Cheating on Exam
Exam cheating is a rampant and fraudulent offense committed by many students. Usually, it involves the altering of a candidate’s efforts and can have adverse educational effects, which may lead to a socially and psychologically unstable individual. When found, cheating is very detrimental to the student and has terrible consequences. It usually involves carrying prohibited materials into the exam room, such as a mobile phone and past exam answers. In some cases, students also copy from each other in the exam room; this is also considered as cheating. Cheating on an exam is a topic that should be deeply discussed without leaving out any details. For instance, it is important to educate the students on the consequences of cheating on a paper and encourage them to work hard to avoid encountering the drawbacks of being found cheating on an exam. This paper, therefore, discusses in detail the disadvantages and possible solutions to cheating vice.
While cheating on exams provides a student with the assurance of passing an exam, it has so many drawbacks when caught. For one not to be caught, they need to exercise some level of skill. Smartphones, laptops, and tablets are common electronic gadgets used in all institutions (Bain, 2015). However, a percentage of students abuse the privilege of having these devices and slips them into the exam room during the examination period. Most exam invigilators disregard the thought of a student carrying a mobile phone to the room. Moreover, this gives the perpetrators some level of comfort and assurance that they will not be caught.
Technology has given students access to abundant information to aid in academic dishonesty. In this regard, the faculty needs to come up with actions to take against those students found committing this fraudulent act (Bain, 2015). They can start by educating the students about integrity in academics. Also, they can report any act of academic dishonesty and prevent any more incidents from happening. One possible solution to cheating on an exam is to prohibit electronic devices during exams. This will also deter the student from copying or plagiarizing another person’s work from the internet. Also, students should be told about the barn on phones, tablets, and any other electronic device from the exam room early enough so that they conform to the rules.
Another way to prevent cheating would be to come up with creative and unique assignments and tests that are not included in their course textbook (Bain, 2015). However, these tests should still correspond to the coursework. If this is done, the student will have to either think outside the box or use their learned knowledge in answering the questions since they will not be able to paste the answers from their class revision sessions. This way, it will not be easy for the student to find information on the internet. Therefore, it becomes hard for them to cheat in that particular paper,
In conclusion, the faculty or the responsible personnel should report any form of academic dishonesty and cheating to the relevant authority in the school. This vice behavior should be highly discouraged as it has negative impacts on the student. Besides, a stern warning should be given to the students who are found cheating and actions taken against them. Alternatively, the faculty can embrace the traditional methods of pedagogy in teaching and reducing academic fraud. If a student is taught well and constantly reminded that they should be honest, they may cheat less, thereby reducing the percentage of cheating students.