What Causes Students to Cheat - Term Paper Example

Examination Cheating Exam cheating has been a real problem when it comes to passing of examinations in high school, college and degree level. Students often resort to using various methods to cover up for their fear of failing the test by employing tactics to pass. The methods used are different which range from carrying electronic gadgets such as phones that can be used to access the information about the examination, writing examination answers on body parts, carrying written pieces of paper, and helping students in the exam room. The examination instructions are always clear that one should not cheat with strict penalties being used to deter the same. However, the habit is long from being shunned and concerns have been raised on the reasons lying behind the same. This essay will therefore address the causes behind exam cheating and why the social ill has not been shunned despite the strict measures put by various institutions to address it. This will be done from the student perspective, where the student is always under pressure both from parents and other members of the society to pass the examination, the social perspective where the student has to balance between education and his social life often ending up having little time to study and the quality of education being offered which often is not sufficient to make the student pass the exam. Discipline and Ethics The issue of exam cheating depicts a moral drawback on the side of the students as one of the basic teachings in college or institution is integrity. When one tries to use other measures rather than reading to pass the examination, it warrants a question on their integrity. Though many students are aware that it’s wrong to cheat, they would rather face the punishment of cheating in the examination rather than face the situation of a failed examination. We are living in a world where exams are used to judge the bright from the rest and so for the students who may not have a very good memory, failing to use such methods would mean that they would be viewed as failures in the society. Therefore, exam cheating is a question of ethics versus the pressure from the society one is living in. As Gregg (1989), puts it, exam cheating should not be tolerated (p. 235). Reasons why students cheat in examinations Performance Students will be ready to pass the examination at any cost regardless of the cost. If one therefore feels that the preparation made prior to the exam is not enough, he may opt to cheat to ensure that he gets the points needed to pass. As indicated earlier, the measures put in place are strict but the idea of failing is worse off. In the job market, the competition forces or dictates that one has appealing results that will attract the employers earning him/her the job. Unfortunately, with the college environment, that appealing exam result transcript may not be guaranteed. With the efforts needed to attain the high scores, some students result to cheating to bridge the gap from the actual scores they could get to the score they wish to get. External Pressure This forms the major reason why student ends up cheating in an examination. Take an example where the parent is too strict and eve threatens the student that failure to pass the examination may lead to withdrawal of his financial support. Such a student will be ready to risk his soul to ensure that he gets the points required to pass. If he is not confident of the preparations made prior to the examination, then cheating may be the only left option. Second, the workload in a semester may be too much for a student and especially for the moderate learners, it is hard to cope with the pressure. Therefore, to cover up for that, cheating can pose a simpler way to pass without going through all the hustle. Other students cheating may prompt one to cheat. Take an example where a student is always honest in his work but when the results are announced he is the last far behind the students who cheated. That student may feel discouraged and use the same means to get a pass too. Another form of academic pressure would come if the student is supposed to do many tests in a given day. Naturally, a student can handle a certain amount of work but if the limit is surpassed, then it becomes hard to manage the pressure. For a student who fears failing, cheating can be an option in such a situation. Lack of enough time to study Lack of enough time to study can create pressure on the student and leave him with minimal options and therefore result to cheating. A student who is working, mainly post graduate ones, have little time to study. Most of them have families to tend to and jobs that rely on them. Having such obligations, the individual has little time to revise for their tests and therefore ends up cheating to get the marks required (Church, 2013). Lastly, unfair lecturers or tutors can make a student cheat. Some lecturers though rare fail students, or set examinations that are far too hard for the students to handle. In such a case the student may cheat having no other option to make it through. College education involves high levels of time management. Since most students cannot cope with the freedom and having to attend the lectures, they end up using dubious ways to get high marks and avoid repeating the courses. The age in which most college students are makes them vulnerable to time wastage as they engage in activities such as gaming, partying etc. For a student who doesn’t save a little time to revisit the books, the options left will be either cheat in an examination or face failure. Counter Argument Exam cheating is an evil as it compromises the essence of the examination in the first place. An exam is intended to evaluate the students’ knowledge on the concepts taught and so if there is no integrity, the results are flawed. However, as much as we condemn the students for cheating, there are various reasons that predispose them to such dubious strategies. First, we are living in a world where one’s intelligence is based on his ability to remember. Most of the exams done barely reflect the students’ ability. If a student is in a capacity to remember all the concepts taught in class, then he/she is branded a genius and that translates to a good job in future. With that knowledge, students who are not bestowed with the ability to remember all the concepts taught will use other means to make sure they match the ones who can ‘perform’ well. Cheating, though risky, bridges this gap with much ease guaranteeing the slow learners an opportunity to match their counterparts. To address the ill, the learning systems ought to introduce systems that will evaluate the students’ abilities based on other qualities apart from their memory. It has been noted that average learners in school tend to make better employees and eventually contribute more to life than the very bright students. It’s therefore wrong to force the students to result to cheating so as to improve on their performance when they have talents that can be promoted and appreciate them in a different way. Therefore, to curb the behavior, school managements have developed strategies that note and nurture the different talents in various students rather than forcing all of them to perform exemplary in class. Conclusion Cheating in an exam gives the student marks which does not reflect his ability and so if hired in the future, he may not reflect the same in his performance. Though there are many reasons that can warrant exam cheating, the student should not bow to that. On the other hand, the education system ought to use various ways to test the students’ performance and not solely on their ability to memorize concepts and theories taught in class. According to Kennedy (n.d), not all students are capable of performing well in class and so co-curricular activities should also be used to recognize performers in the same (web). The tutors should also teach the students on the need to be honest and manage your resources especially time well to have adequate time to revise for the paper and have time to socialize and perform other duties. Strict measures shall be erected but as long as the pressure from various people such as parents, guardians, and the tutors is there, cheating may still be a problem in the future. Cited Works Church, Matt. Cheating in College: Why Students do it and what educators can do about it. A review. 2013, 33(2). Web. Gregg, N. D. Ethics in the Teaching Profession, Proceedings ASEE Annual Conference, ASEE, Washington DC, 1989. p. 235. Print. Kennedy, R. 3 Top Reasons why Students Cheat. About Education. n.d. Available at. Read More