Rampant Cheating

We had a lot of people blantantly cheating during some of our test. It does bother me that I kick my but for an "A" and there are people cheating. Someone eventually told some professors about the cheating and we have four teachers walking around for all of our following exams (which was a good thing). If I was the program administrator and they caught some kid cheating I'd kick them out for good. That might seem a little harsh but would you want someone who cheated their way through nursing school pumping a medication directly into your bloodstream?

Cheating should not be tolerated by any student. If a school does not have a policy demanding that students report cheating, IMO students, especially those in medicine (nursing, DO, MD, PA, etc) should report to the proper authorities. The nature of our jobs, once trained and liscensed, is to work as a team and save lives. It is not enough to believe that cheaters will be weeded out by boards or testing.

What happens when these "cheaters" are on our team providing patient care and take a short cut or cheat... because the system has allowed them to do that?? Does anyone remember the case a couple years ago when someone received the wrong type organs in a transplant? I would go so far to say that someone, somewhere "cheated" and the entire team failed, not to mention the tragedy for the pt and family (and entire medical community.)

Come on fellow students... let's insist on the best possible team members, starting now, while we are getting our training.

SJ

Grades gotten by cheating demean grades earned through hard work.

Complain to the teacher.

Report it to the dean of students.

And get ready. No one likes someone who calls them on their crap.

Good luck, and don't give up. There are lots of us who are honest, and there are lazy dishonest people everywhere. Forgive the latter but hang out with the former.

I always sit in front so I never see anyone cheating. I've heard rumors. It doesn't really bug me all that much; I like knowing that I got my A because I deserved, and worked for, my A. I realized it when someone offered me "help" that I would consider cheating. And then I realized, I like the satisfaction of knowing that I got my A because I deserved my A, not because I cheated. If I cheated, then I would never know for sure, and wouldn't be as confident in my knowledge and skills. Confidence counts for a lot...especially when you start working!

NurseFirst

I wouldn't tell the teachers/professors who's cheating on a test b/c I don't really care if anyone else does it as long as I end up in the nursing program myself and they end up passing the NCLEX. I'm not saying it is the right thing to do, but if I was cheating on a test I wouldn't want someone to go tell the professor. If that someone really cared they would talk to me and tell me that cheating isn't going to get me anywhere and maybe give me some advice on how to study better or something along those lines and try to help me out instead of trying to get me kicked out of the school.

But that's for classes related to nursing. I really don't care if someone in the nursing major is cheating in a Art 1A class for general education unless that somehow relates to patient care. And I definetely wouldn't tell a professor about that kind of situation. Half of the GE classes are just useless anyways.

Wow, I can't believe they allow cheating like that to go on!

I've NEVER seen any cheating going on within my class. I don't see how it would be possible. When we get into the room to take our exam, we have to sit at our own table (normally there are 2 students/table), we have to put our backpacks/purses/etc against the walls. If we want to go to the bathroom/blow our nose/get a drink, one of the proctors has to go with us. It may seem strict, but that's how it should be. I'm told it's like that during the NCLEX, even more strict .... so why shouldn't it be like that during nursing school, too?

Cheaters suck. They deserve to fail. They are putting their patients in harms way by cheating on exams. And they are hurting themselves, because I don't see how they would be able to pass the NCLEX after cheating all throughout nursing school ... and they deserve to fail it. Sorry, I just have no tolerance for that crap.

Wow, I can't believe they allow cheating like that to go on!

I've NEVER seen any cheating going on within my class. I don't see how it would be possible. When we get into the room to take our exam, we have to sit at our own table (normally there are 2 students/table), we have to put our backpacks/purses/etc against the walls. If we want to go to the bathroom/blow our nose/get a drink, one of the proctors has to go with us. It may seem strict, but that's how it should be. I'm told it's like that during the NCLEX, even more strict .... so why shouldn't it be like that during nursing school, too?

Cheaters suck. They deserve to fail. They are putting their patients in harms way by cheating on exams. And they are hurting themselves, because I don't see how they would be able to pass the NCLEX after cheating all throughout nursing school ... and they deserve to fail it. Sorry, I just have no tolerance for that crap.

