Thursday, February 23, 2006

About Cheating

Let’s talk about my mid term tests that just ended less than a week ago. And no, I am not going to whine about how difficult these tests were, neither am I going to brag about how well I did. I am just going to talk about the issue of cheating. Oh no no, its not a big issue, we see it in every single test, be it starting earlier, turning to the neighbors for answers, blatantly discussing with each other while the paper is being collected or refusing to stop writing after the time is up. I just cannot hide my disgust when I see such happenings around and it occurred in every single test that I have taken.


Someone told me this before:

“Hey look, your future employer will not be concern with how you attain your grades; they are only interested in that first class honors. So who cares if you did it through cheating? The point is to get the good grades through whatever means available. When there is a chance to better my score, I will grab it. Who cares about integrity?”


Oh yea, I must be so damn dumb to advocate this uprightness. I am so stupid not to start earlier when I have the chance since the invigilators are not watching anyway. Oh yes, even starting a few seconds earlier is going to give me a hell lots of advantage. And I should not hesitate to ask my neighbors if I dunno how to do some questions, making wonderfully beautiful sounds so pleasant to the ears to attract his attention. I will be so satisfied with myself when I finally pissed my neighbor off who eventually show me the answers. Moreover, I must be really dumb not to peek at the person in front of me at the LT exam venues to see which ovals he shaded. And at the end of the day be really really please with myself for getting a high score by doing so. And not forgetting, I must not listen to the invigilators when they tell us to stop writing. After all, there is still some time when they get to me, I could still figure out this problem and get at least ONE mark more. Hey ONE mark is very important, I am so sure it can bring my grade from C to A ok? Furthermore, I should have kept a lookout for my friends’ location so that I can SHOUT out loud to ask them for the answers before the invigilators get to me so that I can change them. To make it less obvious we will communicate in some foreign language which most dun understand so that people will think that we are merely chatting away. Oh yeah, chatting while the invigilators are collecting the papers is perfectly alright here in nus. And finally, 10 years down the road when I look back at my uni days, I will be so enormously proud of myself for achieving impressive grades through such devious means.



On a serious note, I do not see the point in cheating that few marks, gaining that slight advantage and above all annoying all the people around them who are trying to uphold this honesty. Yet, there will be some people with the mentality as the above quote, accusing people like me of not being able to see the big picture. It’s a fucking practical world, they say, it’s just the good grades that matters, what integrity? Yea, perhaps I dun get it, but certainly life is not just a rat race, there is more to it. I just hope I am not alone in fighting for what is morally right.

32 comments:

tstar said...

well... ... I see it in FASS...

Anonymous said...

and in SOC too.

and i believe in other unis as well? not just in sg...

Anonymous said...

People forgets first impressions last. Cheaters will find their deeds coming to haunt them later in their careers. Peer opinion plays a huge part in how far you can progress in life; a lousy reputation doesnt help.

zeenie said...

Not really. My uni (overseas) was really strict about exams and each exam room had about 30-40 candidates seated spaced apart and 3-4 invigilators prowling the room. The rules were made very clear through emails, flyers and written on the board in front of the exam room on the day itself, and usually included "no wearing of caps or headgear" and "no cellphones".

Anonymous said...

You are not alone. I am also rather disgusted with cheaters. Not only midterm cheaters, exam cheaters, but copiers and "outsourcers". You know who you are. You deserve a bloody F.

But it happens. I've also witnessed people getting caught when the lecturer in charge gets too pissed off at these cheaters. Is it worth it getting caught?

Besides which, it's a matter of integrity. A leopard cannot change its spots, or so they say. To you cheaters out there: You are going to bring the cheater's mindset into the workplace. Good luck to you when you get caught then.

Anonymous said...

You guys are such losers. Out in the REAL world, grades don't matter at all. An employer looks at how you manage other people, not at your paper qualifications.

Anonymous said...

fuck, don't whine la. go and volunteer to be a freelance invigilator or some shit.

Anonymous said...

When I studied in the US, exams accounted for a small part of the overall grade. Everything from homework to attendance mattered. If you wanted to impact your grades you had to cheat consistently, which in reality meant pretty much working hard.

karebu said...

You are not alone. I'm behind you.

JH said...

Firstly, I wana thank everyone for commenting.

Sometimes, I wished people could read more carefully. Am I in support of cheating? Am I even thinking about doing it? I believe the quote from tomorrow does gave a wrong impression of what I am trying to convey here. I sincerely hope that people dun just jump the gun so hastily.

And to sebastian, I am sorry if I have pissed u off. But you must realize my intention wasn’t to get this tomorrow-ed and spoil the good name of nus. My post was merely to express my disgust of those who cheat; I wasn’t mentioning anything about the tutor’s competency in invigilating the test, although on hind sight there was indeed underlying assumption, which wasn’t my intent.

Anonymous said...

I studied overseas and the problem is pretty bad here as well. My views may be a little cynical but I think if one is really good at cheating, he will be able to get away with it even at work. To say cheaters will eventually get caught is just self consolation.

Cheating consistently does get you significantly higher scores. My classmates are proof of this. Some invigilators close one eye cuz they probably got where they are by cheating too.

I don't cheat though because I freaking hate cheats. They make my hardwork look like a joke. And I actually get a lot of satisfaction sabotaging their plans haha

Anonymous said...

Oh well, that happens in science too. Laboratory manuals are often recycled over the years and the lab reports written by the different batches do not differ much either. I don't know what to make out of this. As a reference? or simply too lazy to research for materials on their own? I remember a lecturer getting pretty fed up over the blatant discussion of answers during a mid-sem test, but no one listened to his futile pleas to 'keep to yourself'.

