Stop Cheating Yourself | Teen Ink

Stop Cheating Yourself MAG

By Anonymous

     A student does not know any of the answers on a test. As he stares at the blank answer page, all the problems look blurry, and when the results come back, the student realizes that he failed. This is the situation for those who copy homework from others. They are not only cheating, they are not learning anything and will not be prepared for tests or quizzes. By using the work of others, they can ruin their grade as well as their future. It is not right to cheat when we all have the capability to do our own work. People should not receive rewards for the effort of others.

Most people have cheated at least once in their lives, whether it was for missed or incomplete work, or even just for credit that you didn’t deserve. But this is not right; in fact, it is unethical and unfair. Taking the work of others and using it as your own is not the right thing to do. It shows a lack of responsibility as well as a lack of knowledge. For example, if a student cheats using a classmate’s exam paper, he is taking credit for another’s work. If the tea-cher catches him, the consequences are usually failure.

Cheating by using the work of others is the same as ruining your life with drugs. It is not only unnecessary and foolish, it can also start to be addicting in many ways. If a student constantly cheats, then it may become a habit in the future. Besides, no one needs to cheat. We all have brains that we can use and also teachers, parents, and peers to help us. Anyway, it’s not like we will succeed in life if we continuously cheat. There is no need to ruin both your education and your life by cheating.

Cheaters usually suffer many consequences. In the beginning when the student is in grade school, cheating may only lead to losing credit and going to the principal’s office. In middle school, there will be Saturday detentions, suspensions, and even parent-teacher conferences. But in high school, college, and the rest of a person’s life, cheating will not be tolerated. If a college student uses a quote from a book or website and doesn’t cite where the information came from, that is plagiarism. This form of credit-taking does not just have minor consequences but can also land you in jail, ruin your record for certain jobs, tear apart your relationships with family and friends, and jeopardize your future.

Every day as you pass through a teen-infested hallway, there will be at least one person madly scribbling away on a piece of paper trying to match it with the one from their peers. This all can occur right before the bell signals the start of a new school day. Why do they have to do this? Will those extra 10 points have a huge impact on their grade and also remind them to do their homework in the future? The clear answer is no! Why can’t they just tell their teachers the truth? By copying, the cheater learns nothing and the teacher will never know if they copied their homework or if they did it themselves.

Of all things, taking credit for others’ work is not only unnecessary but quite unreasonable as well. If we all just do our work, then there is no need to cheat. We should make an effort for our education instead of taking the easy way out. But most important, if we all work hard instead of cheating, then everyone will live a prosperous and successful life.



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This article has 81 comments.


on Jul. 10 2010 at 12:47 am
sweet_silent_surenity GOLD, Puyallup, Washington
16 articles 0 photos 52 comments

Favorite Quote:
"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved- loved for ourselves or rather, loved in spite of ourselves." -Victor Hugo-

True, it's not smart. Neither of these things are. I get it. They both destroy your future slowly. I agree, but you have to admit that the paper could have done without this line. They are similar, but not enough to be abel to say they are even in the same boat, let alone the "same thing".

on Jul. 9 2010 at 9:30 pm
MercedesXO DIAMOND, South Easton, Massachusetts
52 articles 0 photos 280 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;I realize that life is risks. It&#039;s acknowledging the past but looking forward. It&#039;s taking chances that we will make mistakes but believeing we all deserve to be forgiven.&quot; <br /> -The Dead Tossed Waves.

yeah i agree with you dinotrauma. everything you said is really smart and soooo true. and to just second one of the things you brought up. teachers DO cheat a lot for students. it seems like such a weird thing..but its true. so we.re not the only ones at fault.

VanillaPanda said...
on Jul. 9 2010 at 9:21 pm

To be fair, it isn't a completely unreasonable statement. Copying off others teaches you absolutely nothing, and just worsens your grades. People go to school to learn. If you are there, and you cheat you do not learn anything.

By the end of school, if your lucky and have not gotten caught, in your adult life your going to be an incompetent, lying drain on society. Cheating is not as easy in university. People need to learn that it won't get them anywhere.


on Jul. 9 2010 at 8:28 pm
K9_Typical_Islander SILVER, Koror, Other
7 articles 0 photos 47 comments

Favorite Quote:
Hours of boredom followed by moments of excitement (and adrenaline)- that&#039;s fishing

Yeah, I can very much relate to what you have said, especially the second part being about "cheating is learning".

 My friends and I were once like that in middle school- junior high-, cheat on tests with essay questions, but then one day we just talked about it and decided to help each other out of that bad habit.

We thought about high school and how we would be moving schools and how that habit of ours would impact us academically.

We cheated well and never got caught by the teacher but we knew that others in class- classmates- were catching on our act and were beginning to cheat as well. It's like the high score we saw scribbled on our test papers didn't speak of the knowledge we learned during his lessons, but that how it rated us as "cheaters".

 The fact that we were class "smarties" and that we were doing this disgusted us, so we made it a game- a challenge- and a pact between us to just get high grades based on learning, notes, and memory. Also, we respected our Geography teacher too much to continue.

However, one of my pals didn't like that notion. He was hooked on it- almost like a drug-and he was very horrible at being subtle during his act. In no time, he got caught. English teacher came straight out and said, "Boy, give me the paper on your lap". He did, we could see the shock and shame in his eyes. He was an ESL student, but then on he learned and stopped cheating.


on Jul. 9 2010 at 4:43 pm
sweet_silent_surenity GOLD, Puyallup, Washington
16 articles 0 photos 52 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved- loved for ourselves or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.&quot; -Victor Hugo-

lol... That's so true. I agree totally.

on Jul. 9 2010 at 3:00 pm
HAWKEYESTATE4ever, Clive, Iowa
0 articles 0 photos 9 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.&quot; -William Shakespeare

"Cheating by using the work of others is the same as ruining your life with drugs."

