essay about cheating in exam

Exam Cheating, Its Causes and Effects

Introduction, definition of cheating, works cited.

The ability of a nation to compete effectively on the international front hinges on the quality of its education. With this in mind, it is okay to conclude that cheating in exams undermines the standard of education in a country and consequently hinders its ability to compete at the world stage. Indeed, students who cheat in exams become poor decision makers in their careers. Their productivity and level of integrity is adversely dented by their belief of having everything the easy way. Academic dishonesty is not new but with the increase in competition for jobs, most students have resorted to cheating in order to qualify for these jobs (Anderman and Johnston 75). The purpose of this paper is to research in detail the causes and effects of cheating in exams.

In the education fraternity, cheating entails: copying from someone, Plagiarizing of academic work and paying someone to do your homework. There are numerous reasons why students cheat in exams however; this action elicits harsh repercussions if one is caught. This may include: suspension, dismissal and/or cancellation of marks (Davis, Grover, Becker and McGregor 16).

One of the major reasons that make students cheat in exams is the over-emphasis that has been placed on passing exams. Apparently, more effort has been directed towards passing of exams than learning due to the high competition in the job market. Similarly, most interviewers focus more on certificates rather than the knowledge of the candidate. It is no wonder most learning institutions these days focus on teaching how to pass an exam and completely disregard impacting knowledge to students.

In some cases, students cheat because they are not confident of their ability or skills in academics. Whenever this feeling is present, students resort to cheating as a way of avoiding ridicule in case of failure. In essence, some of these students are very bright but the fear of failure and the lack of adequate preparations compel them to cheat. The paradox is that when cheating, most students swear that they will never do it again but this only serves as the beginning of a vicious cycle of cheating (Anderman and Johnston 76).

Societal pressure is another major cause for cheating in schools. Parents, teachers and relatives always, with good intentions, mount too much pressure on students to get good grades in order to join good schools and eventually get high paying jobs. All this pressure creates innate feelings that it is okay to cheat in exams if only to satisfy their parents and teachers egos.

There are times when students justify cheating because others do it. In most cases, if the head of the class is cheating then most of the other students will feel they have enough reason to also cheat. The system of education is such that it does not sufficiently reprimand those who cheat and tends to hail those who pass exams regardless of how they have done—the end justifies the means.

With the advent of the internet, it has become very easy to access information from a website using a phone or a computer. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo have made it very easy for students to buy custom-made papers for their class work. It is very easy for students from all over the world to have the same answer for an assignment as they all use a similar website. Indeed, plagiarism is the order of the day, all on has to do is to have the knowledge to search for the different reports and essays on the net (Davis, Grover, Becker and McGregor 18).

Nowadays, most tutors spend most of their class time giving lectures. In fact, it is considered old fashioned to give assignments during class time. Consequently, these assignments are piled up and given during certain durations of the semester. This poses a big challenge to students who have to strike a balance between attending to their homework and having fun. As a result, the workload becomes too much such that it is easier to pay for it to be done than actually do it—homework then becomes as demanding as a full-time job (Jordan 234).

From a tender age, children are taught that cheating is wrong; yet most of them divert from this course as they grow up. In fact, most of them become so addicted to the habit that they feel the need to perfect it. Most often, if a student cheats and never gets caught, he is likely to cheat all his life. Research has shown that students who cheat in high school are twice likely to cheat in college. The bigger problem is that this character is likely to affect one’s career in future consequently tarnishing his/her image.

Cheating in exams poses a great problem in one’s career. To get a good grade as a result of cheating is a misrepresentation of facts. Furthermore, it is difficult for a tutor to isolate students who genuinely need specialized coaching. It becomes a huge embarrassment when a cheating student is expected to give a perfect presentation and fails to demonstrate his ability as indicated by his/her grades. In addition, students who cheat in examination do not get a chance to grasp important concepts in class and are likely to face difficulties in the future when the same principles are applied in higher levels of learning.

The worst-case scenario in cheating in an exam is being caught. Once a student is caught, his reputation is dealt a huge blow. It is likely that such a student will be dismissed or suspended from school. This hinders his/her ability to land a good job or join graduate school. It can also lead to a complete damage of one’s reputation making it hard for others to trust you including those who cheat (Jordan 235).

Cheating in exams and assignments can be attributed to many reasons. To begin with, teaching today concentrates so much on the exams and passing rather than impacting knowledge. Lack of confidence in one’s ability and societal pressure is another reason why cheating is so wide spread. Cheating cannot solely be blamed on the students; lecturers have also played their part in this. Apparently, most lectures concentrate on teaching than giving assignments during class time. This leaves the students with loads of work to cover during their free time.

Technology has also played its part in cheating—many students turn to the internet in a bid to complete their assignments. On the other hand, it is important to note than choices have consequences and the repercussions of cheating in an exams are dire. First, it completely ruins one’s reputation thereby hindering chances of joining college or getting a good job. It also leads to suspensions and/or expulsion from school. Furthermore, the habit is so addictive that it is likely to replicate in all aspects of life—be it relationships, work, business deals etc. It is important to shun this habit as nothing good can come out of it.

Anderman, Erick and Jerome Johnston. “TV News in the Classroom: What are Adolescents Learning?” Journal of Adolescent Research , 13 (1998): 73-100. Print.

Davis, Stephen, Cathy Grover, Angela, Becker, and Loretta McGregor. “Academic Dishonesty: Prevalence, Determinants, Techniques, and Punishments”. Teaching of Psychology , 19 (1) (1996): 16–20. Print.

Jordan, Augustus E. “College Student Cheating: The Role of Motivation, Perceived Norms, Attitudes, and Knowledge of Institutional Policy. Ethics and Behavior , 11, (2001): 233–247. Print.

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Writing help, paraphrasing tool, the effects of cheating on exams.

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Cheating on exams has become more prevalent throughout the 21st century as the importance of learning is eliminated. It disobeys the expectations for a well-behaved Stuyvesant student, and the offense becomes a violation of the morals of society. In highly-competitive schools, such as Stuyvesant, students are prone to running after success through their academics. Everybody is so concerned over competing to be the best in the class that most students have actually forgotten that a school’s purpose is to educate. The obsession with running after success is so intense that students try finding any way possible to get to the top and some, to extreme cases, resort to cheating. Cheating embodies the sins of incontinence, violence, and fraud to which the punishments are and aren’t appropriate; these characteristics are comparable to the different circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.

The theme of incontinence is great significantly in students’ lack of self control and gluttony in the Third Circle of Hell. The culture of cheating has certainly developed along the years. Some students are forced into believing that they must cheat in order to be successful and get the best grades. Additionally, peer pressure and overwhelmness of workload may lead to temptation. However, when teachers fail to notice cheating, the student starts believing that they can get away with it a second time; this cycle will eventually become a habit where he/she is unable to restraint from temptation. This situation is comparable to that of gluttony, which is the overindulgence of food. In both cases, the guilty parties face a lack of restraint from their inclination. In the Third Circle, the Gluttons are submerged beneath “gross hailstones, water gray with filth, and snow come streaking down across the shadowed air” (6.13-4). By rolling around in the dirty hail for eternity, the Gluttons are symbolized as pigs. The sinners are treated like pigs because they gorge themselves in food, displaying animalistic qualities.