It happens anywhere and everywhere. Even in NIE. What an irony.

At the end of the day, it really boils down to one's integrity. Being self-righteous doesn't really help things (especially my grades!!), but then again, at least my conscience is clear and I feel good about myself.

Anonymous said...

it happens in science also, i do the assignments myself and i get pretty low marks compared to the rest... people say i should jus copy from people who know instead of depriving myself of so many marks.

hazylium said...

Cheating is, scarily, quite common in SOC. Copying code from other people and modifying it to look original is done so often that it's not considered cheating at all by a lot of folk. I've even seen someone outsource a big project to some outsider 3rd parties before! Not sure what kind of grade they ended up with. Honestly, I didn't want to know. :-(
Wonder what this says about the university, and the country as a whole that, that we're SO pragmatic and practical that we'll do ANYTHING to get the results we want?

Anonymous said...

Why not approach the invigilator or examiner about the cheating. You could report the cheating after the test, or even better report it while it is being committed. After all, who stands to lose if the cheaters succeed? Not the examiner, not the invigilator, it's the ones who didn't cheat (remember in schools where answers are graded 'on the curve' every 'A' dishonestly obtained is an 'A' less for those who worked hard). All it takes for cheaters to get away with dishonesty is for non-cheaters to just sit back and do nothing. You're just like the people in the queue who let others cut in, then grumble to themselves or complain to their friends instead of letting the queue jumper know that such behaviour is not tolerated.

Anonymous said...

Well u just have to accept the fact and face the reality.

Seriously its the geninue cert that counts... no one really bothers how u get it...

To be frank... if one is full of integrity... it doesnt really help him get his cert faster or better? Perhaps make one conscience clear?

Perhaps most of the things we learn now... we mite not even use it in future. Its just for the cert... okie okie for ur knowledge.

Well but i dun think one can cheat during exams lah... perhaps just little test in tutorial rooms blah.

However the great emphasis on exams and test which determine the cert u get... do somehow contributes to this cheating act lah. Everyone want good cert... everyone will find their means to get it...

Anonymous said...

Cheats show that they haven't grown up. Sooner or later, they are going to be caught. They are really cheating themselves. Later on, such people will probably lie about their work experience, salary and other personal data, and companies that do background checks will expose them. Or worse, take them on board then fire them.

You know you can blow the whistle on them. Just drop a note to the lecturer. You can tell where the cheating was going on or go straight with names of the people. The lecturer will have to something on seeing that. I have seen lecturers calling those named to his office, ask them some questions and he'd know if the students really know their stuff.

Anonymous said...

as long as you get the results at the end of the day, employers dont even bother HOW you manage to do it... this is the world today... where ethics dont matter anymore... $$$ is the ruler! @_@

Anonymous said...

I'm hopin all the comments above have come from real people with integrity. If so, then i guess there is hope for society after all. But one thing, it seems that there's a recycled comment about cheats being lousy people.

Someone who cheats in exams, especially here in singapore aren't bad people, they're just being human. Grades are so impt here that even the 1 mark seperating an 'A' and a 'B' could mean the difference in getting a job. Besides, the methods of cheating mentioned are subtle, nth like writing equations on your hand.

I've cheated before. It's not right i agree. But I cheated to pass, not for an 'A'. And you can moan abt cheaters all you want, but if your integrity gets you a 'B' instead of a cheaters' 'A', you'll know why they did it.

half-asleep said...

What exactly is morally right?
Of course, copying answers seems to be clearly wrong. How about situations where for example, this particular person really needed to pass so that he would not fail his exams and waste hard-earned tution fees his parents had to provide for him? Can we say that he is clearly in the wrong just because his actions were so and neglect his intentions?

Some may believe that there should be justice and equality while others may believe that their close ones should come first. I don't think anyone would dispute that caring for close ones is not a moral thing to do.

Of course, this may not be a very realistic example. And I'm not saying that such a person is right either, but rather that everyone has a different view on morality.
What may be considered ethical in their view may not be so in someone else's views.

I tend to believe that our personal views on morality is ultimately defined by societal values. Perhaps one day we won't even bat an eyelid when cheating happens. That would seem pretty sad indeed.

Anonymous said...

Cheating is wrong but I've done my fair share. Yes, I'm guilty. It was the past. A leopard never changes its spots, you say. HELLO???? Are you a leopard? D'oh.

I think, there are times when you have no other option but to cheat because it's the deciding point of your life. Let's not go further into this. If you've read enough books on school life, you should know.

Anyway, cheating in exams is a NO-NO. Unless you are ready to take the risks. Tests..maybe.

But the worst are people who "talk big" about integrity, honesty bla bla and then derive pleasure from sabotaging cheaters. BIG-ASS conscience they have.

Anonymous said...

So to you, the ends justify the means.

Er, we (or at least I) want to be honest upright individuals with clean conscience. If there are people resorting to all sorts of dishonest ways to get ahead of us, you want to sit on your hands and do nothing? I don't think we derive any pleasure out of blowing the whistle. No one set them up to cheat but themselves.

Anonymous said...

=)

Anonymous said...

Well, i agree that cheating is digusting and morally wrong. But what about 19/20 students in a particular class who "coordinated" during a test except you? In the end, everybody had scored well other than you. How would you feel? IMO, one has to act according to circumstances and be flexible,justifiable while trying to be firm. - which hero does not have a past?

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