Engineering Students Cheating Exam Styles
Engineering school is not at all exempted from students who cheat in tests and written work. In fact, these students are among the most notorious when it comes to this kind of academic dishonesty.
A study by cheating expert Donald McCabe of Rutgers University revealed that engineering students are among the type of students that cheat the most, just behind the topnotch cheaters which are the business students. The survey asked engineering graduates if they ever cheated in an exam at least once, and 54% of the sample population admitted that they did.
There is no denial to this as I had my fair share of cheating back in college. I have done it a few times when my grades are at the most critical. And I can tell that I’m not the only doing this because we usually discuss the tricks in groups, also witnessing the cheating styles being executed during exams.
Of course I’m not proud of it. Even when I’m not caught – either I’m that good in pulling off my tricks or my teachers simply accepted the fact that students cheat – I feel some sort of guilt at present. My reason is that I had to do it at the time because I needed to pass. But that is all behind me now. I’m not that kind of person anymore.
Before you use my confession against me, I have come up with a list of the most common modern cheating styles in exams that are being done by engineering students from around the world. No, these aren’t recommendations, but more of an illustration of how far others will go just to get away with passing grades. Yeah, I’ve done some of these before.
If by any case you plan to do any of these in class, you are already warned. The odds are that your professors already know these cheating styles before you do – remember that they were also once students like you. But if you do it and get caught, just prepare yourself from any serious consequences.
Writing notes on the back of calculator in pencil
Without the flash of the camera, lead isn’t really visible at the back of the calculator. It can only be seen at a certain angle.
Putting notes on fingernails
Because writing over the skin is so overrated, some have chosen to cheat through the nails. They write notes on a readable level.
Placing secret notes in pens
The only way you can get away with this is having the proctor out of your sight. Why would you dismantle a pen during an exam?
Using ultra-violet pens and invisible ink
Unless you can have a solid explanation why you have a UV torch up your desk, this is a genius cheating style.
Making use of calculators with memory functions
When you have constants to remember and you can’t seem to memorize them, the easiest hack is to store in a calculator. That is if your calculator has a memory function and such calculators are allowed in your exams.
Writing notes on the inside cover of a water bottle label and sticking it back on
One of the classic ones but still does not fail, stickers on bottles are widely used by engineering students. You get to sip with your drink and also slip in some formulas behind the label!
Returning a corrected paper to the teacher but with the students’ changes
With the correct solutions ready, you can pull this off and get additional scores. But the professor would be suspicious if he notices the ridiculous amount of corrections in your paper.
Which cheating styles have you made from this list? What can you add? Place in the comment box below!