The violence depicted in the Circles of Hell are far more severe than the violence present when cheating in examination. Violence is usually portrayed as physically and intentionally using force to harm others. In Dante’s Inferno, most of the sinners in the Seventh Circle of Hell have committed acts of brutality. While the Circle is divided into three rings, those violent against their neighbors and property, such as Murderers and Tyrants, are sent to the first ring “near the stream of blood .. [to] boil” (12.47-8). These sinners were burned, as a punishment, in the symbolic amount of blood they spilled killing those injured violently. Those who are violent to themselves and commit suicide are sent to the second ring where the soul “rises as a sapling, a wild plant; and then the Harpies, feeding on its leaves, cause pain and for that pain provide a vent” (13.100-2). Here, the souls are turned into trees because they are ungrateful about their body. In comparison to cheating, the offenses in the Circles of Hell are far more immoral. Most cases of violence for cheating usually only relate to peer pressure from bullies and possible threats to share answers; students who are hesitant to help their “friends” are afraid of rejection. Nonetheless, the violence in cheating is unparalleled to the violence in Inferno because there is no true sign of intentions to harm students.

The school’s expected counter-penalty for cheating in examination is usually an automatic zero and a call home notifying parents of the unacceptable behavior. Punishments are certainly necessary for committing a sin as bad as cheating. If the school were to not reprimand them, students would continuously get away with such behavior and no one will learn what’s right. The appropriateness of the counter-penalty is well, but its effectiveness is low. Failing a student because they cheated on a particular assessment will encourage them to be more serious about the situation. However, further cheating cases should not be detention because it will not effectively allow them to be reflective on the situation. The purpose of cheating is because the students feel that they are lacking. Instead of detention, an effective punishment is forcing the students to handwrite the test paper several times until they have the information memorized. This will allow for better understanding of the text and removes the need for cheating. The rationale behind this counter-penalty is to suggest that if the students are interested in looking at other test examinations, they might as well rewrite and memorize every portion of the exam afterwards. Detention and forcing students to stay at home will not effectively help on their self-improvement.

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Cheating in Exams, Essay Example

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Cheating in exams can be defined as committing acts of dishonesty during an exam in order to score good grades. This is normally done by students when they fail to prepare for the exams or when they feel that the test is too hard for them and they want to score good grades.

Various acts are considered as cheating: first when a student gets access to exam papers be it part of them or all the exam papers before the exam is considered as cheating. Another way of cheating is by having materials that are not authorized in the exam room either electronic or non electronic in their reach from which the students copy or even copying answers from scripts of other candidates or allowing your script to be copied from by other candidates. Such materials include phones in which they store data; some phones have memory cards that store huge amounts of data and thus a student can even carry the whole syllabus in their phones from which they copy. Other electronic materials are calculators in which students store formulas especially for science and math exams. Science and math formulas may also be written on the desktop which they hide from their supervisors by covering with the answer sheet. Non electronic materials include small notes which the students make on something they suspect will be tested. Such writings are made on small pieces of paper, on the palm or on sole tapes which the students stick on their clothes. Another way of cheating is when a student impersonates another one and ends up doing the exam for them or even communicating with fellow candidates during an exam session. These forms don’t exhaust the many ways of cheating.

When students succeed in their first attempt of cheating they will always be tempted to repeat the act since it enables them to pass exams without struggling however this may bring serious consequences for the students. The problems may be short lived or long term. Short term consequences include being awarded a zero score by the lecturer because they believe that the candidate does not know anything. Getting a fail forces the student to repeat the unit .This means an addition on the other terms work a burden which may make the student fail other units hence causing a cycle of failing. Other lecturers punish these students by suspending them for a given period of time .Such students get it rough in explaining to their parents the reasons for being suspended. They may also become the laughing stock in the village when fellow students spread the rumours. Another short term consequence is when the lecturer forces the students to take remedial studies as others go for holiday hence denying them the opportunity to enjoy their holidays.

Long term consequences include being expelled from school. This means the student has to look for another school and hence the student delays from finishing college which consequently affects their chances in the job market because most job advertisements specify age limit. Cheating students also gain bad reputation from fellow students and lectrurers.Fellow students always see you as a liar and lecturers lose faith in you and it becomes difficulty to convince them that you didn’t cheat at times when you pass.

In the long term a student who passed her exams through cheating may have problems when it comes to delivering services in a job. This is because a student may cheat in exams, graduate from college but have difficulties when solving problems touching on their field of study in work environment since the certificates they present don’t really show their capability but what they pretend to be. When it comes to giving ideas during discussions in the office the cheaters will strain to contribute and also the manner in which they present themselves in such meetings will be affected since they fear that fellow workers will notice their dormancy. Without a question poor performance in the job will lead to job loss.

Cheating in an exam also denies a student important knowledge in their lives which they would have gained if they take their studies seriously A student may escape being caught cheating and get good grades which would sound okay   but the truth is they may lie to their teachers and parents but they cannot cheat themselves .the truth will remain that they waste their money and time in college but at the end of it they wont gain any knowledge since what they show to have gained is not theirs. In some colleges like the ones offering ACCA when a candidate is caught cheating they are discontinued from doing the other papers and this may kill the student’s dream of venturing in such a field.

The consequences of cheating in an exam are just too much to bear and so students should avoid such instances by ensuring they revise utilise their time well and revise thoroughly for their exams.

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Essays About Cheating: Top 5 Examples and 9 Writing Prompts

Essays about cheating show the value of honesty, see our top picks for examples and prompts you can use in writing.

In the US, 95% of high school students admitted to participating in some form of academic cheating . This includes exams and plagiarism. However, cheating doesn’t only occur in schools. It’s also prevalent in couples. Psychologists say that 50% of divorce cases in the country are because of infidelity . Other forms of cheating exist, such as cheating on a diet, a business deal, etc.

Because cheating is an intriguing subject, many want to read about it. However, to write essays about cheating appropriately, you must first pick a subtopic you’re comfortable discussing. Therefore, we have selected five simple but exemplary pieces you can read to get inspiration for writing your paper.

See below our round-up of top example essays about cheating.

1. Long Essay On Cheating In School By Prasanna

2. the reality of cheating in college essay by writer kip, 3. why cheating is wrong by bernadette mcbride, 4. what counts as cheating in a relationship by anonymous on gradesfixer, 5. emotional cheating by anonymous on papersowl, 1. types of cheating, 2. i was cheated on, 3. is cheating a mistake or choice, 4. tax evasion and cheating , 5. when i cheated, 6. cheating in american schools and universities, 7. review a famous book or film about cheating, 8. a famous cheating quote, 9. cause and effects of cheating.

“Cheating is a false representation of the child’s ability which he may not be able to give without cheating. It is unfair to everyone involved as it deprives the true one of the chance to come on the top.”

Prasanna begins the essay by defining cheating in schools and then incorporates how this unethical behavior occurs in reality. She further delves into the argument that cheating is not learning but an addiction that can result in students losing self-confidence, sanity, and integrity. 

Apart from showing the common causes and harmful effects of cheating on students, Prasanna also adds parents’ and teachers’ critical roles in helping students in their studies to keep them from cheating.

