Practices like hacking into professors’ computers to get advance copies of exam papers, hiding note cards or filling notes inside emptied out pens used to be typical methods of cheating.[break] Although these conventional methods are still used, schools are now witnessing newer, more techno-savvy methods of cheating.
“Recent advances in science and technology have brought changes in almost everything, including our ways of cheating. Although copying from neighbors’ papers is our all-time emblematic way of cheating, there are many innovative techniques being invented these days that are seemingly less risky and more guaranteed,” says Ashankan Sharma, 18, currently doing his+2.
According to him, using programmable graphical calculators have become one of the hottest means of cheating at exams. Many students agree that using wireless monitors is one of the easiest ways of communicating inside the examination hall. Apart from these state-of-the-art technological devices used in cheating, pupils taking exams have increasingly been using other devices like cameras, walkmans, iPods and micro-recorders.
Worse, the monotonous exam patterns have added fuel to the fire by forcing students to study selective subjects thereby increasing the trend of cheating. Monotonous exam system helps fuel the trend since students can make assumptions and guesswork easily on the types of questions to be asked. Ramesh Nath Dawadi, Vice- Principal of Budhanilkantha School terms this a “backwash effect”, which he said has motivated many students to cheat.
Study programs have been structured under the concept of ‘division of labor’, designating certain portions for students to prepare for the test so as to minimize the amount of studying, thus, paving an easier path to cheating.
The underlying assumption for cheating is to improve or obtain better test scores though it may not be helpful when it comes to gaining knowledge.
Madhu Sharma, 21, currently doing her BBA-BI in Apex College says, “There’re some teachers who want carbon-copy answers from the text books.” She says that many students who use their own knowledge and creativity in answering the questions often get lower test scores irrespective of how relevant are their answers. “They get lower marks than those giving verbatim answers straight from the textbooks or the teachers’ notes,” informs Sharma, adding, “That’s why, even some academically sound students are also obligated to cheat.”
Academically advanced students let their peers copy from their answer papers. This is because academically weaker students either worry about failing in front of their talented peers or that the stronger ones feel obliged to help their friends.
And, there are those categories of students who fear that if they don’t score well on par with their mates, they might be ridiculed or excluded from the cliques of intellectuals, and, thus, they resort to copying.
There are those who harbor a belief that letting their friends cheat from their papers will make them more popular in the group and does a lot to boost his/her ego.
Cheating in exams has therefore become an easy way to achieve good scores without having to put extra effort or become sincere towards studies.
Just as the new and innovative ways of cheating are being invented, colleges and schools are also coming up with stricter regulatory measures to counter
cheating.
“We supervise examinations according to the code of conduct as provided by the boards. Letting the students to use certain types of calculators and keeping distances between two examinees are some of the commonly employed strategies to do away with the practice of cheating. We also take actions against the cheaters as per the rules of the board,” claims Dawadi. Generally, punishment is aimed at discouraging students from cheating, he says.
Dawadi tells us that invigilators’ negligence and dismally poor facilitates is fuelling cheating in exam halls. “Exam proctors must be serious about this,” he says, adding, “A student is key in this process of minimizing cheating, he should feel responsible.”
continued, “He should be well-prepared and confident about the exam he is going to sit for. On the school’s part, the question setters could minimize cheating by bringing variations in questions’ pattern and orders.”
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