That does seem a bit strict but that's probably for the better. I would think that our nursing program probably has something along those lines with extra precautions taken during exams to catch cheaters. I'm not in the program yet so I don' t know. The only classes I wouldn't really care if anyone cheated in are the General Education like Art 1A(art history), music history, etc...Unless they are Art majors or music majors of course. But for a nursing major, it shouldn't matter much.

I have never seen any cheating in my classes...but I think that's because I am so focused on what I am doing that I tune everyone else out- HOWEVER- last semester I guess there was a problem because our first 3 tests ( molec bio) she had us just sit in our lecture hall seats right next to one another and for the 4th test suddenly there were multiple versions of the test and everyone had to spread wayyyy out.

I too am so absorbed in my own test I have no idea what else is going on around me.

Cheating is just WRONG! Nursing is a profession that demands ethics.... if cheating is a means to pass the test, they do not deserve to continue. Give those seats to people who are waiting to fill them.

That said, I have to say that I was accused of cheating on the last midterm.

During the test, I used the border of my scantron to help me figure out an answer (wrote A B C D E to figure out some matching lab values....) then erased it. We were not allowed to write on the exam itself because he reused them.

After class I was talking with another classmate and told him how I got past that part..... I was pretty ill with asthma during test and get getting confused on that section. Anyway, a not so nice classmate (for other reasons) overheard this and went to the Prof telling him I brought the lab values into the test on my scantron! She went on to lie that I personally told her...but that's another post.

My prof knows me well and didn't believe her.... but it might not be the case for other people.

Fortunately for me my classmates rallied behind me and didn't believe this malicious person.

I just want you to realize that mistaken accusations can also happen.

Hugs!

MaryRose

We had some pretty rampant "cheating" going on @ my school.....

Basically a group of people (still don't know who they were!) would get together IMMEDIATELY after a test and try and remember the questions/answers and write them all down.

Then they would do this for every test, and pass it down to the next incoming semester.

In a way, its really the teacher's fault. It is his/her job to CHANGE the tests every semester. I know its hard to find good nursing questions, but sorry thats what you are getting paid for. Still, many of the people who used those little "reviews" failed the tests b/c they just tried to sit and memorize the answers rather than studying the material.

Eventually someone turned in the "cheat sheet" and all hell broke loose.... I'm sure its still going on to this day though.....not much can stop a cheater....

When it all comes down to cheating.....those who cheat are going to have a hard time passing (or may NOT pass) the NCLEX. What does it matter if you sit and cheat all through nursing school if you CANT pass the boards!!!

it is hard when people cheat and get A's and then have the high GPA to get into the programs and others are unfairly rejected. Our school is annoying because we have 3 different teachers teaching A&P and one teaches it like a gross anatomy course and is well known throughout the state for the difficulty of his classes. The other two give study guides and easy multiple choice tests with clear cut choices, so it is irritating for those students who are making B's in the hard teachers class to see the other students getting A's easily with study sheets and guides. The bad thing is is that the sciences are more heavily weighted at our school as well, so these students are at a serious advantage as far as getting into the program. Oh well so is life I guess... sigh(and at our school the A&P and Chem classes are so impacted, you better accept the first seat that is open in those classes instead of trying to pick and choose or you might be waiting another 2 semesters or more to start the A&P series which puts you back another .5 to 1 year to start the nursing program afterward)

Since this is the pre-nursing student forum, I'm guessing you are one of the 2,200 competing for 120 spots.

Are you okay with these seats going to people who cheat while you get a thin envelope saying better luck next time?

I know there's no doubt in your mind that cheating is wrong. It's not appealing to be the whistleblower, but think about what is personally at stake for you - your seat the nursing school class!

Seems to me like not reporting the cheating would be kind of like not studying for any of your tests...you know it puts your chances of getting into school in jeopardy - but there IS something you can do about it!

Good luck. Consider anonymous reporting or going to your school's ombudsman to maintain privacy.

(((hugs)))