“It’s human nature to want to win, and some of us will go against the rules to do so. It can be harmless, but in many cases, it is annoying, or even hurtful.”

Kip defines cheating as human nature and focuses his essay on individuals who are hell-bent on wanting to win in online games. Unfortunately, these players’ desire to be on top is all-consuming, and they’re willing to go against the rules and disregard their integrity.

He talks about his experiences of being cheated in a game called AoE. He also incorporates the effects of these instances on newbies. These cheaters will humiliate, dishearten, and traumatize beginners who only want to have fun.

Check out these essays about cooperation .

“A cheater is more than likely lying to themselves more than to the people around them. A person can only go so far before their lies catch up to them, begin to accumulate, and start to penalize you.”

Mcbride dedicates her essay to answering why cheating is wrong, no matter the circumstance. She points out that there will always be a definite punishment for cheaters, whether they get caught. Mcbride believes that students who cheat, copy, and have someone else do their work are lazy and irresponsible. These students will never gain knowledge.

However, she also acknowledges that some cheaters are desperate, while some don’t realize the repercussions of their behaviors. At the end of the essay, she admits to cheating but says she’s no longer part of that vicious cycle, promising she has already realized her mistakes and doesn’t want to cheat again.

“Keep in mind that relationships are not based on logic, but are influenced by our emotions.”

The author explains how it’s challenging to define cheating in a relationship. It’s because every person has varying views on the topic. What others consider an affair may be acceptable to some. This includes the partners’ interaction with others while also analyzing the individual’s personality, such as flirting, sleeping in the same bed, and spending time with folks.

The essay further explains experts’ opinions on why men and women cheat and how partners heal and rebuild their trust. Finally, examples of different forms of cheating are discussed in the piece to give the readers more information on the subject. 

“…emotional cheating can be described as a desire to engage in another relationship without physically leaving his or her primary relationship.”

There’s an ongoing debate about whether emotional cheating should be labeled as such. The essay digs into the causes of emotional cheating to answer this issue. These reasons include lack of attention to each other, shortage of affectionate gestures, and misunderstandings or absence of proper communication. 

All of these may lead to the partner comparing their relationship to others. Soon, they fall out of love and fail to maintain boundaries, leading to insensitivity and selfishness. When a person in a relationship feels any of these, it can be a reason to look for someone else who can value them and their feelings.

9 Helpful Prompts in Writing Essays About Cheating

Here are some cheating subtopics you can focus your essay on:

Some types of cheating include deception, fabrication, bribery, impersonation, sabotage, and professional misconduct. Explain their definitions and have examples to make it easier for readers to understand.

You can use this prompt even if you don’t have any personal experience of being cheated on. You can instead relay events from a close friend or relative. First, narrate what happened and why. Then add what the person did to move on from the situation and how it affected them. Finally, incorporate lessons they’ve learned.

While this topic is still discussed by many, for you, is cheating a redeemable mistake? Or is it a choice with consequences? Express your opinion on this matter. Gather reliable evidence to support your claims, such as studies and research findings, to increase your essay’s credibility.

Tax evasion is a crime with severe penalties. Explain what it is and its punishments through a famous tax evasion case your readers can immediately recognize. For example, you can use Al Capone and his 11-year imprisonment and $215,000 back taxes . Talk through why he was charged with such and add your opinion. Ensure you have adequate and reliable sources to back up your claims.

Start with a  5 paragraph essay  to better organize your points.

Some say everyone will cheat at some point in their life. Talk about the time you cheated – it can be at a school exam, during work, or while on a diet. Put the perspective that made you think cheating was reasonable. Did you feel guilt? What did you do after, and did you cheat again? Answer these questions in your essay for an engaging and thrilling piece of writing.

Since academic cheating is notorious in America, use this topic for your essay. Find out which areas have high rates of academic cheating. What are their penalties? Why is cheating widespread? Include any measures the academe put in place.

Cheating is a frequent cause of conflict on small and big screens. Watch a film or read a story and write a review. Briefly summarize the plot, critique the characters, and add your realizations after finishing the piece. 

Goodreads has a list of books related to cheating. Currently, Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens has the highest rating.

Use this as an opportunity to write a unique essay by explaining the quote based on your understanding. It can be quotes from famous personalities or something that resonates with you and your experiences.

Since cheating’s cause and effect is a standard prompt, center your essay on an area unrelated to academics or relationships. For instance, write about cheating on your diet or cheating yourself of the opportunities life presents you.

Create a top-notch essay with excellent grammar. See our list of the best grammar checkers.

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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What are the consequences of cheating in exams?

• August 23, 2022

What is cheating?

How to cheat in an exam, what are the consequences of cheating in schools.

Cheating definition: 

Cheating is the act of obtaining advantages or rewards without following the rules that apply to others. Examples include cheating in a board game or in a test at school.

What causes cheating?

• The problem is related to the issue of merit and rising competition. Students have to fight for the best possible grades in order to get into the most valued courses at university. Cheating in an exam is seen as an easy solution.
• This spirit of competition usually translates into the idea that all is fair, that only the result counts. But this idea is challenged by well-known sportsmen and women who are regularly involved in doping cases, even though they are role models for the younger generation . 🚴🏼
• When a child is under family pressure and is not allowed to make mistakes , or there is no room for failure, fraud and cheating may appear to be the only way to live up to expectations.
• Finally, a student may start cheating to join a group of peers or friends who encourage this malpractice, to try and rebel or to challenge the school system. 

But seriously, do you really think I'm going to encourage your child to commit a crime? Certainly not. 

• We all know the trick of the scientific calculator on which it is possible to record formulas or even definitions (but this does not work in French  or English lessons!)
• A cheat sheet can be written behind the label on the water bottle or hidden in the bottom of a pencil case
• The mobile phone wallpaper acts as a notepad, which we pretend to use to look at the time 👀

All these tricks are well known classics that sometimes work during an assessment but are incredibly risky, and evidence of malpractice and cheating in exams.

Online tools

During school isolation periods in the past few years, even the most serious students enjoyed the thrill of cheating on online exams, which were much more difficult to monitor by teachers and schools. 

This may have been collaborative fraud via chat groups with classmates on platforms such as Snapchat or WhatsApp. Others even paid more advanced candidates to take the exams for them. Or, more simply, they took their tests online with a second computer open on the Google homepage.

But keep in mind that whether online or face-to-face, the cheating student still faces the same risk of punishment! 👮

Cases of cheating in class 

If a student hasn’t managed to revise , wants to cheat and is caught in class, it can seriously damage his or her results, as well as reputation or even place at the school. They could get a zero on their assessment, contact home or even detentions and exclusion from the school. 

Parents and guardians even make an agreement with the school before their child starts to never cheat or be involved in any malpractice, which schools are serious about throughout their time there. 

What are the penalties for exam fraud?

National qualifications such as GCSEs , A-Levels and exams at university are all official exams recognised by the government. If an exam invigilator catches your child cheating in the examination room, a verbal and written report will be drawn up and an investigation will begin.

