Cheaters!

[Bre14]

Ok so in my program this semester I have been having quite a more difficult time than I did last semester. (I'm in my 2nd semester) I have med surg, Pharm and Psych. I did less than stellar and got a 75% on my med surg test, my lowest score in the entire program. I thought that a classmate was cheating and mentioned it to a friend in the program, To make a long story short people in my class are cheating and have been seen by more than just me. This just infuriates me. I bust my ass for a 75% and people are in the program freaking cheating and bragging about how high their test scores are. And these people are still in the program! uggghhh. Has anyone else experienced this in their program. And should I mention anything more to the teacher or have I already sat on this information too long?(The teacher is aware that something is going on as she said so last class but I don't believe she knows who.)

[emmy27]

I couldn't see anyone in our program cheating...Really! Our tests are monitored by two instructors...We're not even allowed to wear baseball caps. All book bags have to be placed in the front of the room and you can only have your calculator, pencil, test and scantron with you. You're never allowed to take a test out of the room....I just don't see the opportunity. Plus, most of the people in my class are highly motivated adults......I don't know if it makes a difference, but I can't really see anyone in my class cheating, thank goodness! I couldn't imagine having to look my husband and two little girls in the face and say I got kicked out of the nursing program for cheating....Never!

I would be LIVID if I knew someone was cheating in my class. I'm on about hour 15 of studying for my midterm right now.....To bust my ass for a grade that someone might get from cheating would **** me off to no end. While I might not feel comfortable brining up names, I would mention to an instructor that I think it might be going on.

Agreed on all points. I keep hearing people say thay they see lots of cheating in their programs and I"m flabbergasted. If they even catch us working on care plans in the same location- not TOGETHER, not talking, but simply at the same table/study room, we're out. Of the program.

Tests are run like Ft. Knox. Calculators are distributed from a common pool of nonprogrammable calculators at the beginning of each test and collected at the end. Electronics and everything including hats and water bottles goes at the front of the room the second you walk in, along with bags and outerwear. Tests are redistributed in class once for a review, then recollected and counted before anyone can leave. No other paper is allowed at the desk while we review tests. Booklets and answer sheets are numbered and seating is randomly predetermined by the teacher (so you walk in and are handed a numbered answer sheet, and you walk around the room to find your test booklet, which is already laid out in random order somewhere. And there are seats between every student (usually at least two seats). And... the list goes on. I'm sure, given how inventively awful people are, that there is a way around any of these measures, but it just seems like it would be less WORK to simply learn the material. I haven't noticed anything suspicious at all, and having seen how hard all of my classmates work, I find it hard to believe that any of them are cheating.

I would report cheating, anonymously, by revealing the method rather than the cheater's name. Unless someone approached me to try to cheat off me, in which case I'd take their name to the instructor so damn fast... if there's proof you were cheated off and could be expected to be aware of it and said nothing, that's treated the same as cheating, which is to say you get expelled and you don't come back. I'd "rat" on someone in a heartbeat to avoid losing my years of hardwork to their laziness and lack of ethics.

[Marie-SC]

I have already posted on this thread once before but something that happened today made me come back to it.

A girl that I sit beside in Algebra (who is failing Algebra and A&P I) was studying for her A&P test that was after Algebra class. I say studying but she was actually writing stuff on her hand. Even though it makes me so mad to see some cheat, I kind of felt sorry for her. Did she think a little wrote on her had was going to make that much of a difference? Maybe up her grade to a 50 since her last three grades were in the forty's. Last test she was bragging about how a friend had to take the test before her and when she turned the scantron sheet, she didn't turn in the actual test. So she memorized all of the test questions and answers and still got a 45.

Considering the risk and the effort it takes to cheat, why not just do the work ??????

[LLLovely, BSN, RN]

It is disheartening to see such a long thread dedicated to the prevalence of cheating. I have always been a person who feels that it is important to report something if you are positive of what you have seen, but I also have usually been of the opinion that cheaters cheat themselves.

However, I feel like nursing school or medical school is different and ought to be more ethical. People are people of course and I am not naive enough to believe it won't happen, but I also can't hinge my own morals on the idea that the cheaters will hopefully fail the NCLEX.

Also, I would like to say that sometimes ethics are a funny thing. I saw that some people on the thread have said that they have never been tempted to cheat. I have, absolutely. I have not done it and would never do it because no matter how dire it seems, getting kicked out for cheating would be far worse. But, I won't pretend that I am above thinking about it now and again. I think it's human nature. Being ethical is having the thought of doing something wrong and choosing not to do it, not the lack of having unethical thoughts IMO.