An open letter for all academic cheaters
Tags: Exam Preparation, Teachers, Improvement, Cheating, Students

An open letter for all academic cheaters Theodorrism Follow Mar 4 · 7 min read

Photo by MChe Lee on Unsplash

It doesn’t matter at what point in your student life you’ve encountered this exploit. It doesn’t matter how many times your classmates have done this. Perhaps it’s safe to say as well that it doesn’t really matter how many times your classmates had told you to do it. The important question is… have you actually done it?

Now, I’m not gonna present myself to be innocent, nor am I going to portray myself as a completely dignified person. I have done it, multiple times for that matter. I know it’s going to be hard for you to admit that you’ve done it, even though I’m pretty sure you have. Just remember that admitting and facing the reality is one step to becoming a better version of yourself.

“I know cheating on an exam is bad, but why do I do it? Why do other people do it? Why am I encouraged to do it the more I see other people do it? If other people are doing it, surely it’s okay to do it too, right?” are the questions that are probably echoing in your head right now. Some of your thoughts might even be generated by your mind to compensate for your cheating, or perhaps maybe to convince yourself that you’ve done nothing wrong and that it’s completely normal.

What is cheating and why is it deemed bad by society?

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Cheating is a method of creating a way that will allow a student to have an unfair advantage over others in order to pass. As stated in the definition, cheaters will use one or more of their available unfair advantage to gain points on their exams, using as less mental abilities as possible. The fact that it is unfair makes it unacceptable, and for some, even disgusting. The idea that you needed to cheat to pass the exam is a sign of weakness, or simply a sign of desparation.

For some, they don’t feel any form of guilt for being unfair as long as they get what they want. However, what they don’t realize is that the more they cheat, the more they resist any academic improvement. Whenever a student resists academic improvement, they stop themselves from evolving since they no longer have to rely on their own mental abilities to pass.

How is cheating dangerous for you and for others?

At first glance, you’d think that cheating is not that big of a deal. “You’re just passing an exam with the cheat sheet you brought in.” or whatever you might think of it. What cheaters fail to realize is that cheating is just like a drug, very addictive. Once you do it, you’ll get hooked. The more you do it, the more you want to continue doing it.

It’s scary, I guess. But it’s the truth, and the truth is scary.

Not only does it just mean you’re fooling yourself, you’re also fooling your teachers and your family & relatives. Not to mention that it goes beyond that. The exam you cheated on when you were in the 5th grade that enabled you to gain an overall high score can be seen on your college resources.

“How does it fool you?” you might ask. It fools you into believing that you are becoming better. Whenever you feel that you’re improving when you cheat, you really don’t. You might improve on creating your cheat sheets or hiding your cheating shenanigans from the teacher over-looking your exams, but your mental ability will stay the same.

Whenever you gain an award by having high academic grades, you’re only amplifying the fact that you’re fooling yourself. You’re accepting something that you don’t deserve. The moment you tell your academic achievements on social media, you’re fooling multiple other people into believing that it’s actually a legit achievement.

Generally, why do we do something that we are completely aware of as being bad?

According to Lawrence Kholberg’s Morality Development Theory, there are three defined stages of morality: Preconventional (Premoral), Conventional, and Postconventional (Principled). At what stage an individual’s morality is at will depend on how they create a reaction to a decision presented to them.

Preconventional (premoral) individuals will avoid doing something bad to avoid punishments, and they will do something good to reap rewards. Conventional individuals will pick a decision that will most likely benefit them, without regards as to if their decision is right or wrong. Postconventional (principled) individuals, when faced with a decision, will recall their principles or their values to formulate a reaction.

Now when it comes to cheating, academic cheaters would generally be at the conventional stage of Kholberg’s Morality Development as the decision they make: to cheat, will benefit them in their situation, disregarding the fact that what they are doing is technically wrong.

It would seem like when faced with the option to take the easy way out, cheaters will take that route despite it being unfair to the others who worked hard for their grades. They abandon their morals in order to get a high score on their exams, which will reflect their overall grade on the card. They see cheating as a form of shortcut to success.