Introduction:
We all know how hard some exams can be and how many times students have gone unprepared for these exams and yet written them with full confidence. These Students have kept on finding new ways to cheat as time passes by and have outsmarted teachers of many generations in school and one of them is using phones.
Yes, students do use their phones to cheat in school, although this option is only limited to those who have access to their phones. Phones are usually seen as the best option to cheat in exams since it is compact and can contain all the information someone would need. Phones also have many other features like calculators and the internet which also allow students to talk to each other and pass on answers more easily to each other. Some students feel it’s better to not use phones even if they own one since phones aren’t cheap and being caught with one could lead to confiscation, which would cause more problems.
Many students have found other ways to cheat by hiding cheat sheets in various places on their clothes and their body. Many students with long hair also use earphones or wireless earphones to talk to each other and pass on the answers. Some students even write answers on their body and their stationery items which they can later view from. Students also form groups and write down answers in the washroom which can be noted by incoming students during breaks.
Students using their phones to cheat:
By far this is the most effective way to cheat in schools. About one-third of school students cheat using phones, but this also brings in high risk since being caught with a phone is taken very seriously as compared to being caught with other means of cheating. Phones are also extremely costly so some students might hesitate to take them out, but since phones have access to almost unlimited information students opt for this method. Ever since the pandemic started usage of phones has drastically increased as well since the question paper comes through online means. With this students get to directly copy-paste answers and easily score commendable marks in the exams.
Students using cheat sheets and micro printouts to cheat:
Some students don’t use their phones to cheat. These students prefer using a chit or a micro printout since it’s the only cheat sheet they have access to or they feel risking their phone is a high price to pay if they are caught using it. Some students don’t own personal phones and aren’t able to use phones to cheat so they go for the next best option. Cheat sheets are easy to hide in different areas of students’ body parts and clothing items.
Students forming groups and carrying out mass cheating:
Students also form groups to cheat which makes it harder for the invigilators to catch the suspect. Students come up with various ways such as writing answers in washrooms so others can have access to it, passing down supplement papers, and tapping on the floor in intricate ways that they are the only ones who understand them. This not only helps the students a lot but also allows them to increase the class average. Advantages of student groups also include helping each other out if one of them gets caught and alerting the others. A majority of the time these groups include a bright student who is in charge of writing all the answers down and passing them along to everyone else. Sometimes these groups bring in cheat sheets and phones which are passed around one by one.
Why do students cheat in school?
There are many reasons why a student would cheat in an exam, but the main reason why a student cheats is due to the current education system. The current education system revolves around memorizing texts and consists of very little practical knowledge. This often shows that the education system focuses more on the memorizing power of students rather than challenging them on their knowledge and understanding of the subjects they are learning. Many students aren’t capable of memorizing everything even though they fully understand concepts. Many students don’t have time to prepare for exams due to personal or financial situations so they start cheating. Some students don’t show any interest in studies and just want to get away with them, hence they go into cheating. Some daring students do it for the fun and to look cool in front of their classmates.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, students do use phones to cheat in school, but not only that they also use cheat sheets and micro printouts as well as to conduct group cheating. Students come up with various ways to cheat in exams as technology is evolving from the use of wireless earphones to smartwatches to min smartphones as technology evolves so do the ways of cheating. Many people might find cheating unethical but it depends on the situation of an individual student.
Frequently asked questions:
Do students who cheat in exams smarter than the ones who study?
In general, students who cheat aren’t necessarily smart but more cunning than the ones who write papers without cheating. The cheating students get more and more creative as the invigilators keep getting stricter. It also comes down to where you draw the line for cheating, some students don’t even know the A, B, or Cs of a subject which indicates that they haven’t studied and have less knowledge than other students or are just plain dumb. It also comes down “to work smarter not harder” philosophy where the student may realize how important the exam they are giving is and how much it affects them in their life forward.
How to detect cheating?
As and when students come up with new ideas to cheat invigilators also need to be stricter and vigilant of their techniques. Invigilators can check their pockets and ask students to remove all the materials in their pockets. They can ask students to show what is inside their stationery box. With the increase in popularity of smartwatches and phones invigilators can ask students to remove them and keep them in the bag before the exam even starts. For group, cheating invigilators can make students in randomized ways or at distance from each other.