That is probably one of the worst statements I've ever read.

Yeah, because injecting yourself with illegal substances that could kill you and others is exactly the same as not knowing trivial facts that will never be useful later in life and looking at someone's paper to get them.


lszyman96 said...
on Jun. 17 2010 at 11:51 am
lszyman96, Romeoville, Illinois
0 articles 0 photos 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot; stay golden ponyboy&quot;<br /> -the outsiders

i agree with some of the things in the article....

dinotrauma said...
on Jun. 17 2010 at 10:02 am

Honey, life is not fair.

A teacher of mine that has recently retired told us this, "cheating is learning." Its learning how not to cheat, how to cheat well, and possible if you are half of an honest person, how to learn what you are doing wrong.

I have seen kids drawl on their stomachs, arms, and desks, and I've been told private school girls write on their thighs under their skirts. Today we can’t be anything but perfect. Schools run based on test scores, and nothing else matters.

I am a straight A student, I am a member of NHS. I am also a member of numerous clubs, and activities. I would like to admit that I have never cheated, but students who attempt to see the full horizon, and explore all they can, don’t have time for the vast amounts of work they see every day.

Discrimination is a big thing in my school. If you are part of the football team, softball team, wrestling team, a cheerleader, or even if you have the right last name, you can cut classes like butter and still pass with flying colors. However those who are student tutors, band members, golf members, yearbook staff, art club members, ect. You couldn’t do this if you tried. It seems when you cheat, the teachers grade your tests, homework, and what not just a little harder. It’s not just students, but how many teachers have cheated for you?

You can’t cheat on every test you take. Somewhere; someone will see how much knowledge you really have. Life isn’t fair, but life is sweet.


DaisyC. said...
on Jun. 17 2010 at 8:18 am
DaisyC., North Bennington, Vermont
0 articles 0 photos 111 comments
Hmmm...I agree and disagree. Wondeful writting though :)

on May. 26 2010 at 9:12 am
chartothalatte GOLD, Cleveland Heights, Ohio
10 articles 1 photo 62 comments
this is a great article! very true. 

on May. 4 2010 at 12:59 pm
HeatherBee BRONZE, I Live In, Texas
1 article 0 photos 1979 comments

Favorite Quote:
Go on and try to tear me down. I will be rising from the ground, like a skyscraper<br /> <br /> Love is louder than the pressure to be perfect

verry true :] u make a good point. i was usually the person to go: ugh fine, and let the other person look off my work heh oh well. i havent heard that in a long time tho

veritas said...
on Apr. 12 2010 at 1:05 pm
I agree completely and I really like how you were very to the point. Good writing.

on Mar. 21 2010 at 4:16 pm
Lost-In-Life GOLD, Whitby, Other
11 articles 0 photos 299 comments

Favorite Quote:
It&#039;s never to late, if it weren&#039;t for the last minute many things would never get done!

I totally agree. People who cheat often think that there are people who are "smart" and people who are "dumb". You can't go from one to the other and you are what you are. However this is not true you just have to work hard and not give up.

on Dec. 23 2009 at 6:38 pm
spontaneous09 BRONZE, Dallas, Texas
1 article 0 photos 32 comments
Cheating is very unfair. Whether you're a sloppy cheater(if you know you don't have the brains for it, why do it? just work on improving your mind!) or a good cheater (you will come down in the end, do you care that assumptions are being made about you that no one would like to have?)

on Dec. 23 2009 at 6:34 pm
spontaneous09 BRONZE, Dallas, Texas
1 article 0 photos 32 comments
Yeah I have the same dilemma all the time. Usually, I either a) lie about it or b)just outright refuse to let them see my homework. I never think about their feelings. I always think about how I will feel afterward.

kakashi1992 said...
on Dec. 23 2009 at 11:54 am
As a senior in high school, many of my classmates and I are applying to top colleges...our Economics teacher assigned us homework and my classmate didn't do the it. He asks me if I did the HW, and I answer in the affirmative... then he asks me for the answer.

During that moment, several things run through my head... Should I give him the answer and help him cheat? if I don't give him my homework to copy, that will jeopardize his grade in Economics which would ruin his chances of getting into a good college... If I do help him, I would be helping him cheat, but then again, there's no personal or monetary cost to me...

What would you have done?

mathTeacher said...
on Dec. 9 2009 at 9:34 am
I was looking for quotes today and found this page. Don't think that your teachers are unaware that you are cheating. It is just difficult to prove. Usually the ones that cheat from one another share identical papers with the lowest grades in the classroom. That is often punishment enough.

on Nov. 9 2009 at 10:51 pm
Sri Palanisamy SILVER, Sewickely, Pennsylvania
6 articles 0 photos 14 comments
Excuse me? Teen-infested? Teenagers are not vermin

on Nov. 9 2009 at 9:04 pm
I totally agree. I won't look on anothers paper unless I am asking for help and have at least done work on it. Many do not realize the consequences of it. I mean in college you get expelled for things like this!

on Nov. 9 2009 at 9:03 pm
whisperingofdawn GOLD, Colorado City, Arizona
17 articles 12 photos 87 comments
i had a friend that cheated her way through two grades... without anyone knowing. when we found out, we did everything to avoid her. to stop her. nothing could. we told teachers. we made her sit in the corner alone. she would always find a way to cheat. it is a very very bad habit. and very unpredictable because it is like putting your education in someone else's hands and saying "do what you will."

i agree 100%