Depending on the seriousness of the situation and the exam board or school, cheating at the exam can lead to different types of sanctions:

• Reprimand. This is a disciplinary sanction, a call to order without too serious consequences, usually reserved for internal school exams only (not National qualifications where consequences are more serious)
• Removal from the course or overall diploma, sometimes resulting in having to restart completely
• Immediate contact to the exams regulation authority, JCQ , who monitor most exam boards like AQA or Edexcel 
• No awarded mark, grade, GCSE, A-Level or points for the course at university in that subject (usually named an ‘Ungraded’ or U)
• Sometimes a ban on taking any National exams for a number of years
• Sometimes, but infrequently, a ban on enrolling into a higher education institution for 5 years

Exam malpractice is rising; in 2019 Ofqual reported an 11% rise in malpractice reports, and this includes teachers and schools helping students to cheat!

Can you pass your driving test if you cheat at your exam? 

I've always heard that a student who is caught cheating on the exam is then likely to be barred from taking any other official exam, including the assessment to get their UK driving licence. 🚗

Today, I can officially tell you that this is an urban legend. As the driving licence is not linked with our education certification system, it is not affected by the sanctions. But, cheating in an exam (and getting caught) can change your mindset to all other exams you go on to sit for the worse. 

But rather than having to ask yourself this question, the best thing to do is to book some lessons online with our tutors. They will help your child to prepare well for challenging exams like GCSEs, without the need to cheat! 

Want to try tutoring? Request a free trial session with a top tutor.

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Identify possible reasons for the problem you have selected. To find the most effective strategies, select the reason that best describes your situation, keeping in mind there may be multiple relevant reasons.

Students cheat on assignments and exams..

Students might not understand or may have different models of what is considered appropriate help or collaboration or what comprises plagiarism.

Students might blame their cheating behavior on unfair tests and/or professors.

Some students might feel an obligation to help certain other students succeed on exams—for example, a fraternity brother, sorority sister, team- or club-mate, or a more senior student in some cultures.

Some students might cheat because they have poor study skills that prevent them from keeping up with the material.

Students are more likely to cheat or plagiarize if the assessment is very high-stakes or if they have low expectations of success due to perceived lack of ability or test anxiety.

Students might be in competition with other students for their grades.

Students might perceive a lack of consequences for cheating and plagiarizing.

Students might perceive the possibility to cheat without getting caught.

Many students are highly motivated by grades and might not see a relationship between learning and grades.

Students are more likely to cheat when they feel anonymous in class.

This site supplements our 1-on-1 teaching consultations. CONTACT US to talk with an Eberly colleague in person!

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Essay on Cheating in EXAM

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382 Words Essay on Cheating In the Examination

One of the most common features of examinations is the involvement of students in cheating. When students fail to prepare themselves well before an examination, they resort to cheating.

It is true that whenever rules are made, there are people who break them. An examination is a test where no one is allowed to consult the other and each question has to be answered by the child himself. Knowing the fact that this can’t be done, students cheat.

Cheating seems to delight the students but he ignores the fact that he is simply cheating his own conscience. He may go ahead and cheat but at some point of time it definitely haunts him.

Students while away their time throughout the year and then become desperate when the examination approaches. Cheating is a short-cut to success.

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However, in cheating the teachers, the students may pass the examination but he will never learn what was actually taught and he will always remain behind his class in every way.

It is interesting to see how students cheat. They plan the method for cheating. They write notes on slips of paper or scribble something on their palms or thighs. They stick notes into their socks and under their shirts.

Some even write down full answers on pieces of paper. Some carry their answers to the toilet and leave the slips of paper there. In the course of the examination they go to the toilet and consult the sheets to locate the correct answers.

At Universities also cheating is a common practice. It is often accompanied by violence. Students carry pistols or knives with them and cheat openly. They scare the invigilator away by terrorizing him with the gun.

There is mass copying at times and such cases are dealt with, very severely. Police protection is sometimes provided to the invigilators.

Cheating greatly mars the sanctity of the examination. The exam is really a good means of evaluating one’s knowledge of all that is taught and it is in fact a good thing for students.

This is something students realize later in their lives. But while they are still students, they continue to adopt such unfair means of passing the examination and bring a great deal of harm to their school and most of all to themselves.

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93 Cheating Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best cheating topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ good research topics about cheating, 👍 simple & easy cheating essay titles, ❓ questions about cheating, 💯 free cheating essay topic generator.

