Cheating

Education

The use of crib notes during an examination is cheating
Further information: Academic dishonesty
A common venue for cheating is in education settings, where it takes a number of forms. Cheating on tests (or other school-based work) may include the sharing of information among test takers or the use of covert notes or crib sheets. Obtaining the questions or answers to a test ahead of time is another form of cheating. On essay assignments or term papers cheating often takes the form of plagiarism. Another phenomenon of contract cheating has been observed, where students have work completed on their behalf. Internet plagiarism is a growing concern. Some schools subscribe to services which help them detect this type of cheating. Most colleges have written policies defining and punishing plagiarism.
Cheating is considered immoral by most, and may face stiff punishment if discovered, although some faculty indicate they are reluctant to take action against suspected cheaters. In colleges guided by an honor code, cheating could result in expulsion. Academic honor codes appear to reduce cheating; nonetheless, it remains quite common among students.
However, others have defended the practice of cheating. Some argue that many school activities are pointless, and cheating offers an innovative way of surmounting these difficulties.[2]
A 1998 Survey Who's Who Among American High School Students Reported that 80% admitted to cheating on an exam[3] and 39 percent of the sixth-graders surveyed in a 1985 study conducted by the California State Department of Education admitted to one or more instances of copying from another student during a test, and 41 percent admitted to plagiarism. With high school students, the numbers jumped to 75 percent admitting to copying and 51 percent to plagiarism.[4] Anecdotally, cheating at universities has become widespread and even college athletes such as Greg Newton have been exposed as cheaters[5]
Recently, software to statistically detect cheating on tests has been developed[6] which compares pairs of examinees in terms of their responses to test questions. Examinees with large numbers of similar correct and incorrect responses to questions are flagged as being suspicious.
A study published fall 2006 by Donald McCabe, a Rutgers professor who has studied cheating for decades, found that 56% of MBA students admitted cheating, along with 54% of graduate students in engineering, 48% in education, and 45% in law.[7]