some huge spreadsheets, and most people would just copy someone elses once they got done. It would be ridiculous because they would just email the whole assignment to each other. I known one kid who got in trouble because he did that and forgot to change his name on the assignment. It would drive me about insane because those same people would then talk about how it was a totally useless class. Which is funny because during my internship over the summer all i did was work in excel and write macros, and since I actually did my own work in that class I knew how to do that stuff.
 
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That argument fell flat when I saw the cheaters around me getting straight A's. The vast majority of them went off to college and got degrees with little problem.

I doubt this would really work for most people. Cheating on a spelling test at a public high school that doesn't give a **** is a bit different than "cheating" on a thesis or term paper at a college that actually does something about it. If you get caught, you get expelled. The risk-reward just isn't there for most people, especially considering that something like that puts an end to many careers.

The very sad lesson I picked up from high school is that an education is absolutely meaningless without a piece of paper. Without that piece of paper, you could come up with the cure for cancer and you'll be ignored because you dont have a diploma. Deny that all you want, our society does not have ANY respect for any autodidactual pursuits.

In most cases, the kind of people who can't be bothered to learn how to spell words or master basic high school math aren't the kind of people who are going to be churning out groundbreaking scientific discoveries.
 
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