• Consequences of a College Student Cheating In Exams Another effect of cheating in exams is that the honest present and even the future students in the system also suffer from the cheating behaviour.
• Marginal Analysis of Cheating Of the various forms of cheating in existence, arguably the most prevalent one is the use of cheat notes. The major disadvantage of this cheating technique is that there exists physical evidence of the cheating […]
• Cheating on College Exams is Demoralizing The research focuses on the effect of cheating on the college exams. Indeed, cheating on the college tests is a transgression of the school’s policies.
• Cheating Plagiarism Issues Cheating in exams and assignments among college and university students is in the rise due to the access of the internet and poor culture where integrity is not a key aspect.
• Cheating, Gender Roles, and the Nineteenth-Century Croquet Craze The author’s main thesis is, “Yet was this, in fact, how the game was played on the croquet lawns of the nineteenth century?” Whereas authors of croquet manuals and magazines emphasize so much on the […]
• Cheating in the Universities or in the Schools Cheating is condemned in the academic discipline as that which undermines academic integrity of the learner at different levels of their academic pursuits by causing students gain academic grades that do not reflect the academic […]
• Why Kids at Harvard Cheat It is a compelling issue to have students cheating in their examinations as this beats the logic and sole purpose of learning.
• Why People Cheat In the world of sports, a lot of people have been perplexed by the tendencies of great teams to cheat despite prior warning regarding the consequences of cheating.
• Cheating in the Internet The presence of ecommerce has increased the number of fraudulent deals in the internet. However, with the increasing number of transactions in the internet, fraudsters are taking advantage of the situation.
• Why Students Cheat in Public Schools? However, even some of the students who retain a suitable connection to school take part in cheating. The majorities are found in public institutions and are a much diversified set of students.
• Reasons for Academic Cheating The students are on the other hand have to yield for the pressure and the easiest way of enabling this is by cheating in the examination.
• Academic Integrity: Cheating and Plagiarism Instructors need to understand their students to find out what drives them to cheat in exams. Administrators and other stakeholders in educational institutions, need to discourage their students from cheating, to ensure they maintain high […]
• Cheating: Making It a Teachable Moment This statement implies that the initiative of the authority to curb the vice of exam cheating should take into account the efforts of the both the teachers and students in a bid to obtain relevant […]
• Education: Why Do Students Cheat? Lack of adequate skills and knowledge are some of the reasons that lead to the loss of confidence by students. Teachers should evaluate their students in order to determine the most important teaching methods that […]
• Cheating and Plagiarism in Academic Settings Their main task is to show that the main objective of learning is to gain knowledge and skills, and that education cannot be reduced only to good grades and recognition of other people. This is […]
• Signs of Cheating in Oral or Written Statements The second signal of deception is the reference to past events using the present tense. The eighth reason to question whether the interviewee is telling the truth or not is the lack of detail.
• Students’ Behavior and Cheating During Exams Another aspect demonstrating that the research does not warrant an informed consent is the consideration that an informed consent may diminish the merits of the research.
• Group Learning and Cheating in Classrooms The aim of the project is to clarify the conditions under which students should work, evaluate the conditions students create independently, observe how different students can work in groups, and introduce new approaches to how […]
• Cognitive Dissonance in Dealing With Exam Cheating John’s plan was to use less than two hours in the test with a plan to utilize the rest of the time texting his friends.
• “Why We Cheat” by Fang Ferric and Arturo Casadevall For example, if students cheat in class, their peers may start to do so too when they see that there is no punishment for lying. It is possible to say that many humans cheat because […]
• Cheating in High Schools: Issue Analysis It is, therefore, right to say that cheating is widespread in every part of the world, and it is escalating in all levels of education.
• Using Technology to Cheat: Discussion Easy access to the internet is one of the reason why there has been a drop in academic honesty and responsibility specifically in the case of plagiarism as there are indications of extensive plagiarism in […]
• Is Cheating Okay or Not: Discussion The one involved in cheating is seen to do so at the expense of others and with the aim of getting more where one has invested less.
• Why College Students Cheat: Discussion In the case of the Internet, it has become a tool for students to cheat because information is readily at their fingertips.
• Cheating in the Test: Issue Review He may have believed that the college entrance exam is not very significant at the moment and that there is nothing wrong in cheating for a test which will decide whether he should be admitted […]
• The Consequences of School Cheating Cheating also leads to corrupted morals since students begin to cheat more frequently and try to rationalize their dishonesty. Academic dishonesty also affects personal relationships since friends and family can begin to question one’s honesty […]
• Problem of Cheating in Nursing Programs The most common types of cheating in nursing include copying tests and homework, referring to materials during tests, and collaborations without permission. Investigations on the causes of academic dishonesty acts are critical to achieving academic […]
• Trust & Threat Messaging and Academic Cheating Each student was randomly assigned to one of the four conditions, with 71 in the traditional exam condition, 81 in the collective-punishment trust-exam condition, 82 in the individual-punishment trust-exam condition, and 62 in the no-punishment […]
• The Auditor and the Firm: A Simple Model of Corporate Cheating and Intermediation
• Cheating, Incentives, and Money Manipulation
• Marriage and High Technology: The Behavior of Cheating in Relationships
• Separating Will From Grace: An Experiment on Conformity and Awareness in Cheating
• Individual and Group Cheating Behavior: A Field Experiment With Adolescents
• Cheating and Loss Aversion: Do People Lie More to Avoid a Loss
• Firm-Oriented Policies, Tax Cheating, and Perverse Outcomes
• Does Bad Company Corrupt Good Morals? Social Bonding and Academic Cheating Among Teens
• Cheating, Its Consequences, and Findings on Cheating
• Cheating More for Less: Upward Social Comparisons Motivate the Poorly Compensated to Cheat
• Careful Cheating: People Cheat Groups Rather Than Individuals
• Cheating Spouse Infidelity Investigations
• Efficient Redistribution Using Quotas and Subsidies in the Presence of Misrepresentation and Cheating
• Cheating Ourselves: The Economics of Tax Evasion
• “But Everybody’s Doing It!”: A Model of Peer Effects on Student Cheating
• Decision Frame and Opportunity as Determinants of Tax Cheating: An International Experimental Study
• Marketable Permits, Market Power, and Cheating
• Academic Dishonesty: Internet Cheating
• Cheating and Technology: How Modern Technology Has Affected Education
• Honesty and Intermediation: Corporate Cheating, Auditor Involvement and the Implications for Development
• Can Cheat the Cheater: Consequences of Cheating
• Attitudes Toward Cheating Behavior Among College Students
• Cheating and Incentives: Learning From a Policy Experiment
• Cheating for Fun and Profit: If You Over-Fill, You Are Cheating Yourself; If You Under-Fill, You Are Cheating the Customer
• Cheating Explained Through Sociological Concepts
• Academic Dishonesty and Prevalent Cheating Strategy
• Dismissal Students From College for Cases of Cheating or Plagiarism
• Cheating for the Common Good in a Macroeconomic Policy Game
• Tax Evasion: Cheating Rationally or Deciding Emotionally
• Sabotaging Another: Priming Competition Increases Cheating Behavior in Tournaments
• Competition and Extrinsic Motivation as Predictors of Academic Cheating
• Catching Cheating Teachers: The Results of an Unusual Experiment
• The Impact of the VW Emission-Cheating Scandal on the Interrelation Between Large Automakers’ Equity and Credit Markets
• Cheating, Emotions, and Rationality: An Experiment on Tax Evasion
• Disguising Lies—Image Concerns and Partial Lying in Cheating Games
• All-Time Cheaters Versus Cheaters in Distress: An Examination of Cheating and Oil Prices in OPEC
• Cheating: The Ethical Dilemma All Junior Officers Face
• Episodic Future: Thinking About the Ideal Self Induces Lower Discounting, Leading to a Decreased Tendency Toward Cheating
• The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead
• Revisiting Revise: Testing Unique and Combined Effects of Reminding, Visibility, and Self-Engagement Manipulations on Cheating Behavior
• Are Competition and Extrinsic Motivation Reliable Predictors of Academic Cheating?
• Are Students Cheating Due to Pressure?
• Does Competition Enhance Performance or Cheating?
• Does Gen Z’s Emotional Intelligence Promote Cheating?
• Has Cheating Become the New Fair Play?
• How Chinese Students Are Cheating To Get Into U.S.?
• How Educators Are Preventing High-Tech Cheating?
• How Income and Tax Rates Provoke Cheating?
• Why Academic Cheating Occurs?
• Why Cheating and Plagiarism Are on the Rise?
• Why Schools Should Crack Down on Cheating?
• What Is the Major Cause of Academic Cheating?
• Why Is Academic Cheating a Problem?
• How Can Cheating in School Affect Your Future?
• What Are the Effect of Cheating?
• How Do You Deal with a Cheating Student?
• What Should a Teacher Do to a Student Caught Cheating?
• What Does Cheating Mean in School?
• What Are the Five Types of Cheating?
• How Common Is Cheating in School?
• What Leads to Cheating in School?
• Why Students Should Stop Cheating?
• Why Is Cheating in Schools Getting Worse?
• What Are the Advantages of Cheating?
• How Often Do Students Get Caught Cheating?
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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Academic Concerns — Cheating

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The Cheating Epidemic in America

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#1 Spot for Defeating Online Exams

Essay on cheating in online exams.

Cheating during online exams has become a serious problem among students. Cheating can take various forms, from writing down math formulas on palm leaves to copying homework or sharing exam questions among peers.

Cheating becomes popular due to student’s strong desire for good marks. Students want to satisfy both their parents’ and teachers’ egos as well as satisfy their vanity.

Online testing creates an environment in which candidates may attempt to cheat by communicating with friends and family while taking an exam , or accessing untrustworthy websites containing answers. This presents universities and organizations conducting exams online a significant problem; not only can it compromise students’ grades but it can damage reputation of learning centres as a whole. Students should enrol at schools that adhere to fair assessment policies.

