Catalyst for Cheating

                In the modern academic culture, the letter grade that you receive at the end of your class sessions is the most important part of schooling.  This grade has become more important than learning the material which is the point of schooling in the first place.  Modern culture has reduced the value of the material in the pursuit of measuring the knowledge (whether it’s studied to be retained or simply dedicated to short term memory via ‘cramming’).  In addition, there is also the matter of grade inflation.  In the past, the standard “A, B, C, D, F” grading scale was closer to its true purpose: to measure the knowledge of the test takers.  An “A” represented truly exceptional work, a “C” would show an average level of achievement, and an “F” would be given to those who didn’t do the work or whose work was below the standards required to pass.  The “B” grade and the “D” grade would act as ‘between’ grades for students whose work didn’t quite deserve an “A” but was better than “C” work (same thing for the “D” grade between “C” and “F”).

                 In modern academics however, a higher level of achievement is expected of students than what was expected in the past.  “B” became the norm and “C” said that the student was passing, but with minimal effort.  “D”s and “F”s dropped down into the ‘unacceptable’ ranges (the students receiving them often being viewed as lazy, bad students).  The “A” grade remained much the same, if a bit less respectable and glamorous than it used to be.  For honors students such as me, it’s expected that we do well, study hard, and learn the material.

                Due to these pressures, cheating has become more prevalent than in past years.  The same students who were getting “B”s and “C”s in past years and still being held in good favor are now being expected to get better grades, grades that they aren’t capable of getting.  So in order to retain that sense of favor, they turn to other means of achievement.  Common methods of cheating include passing notes, peeking off of another student’s paper, or even bringing in and using class notes on tests.  The latter has gotten pretty inventive over the years, ranging from storing notes on papers lodged inside a mechanical pencil to spending hours (which could be used to actually study and learn the material) typing notes into calculators with alphanumeric memory.  This type of cheating is most prevalent in the quantitative aspects of learning in subjects such as the sciences, mathematics, and engineering.

                Another method of cheating is focused in writing, known as plagiarism.  Plagiarism is defined (by www.dictionary.com) to be “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work, as by not crediting the author.”  This method of cheating is extremely easy to do, but not to get away with.  Some of it may not even be intentional.  In my case, though I do not plagiarize, I type my ideas and put them into a coherent form before I go to look for sources and citations.  This helps to prevent any idea transfer without crediting the original author.

                Grading is one of the many pressures that lead to such cheating.  Not only does grade inflation have an influence, but so does peer pressure (for cheating has become so prevalent that it could be described as a social norm), and family pressures (to succeed, to gain financial support, the need for an offspring to gather the approval of its parent, etc.).  Thanks to these, cheating has run rampant through the modern academic culture.  We need to stop it, but that but can we?  Is it possible for everyone to stop cheating even with these pressures wearing us down?