Students attempting to cheat an online exam can use various tools, from smartphones and remote software, to asking friends or experts for assistance via Skype, WhatsApp and other apps that allow for secret messaging – this method of cheating has become increasingly popular as it allows students to take tests from home without the inconvenience of travelling physically to a test center.

Another effective method of cheating an online test is asking a friend or family member to sit in on it with them, who then can provide answers by whispering or showing them on screen. To avoid this from occurring, schools should implement an authenticated system which cannot be breached.

Many students also employ tech gadgets such as projectors and cameras in an attempt to cheat in online exams , including proctoring software. By hiding their faces from proctoring cameras or looking around the room without being caught by them, students can hide from proctoring software while concealing themselves by hiding behind objects in the room or hiding their faces when looking around; voice command devices allow them to call assistants; they may copy-paste answers prepared in advance into notes or documents located in separate windows so as to confuse proctoring software and avoid detection by proctoring software and proctoring software allowing them to evade proctoring software and not be detected easily.

Many students may be tempted to cheat in online exams because they want to pass the course or secure employment, and see their grades as proof of achievement and self-worth. This is particularly prevalent when taking entrance examinations or graduate degree exams that carry high stakes – however it’s essential that they remember cheating is an offense with long-term repercussions.

Online exams present students with ample opportunities for cheating . Some will use social media, texting or video chat software to communicate with other students while taking an exam , which can result in major complications for test administrators. Such communication could result in everything from cheating to cyberbullying; as a result, it is crucial that student communications during an online examination be closely monitored.

Students cheat out of pressure from society to achieve high grades and enroll in elite schools and universities so as to secure themselves employment and achieve success, which often leads them to engage in academic dishonesty – some students even making cheating an integral part of their everyday routines.

Some of the most frequent methods students use to cheat in online tests include searching the Internet for answers or downloading and copying other people’s answers from elsewhere, or asking a friend or family member to take their exam for them, or using screen-sharing software like Zoom or Skype as third-party assistance during an exam. All these techniques aim at evading detection by proctors during online examinations.

An online test that requires the application of knowledge rather than mere memory can be particularly hard for students to cheat on; they tend to cheat more easily when answering questions at lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy such as remembering and understanding. To combat this type of cheating, application questions that focus on analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information is more likely to deter cheating.

Remind students of your institution’s academic integrity policies right before an exam starts to have an immediate psychological effect on those contemplating cheating , while simultaneously encouraging them to do well in class. A video featuring an instructor providing guidelines for taking the exam and outlining its consequences would also be very effective in this respect.

Self-esteem

Self-esteem, which refers to feelings about one’s worth, abilities, morals and image is an integral component of psychology and has been the subject of thousands of empirical studies. A person’s sense of self can be determined by multiple factors including physical image; perceptions about accomplishments/capabilities/values that they strive to live up to; how others view them etc.

People who possess healthy senses of self-esteem will be better equipped to deal with failure. For instance, when taking an exam and failing it may be put down to not studying hard enough or simply having an off day. Someone with lower self-esteem may see failure as proof they’re doomed for life – more likely to fail future tests too.

Teachers can assist these students by teaching healthy strategies for managing anxiety such as reminding them of all they’ve already accomplished and reinforcing that their abilities will help them succeed on test day. For example, encouraging recognition of knowledge acquired already and affirmation that skills acquired will enable success are two tactics that might help.

Teachers can encourage their students to ask questions during exams via email or office hours rather than expecting that they will be able to solve problems independently in an online environment. This will help ease anxiety caused by thinking they must do it alone while creating a realistic view of learning potential rather than becoming disillusioned and cheating during online tests .

Cheating can occur in online exams in several ways. One such way involves collaboration among multiple people: this form of cheating allows students to ask their friends for assistance taking an exam via texting, messaging apps or video calls; smartphone mirroring allows students to share answers with each other more easily while online chat rooms allow individual cheaters to discuss exam questions and solutions – often leading to grade inflation that harms honest students’ grades.

Students can also attempt to disrupt the proctoring system or other components of an online exam by disrupting it themselves. For instance, they might try convincing their teacher that files they submitted were corrupted – giving them more time and opportunity for cheating more efficiently.

Some online exam systems are intended to prevent cheating by monitoring an examinee’s behavior, yet these measures may not always work effectively; students could bypass anti-cheating features by connecting their computers directly to networks using tools like an internet proxy server; therefore test administrators must be mindful of potential vulnerabilities that may exist and take measures accordingly.

Cheating in online education is a serious problem that must be taken seriously, as it can lead to dishonesty and misrepresentation of an examinee’s true ability. Furthermore, cheating may damage an institution’s reputation as well as cause students dissatisfaction resulting in dissatisfaction among examination panels. Yet many institutions continue using online tests despite these challenges because of the numerous benefits it brings their students .

A secure and trustworthy environment is key to preventing cheating in an online exam , and proctoring services provide this. A good proctor should detect any cheating attempts quickly and punish those found guilty, while also pinpointing their source.

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ChatGPT was tipped to cause widespread cheating. Here's what students say happened

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Science ChatGPT was tipped to cause widespread cheating. Here's what students say happened

As teachers met before the start of the 2023 school year, there was one big topic of conversation: ChatGPT.

Education departments banned students from accessing the artificial intelligence (AI) writing tool, which could produce essays, complete homework, and cheat on take-home assignments.

Some experts said schools would be swamped by a wave of cheating.

And then? Well, school continued.

The expected wave never broke. Or if it did, it was difficult to detect.

Many teachers said they strongly suspected students were cheating, but it was hard to tell for sure. 

Meanwhile, some schools went in the opposite direction, embracing the new AI tools. Principals said students needed to learn how to use a technology that would probably define their futures.

But there was one perspective missing in all this: that of the students themselves.

As the school year drew to a close, we spoke to Year 11 and 12 students about how they actually ended up using generative AI tools.

Overall, these are stories from a historic moment, and an insight into the future of education. This is the first year where high school students could easily access high quality AI writing tools.

Here's what they had to say.

'The chatbot could smash it out in seconds'

Some were initially curious, but also cautious.

Some used it once then stopped. Others kept going.

Some got caught, but many didn't.

For Eric, who asked to remain anonymous, the arrival of ChatGPT in the summer of 2022–23 was a mixed blessing.

To stop students using AI to cheat on take-home assignments, his school switched to more in-class assessments.

But Eric, who has ADHD, struggles to concentrate in exams.

"That sort of crippled my chances at doing great in school," he says.

"Exams are the death of me."

But the new AI writing tool had its uses. In term one, he experimented with cheating, using ChatGPT to write a take-home geography assignment (though it didn't count towards his HSC).

He wasn't caught and got a decent grade.

Next, he gave ChatGPT his homework. 

"It's just meaningless, monotonous work. And, you know, the chatbot could just smash it out in seconds."

Eric estimates that, over the course of 2023, ChatGPT wrote most of his homework.

"So around 60 per cent of my homework was written by ChatGPT," he says.

AI cheating creates divide among classmates

Students at other schools told similar stories.

Chrysoula, a Year 11 student in Sydney, initially used ChatGPT "very often to complete homework I deemed just tedious".

A lot of her classmates were doing the same, she says.

"Any time someone read a good answer out in class discussions, there was someone leaning over whispering 'Chat[GPT]?'

"Everyone doubted the authenticity of everyone's answers."

But as the year drew on, Chrysoula found her "critical and analytical thinking was slightly impaired".

"I was beginning to form a dependence on the AI to feed me the knowledge to rote learn."

Worried about AI harming her learning abilities, Chrysoula blocked herself from accessing the ChatGPT website.

The students who are still cheating are easy to spot, she says.

They often waste time in class and leave coursework to complete at home, when they can access AI tools. Their essays overuse words that ChatGPT favours, like "profound", or "metaphors for things like tapestries".

"They even hand in entire assessments written entirely by AI."

Phil, a Year 12 student at a different high school, also sees a divide that's formed among his classmates, based on how much each student uses AI to do their coursework.

His school allows students to use ChatGPT for ideas and research but not to directly write assessments.

But many students still cheat on take-home assignments, Phil says. He's worried they "aren't learning anything" and their poor performance in the HSC exams will ultimately hurt his ATAR.

"There's a significant population of the school who just aren't doing any work, and that drives us down because of how the ATAR system works."

Harry, a Year 11 student at another school, uses ChatGPT for some homework, but not for assignments.

His reason? The AI's answers aren't good enough.

"When you want to get the top marks, I'd say that's when you do want to use your own brain and you do want to critically think."

How common is AI cheating in schools?

Many of the high school students we spoke with weren't using AI to cheat, even though they could get away with it.

Whether this is representative of students in general is hard to say, as there's very little reliable data on cheating rates.

But at least one survey suggests that rates of AI cheating among students may be lower than generally assumed.

In mid-2023, the Centre for Democracy and Technology asked US high school students how much they used generative AI tools to do their coursework, and then compared this with the estimates of teachers and parents.

Kristin Woelfel, a co-author of the report , says teachers and parents consistently overestimate how many students use AI to cheat.

"While 58 per cent of students report having used generative AI in the past year, only 19 per cent of that group reports using it to write and submit papers," she says.

She says the survey data doesn't support the inflammatory predictions about cheating made at the start of the year.

"Students are primarily using generative AI for personal reasons rather than academic."

But Kane Murdoch, head of academic integrity at Macquarie University, says that even if the rate of AI cheating is low now, it's likely to go up.

He believes students will gain confidence, and learn how to use AI to automate more of their coursework.

"It could be 2023 was the year they dipped their toe in the water, but 2024 and moving ahead you’ll get increasingly large body parts into the pool.

"And soon enough they’ll be in the deep end."

Banning AI cheating hasn't worked

Many of the students we spoke to say teachers have little power to stop them from using AI tools for homework or assignments.

The past year proved blocking access to AI tools, as well as detecting AI-written coursework, was ineffective.

Students described numerous ways of evading the blocks on accessing ChatGPT on school computers, or through a school's Wi-Fi network.

They also told how they copied their ChatGPT-written answers into other AI tools, designed to confuse the schools' AI-detection software.

"Nearly every AI detector I've come across is inaccurate," Chrysoula says.

Mr Murdoch agrees.

"There's lot of skepticism about the efficacy of detection — and I'm among those who are skeptical."

He says educators were reluctant to rely on flawed plagiarism-detection tools to accuse a student of cheating.

"As an investigator [of cheating] I'm unwilling to accept the detectors word on it," he says.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has warned that there is no reliable way for educators to work out if students are using ChatGPT.

Several major universities in the US have turned off AI detection software, citing concerns over accuracy and a fear of falsely accusing students of using AI to cheat.

Mr Murdoch says Australian universities are also wary of relying on detection software.

But they disagree over what to do next. Some believe that better detection is the answer, while others are pushing for a change to the way learning is assessed.

"Programmatic" assessment, such as interviews and practical exams, may be one answer.

"It would mean we don't assess as much, and what we do assess we can actually hang our hat on," Mr Murdoch says.

"It's more like turning the ship in a very different direction rather than a slight course change.

"It's a much more difficult thing to grapple with."

Schools may go from banning bots to letting them teach

While the impact of AI on students has won most of the public attention, some education experts say the bigger story of 2023 may be how this technology changes the work of teaching.

Over the course of the year, schools have broadly gone from banning the technology to cautiously embracing it.

In February, state and federal education ministers slapped a year-long ban on student use of AI at state- and government-run schools.

Then, in October, the ministers agreed to lift the ban from term one next year.

The announcement brought public schools more in line with the approach of private and Catholic schools.

Federal education minister Jason Clare said at the time that "ChatGPT was not going away".

"We've got to learn how to use it," he said.

"Kids are using it right across the country ... we're playing catch-up."

But some observers are worried this new embrace of AI will replace in-person, teacher-led instruction.

The education industry is now promoting an idea of "platformisation", says Lucinda McKnight, a digital literacy expert at Deakin University.

"This is the idea that bots deliver education. The teacher shortage is solved by generative AI."

Custom-built chatbots, personalised for each student and loaded with the relevant curriculum, would teach, encourage and assess. Teachers would be experts in teaching , rather than the subject being taught.

But robo-classrooms like this have their drawbacks, Dr McKnight says.

Interacting with (human) teachers plays an important part in a child's emotional and social development.

"It's not the robots that are the problem, it's the fact students are going to be treated like robots," she says.

Macquarie University's Kane Murdoch says education institutions made a series of kneejerk reactions and false starts, such as the ChatGPT ban, in response to emergent AI technology in 2023.

Next year will see them make big changes, he predicts.

He's concerned that AI cheating will ultimately devalue educational qualifications.

"We can't expect this to go away. It is a game changer — it is existential," he says.

"If the public lose faith in what we do, we lose."

Student accounts suggest that, although not all want to cheat when they can, many are happy to automate tasks they see as rote learning rather than true tests of knowledge.

For Eric, who used ChatGPT to do most of his homework this year, the AI tool provided a shortcut through an already flawed system.

"I would have had such a worse time this year if ChatGPT wasn't prominent," he says.

"I think it would be very difficult for you to find a student that was sitting the HSC right now that hasn't used it for something."

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One in 5 teens who have heard of ChatGPT say they've used it for schoolwork, study finds

• A Pew Center study found that one in five teens who have heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork. 
• Teachers fear the huge popularity of the chatbot is fuelling a cheating epidemic.
• OpenAI is exploring how to integrate ChatGPT even further into classrooms, per Reuters.

ChatGPT's takeover of the classroom is not slowing down.

A new Pew research center survey of US teens aged between 13 and 17 has found that one in five students who have heard of the generative chatbot have used it to help with their schoolwork.

With around two-thirds of US teenagers having heard of ChatGPT, that is a lot of kids using OpenAI's chatbot to help write essays and solve math problems.

The findings will likely only add to concerns over the use of AI text-generators in schools. ChatGPT is so popular among students right now that its US traffic dropped by over 10% when schools finished for summer.

Its growing presence in classrooms has fuelled fears of a cheating epidemic, with another survey conducted earlier this year finding that one in four teachers say they have caught their students cheating using ChatGPT.

Some have sought to make their classes "ChatGPT-proof" by going back to handwritten essays and oral exams, with one teacher telling Business Insider they were planning on "going medieval" in an effort to thwart the chatbot.

The problem has been made worse by the fact that there is no easy way to detect when essays have been written by AI.

OpenAI itself has admitted that AI content detectors are too inaccurate to be reliable , and several universities have said they will stop using them after high-profile cases of students being falsely accused of cheating .

Despite this, OpenAI seems determined to get ChatGPT into the classroom. Earlier this month, the company's COO Brad Lightcap told a San Francisco conference that OpenAI was looking at establishing a team that would help educators incorporate ChatGPT into the curriculum, according to Reuters .

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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An urgent overhaul of VCE exams is needed after multiple errors, experts say. But how did this happen?

One mathematician blames a shift in recent decades away from top professors and subject experts being responsible for exam papers

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Leading academics have called for an urgent overhaul of VCE exams after Victorian high school students sat tests plagued by a series of errors.

Thousands of students were given bonus marks for errors in specialist and general maths papers this year, while six Chinese language students at two schools were given the wrong exam papers .

Social media posts claimed to contain information from the wrongly distributed Chinese exam, which was not due to be held until Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Victorian Curriculum And Assessment Authority issued a “special message” telling chief supervisors to instruct students to cross out a specific question.

It did not respond to questions about how the six students who completed the wrong Chinese exam would be marked, or whether a new exam was issued.

The VCAA has launched a review into the 2023 exams and issued an apology .

But experts say this isn’t the first year errors have been found and say more needs to be done to renew confidence in the “education state”.

How did the mistakes occur?

Victoria’s education minister, Ben Carroll, told reporters he was “disappointed” with the VCAA, adding he had met the body multiple times during the exam period.

“These stuff-ups should not have occurred in the first place,” he said on Monday. “We have to ensure this won’t be repeated next year.”

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Carroll said he had asked the VCAA to work with academic experts in the writing, designing and vetting of exams.

Stephen Gniel, the former CEO of the VCAA who will be seconded to Acara as acting CEO from 20 November, told ABC Melbourne on Tuesday the VCE errors were “unacceptable” and said a review would be completed before the next exam period.

“Obviously something’s gone wrong this year … we’ve been upfront about that,” he said.

The state’s shadow education minister, Jess Wilson, said the investigation should be independent, and accompanied by a public report “well ahead” of 2024’s papers.

“It is unacceptable that the minister is refusing to commission an independent review of a VCE exam period that has been riddled with mistakes, errors and mismanagement,” she said.

“A review conducted by the same people responsible for these mistakes will not get to the bottom or what went wrong, or fix the system for future years.”

But Marty Ross, a mathematician said the issue wasn’t just a one-off citing a shift in recent decades away from top professors and subject experts being responsible for exam papers to education academics and teachers, who may not be as qualified to pick up on mistakes.

“We’re been fighting this for years,” he said. “VCAA claims mathematicians are involved but what do they mean by it? Because it’s evident they don’t have the mathematical expertise for the job.”

Ross said transparency was also an issue, with greater accountability needed as to who constructed the papers and how they were vetted.

“One of the problems is we don’t know the process,” he said. “VCAA is astonishingly opaque … they need to admit they have a problem.”

In response to questions about the Chinese exam, a spokesperson for the VCAA said any breach of integrity was “taken seriously” and it had taken necessary action to “ensure exams are fair”.

So far, though, the VCAA hasn’t given an explanation of how any of the mistakes occurred.

How have teachers and students responded?

Teachers, students and academics have been highly critical of Victoria’s examinations, which finished on Wednesday.

Almost 200 people signed a student petition condemning the “unacceptable” mistakes and urging the VCAA commit to a number of reforms, including transparency over the writing, checking and administration process and a full overhaul of future exams.

The VCAA has not responded to the petition.

Were these the first errors?

A group of mathematicians allege mistakes have been appearing on past VCE papers for more than a decade , including last year.

Ross and his colleague Burkard Polster, a Monash University professor, have been lobbying the VCAA to improve the quality of maths exams, after raising concerns about the presence of “serious errors” in 2022 papers.

Their complaints contributed to an external review conducted by Deloitte.

A summary of the report, provided to the mathematicians last month, claimed there were “no major mathematical errors” in the 2022 exam, instead identifying “room for improvement in the language and grammar used and level of marks provided”.

In a parliamentary submission this year, teacher John Kermond similarly alleged mathematics exams and reports contained errors “almost every year for the last 20 years”. He said student confidence was “severely undermined” by the VCAA’s “consistent errors and failure to acknowledge them”.

The VCAA continues to deny there were any serious errors on exams in 2022, despite dozens of mathematicians signing an open letter alleging at least five questions were “unacceptably flawed”.

How are other states faring?

Significant mistakes have not been picked up in any of the other 2023 exams.

The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (Qcaa) said it issued one notice to schools ahead of an exam this year to correct a typographical error.

In 2020, it also made a late change to a mathematical methods test in 2020 based on a grammatical mistake.

The New South Wales Education Standards Authority – responsible for the HSC – issued no errors this year but has been subject to some past controversy.

In 2022, it mistakenly published exam results several days early , prompting an investigation, and in 2020 a Sydney school appealed after an exam supervisor gave the wrong finish time.

A spokesperson for Nesa said it followed “rigorous procedures” to limit disruption to students during the exam period, citing committees made up of 300 members who developed the written papers.

“HSC exams are reviewed by experienced teachers and subject experts to ensure they align with exam specifications and are within scope of syllabuses,” they said.

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Why we might sue TSC over exam cheating - KUPPET

Posted: November 20, 2023 | Last updated: November 20, 2023

Missori decried the move by the ministry to transfer supervisors to different centres during this year's national exam period.

He said the frequent transfers of the centre managers are an inconvenience.

Kenya Union of Post Primary School Teachers Secretary General Akelo Missori has said the union will sue the Teachers Service Commission if it takes action against school heads accused of being part of examination malpractice.

Missori on Sunday in Meru accused TSC of harassing head teachers on allegations of taking part in exam malpractices.

"If TSC goes ahead to discipline our teachers, this time round we are going to court so that the truth will be unveiled. Because I think it is only the court which can compel the parties to bring the evidence that they have," Missori said.

The KUPPET boss said they would want Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, TSC and the Kenya National Examination Council to be on the dock if the matter proceeds to court.

Additionally, Missori decried the move by the ministry to transfer supervisors to different centres during this year's national exam period.

"For the first time, supervisors are being transferred. One week you are in this station then the other week you are in another station. They don't even consider the kind of disruption that the teachers suffer," Missori said.

"If you have been given the job of supervision in a station close to where you live then when you are taken to the next station they don't consider that."

Further, KUPPET criticised the government for allegedly mishandling the teachers who provide the best services in their jobs in different schools in the country.

"Members who are handling the Junior Secondary School learners have been subjected to a very unconducive learning environment. These heads of institutions are handling our members wrongly," KUPPET Meru Executive Secretary Peter Karuti said.

Karuti said primary school heads ought to handle the teachers in JSS better.

In a circular on August 7, as the ministry was preparing to administer the 2023 national exams, TSC CEO Nancy Macharia had warned that any teacher caught aiding in exam malpractice would face severe disciplinary measures.

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