Is it okay to report classmates cheating on exams?

Question

Is it acceptable or ok to report on students cheating? Many times during a test or an exam, I have seen students in front of me either passing notes, or otherwise collaborating whenever the professor isn't looking.

I don't want to get into trouble, and I don't know if it's "alright" to rat on fellow classmates. Part of me thinks they deserve being caught out, by virtue of trying to cheat their way through the course. However, I feel like I would get found out by other students if they were caught cheating.

What is the right course of action here? To be clear, I would never raise an accusation in the middle of an exam; it would only lead to me being ostracized by my peers.

Answer 1

Honor is doing what’s right when no one is looking. If your institution's Honor Code requires you to report cheating, I'd suggest you report the action to your professor or a higher authority. This is good for multiple reasons:

• You can prevent the cheating student from gaining an unfair advantage over his or her fellow students.
• If they're caught (and punished), they might realize their mistake. If you never report the cheating, this student might sail through the rest of the term repeating the same mistake.

However make sure the suspected cheater doesn't come to know who reported him/her. You can meet the professor after the exam and explain what happened. If you don't wish to reveal the person's name, don't. If you're not comfortable with talking to a professor about your classmates, you can send an unsigned letter, explaining in detail what happened during the exam and if possible, include some ideas on how to stop them next time.

Before you do anything, think of the consequences. What if the other student discovers you're the one who reported the cheating? How would you feel if you confronted the cheater directly? If you can't imagine any of these situations, I suggest you let it slide.

Answer 2

As an instructor, I want to know if there is an environment that allows cheating. Even if the student can't provide proof or only told me afterwards or anonymously, I can take action on future exams by better proctoring, exam versioning, and seating charts.

So telling the teacher afterward would protect individual students but improve the quality of the course overall, which is a win-win.

Answer 3

As a professor for over a quarter of a century, I can assure you that your prof would like to know if cheating is going on. When I've been made aware of such nefarious activities, I've been able to catch the culprits on a subsequent exam, by giving the cheaters slightly different versions of the test. Although students engaging in cheating are ultimately cheating themselves, it's still nice when they are caught. This lessens the chance they will make it to Wall Street or Med school, or into government, where their cheating can have serious repercussions for us all.

Answer 4

I'm a college professor and I have very little tolerance for cheating. Yes, I would like to know if it's going on, and, yes, I expect students who witness it to tell me so I can take preventive action.

I also used to be a competitive golfer. In a tournament every golfer is expected to monitor the actions of the other players in his group to make sure no one bends or breaks the rules. Since tournament officials cannot be everywhere on the course at all times, each individual is responsible for protecting the field by making sure that no one gets an unfair advantage over the field. That is a responsibility that competitive golfers take very seriously.

The student, likewise, needs to assure that there is a level playing field for everyone. Reporting cheaters is one way of doing just that.

Answer 5

1. This is a personal choice; there is no definite answer.

2. What is "ethical" depends on the culture. In Russia reporting someone doing something wrong or mildly illegal is generally considered unacceptable, whereas in the United States it is generally considered acceptable.

3. If you don't want to get into trouble, don't do anything.

4. In most cases the instructor probably knows that there is some cheating going on. This is a part of life.

5. Try to see both sides of the coin. Imagine a single mother with two children working two jobs and taking some classes at night. She doesn't really need this calculus anyway, and it is not even her major. Would the world come to an end if she unfairly gets a B- so she could graduate? Life is really a complicated thing... (As a full disclosure, as an instructor I used to be very particular about punishing cheating, even when no hard evidence was present. However, as we get older, we learn that the world is not black and white...)

Answer 6

Fundamentally, this is a question with no easy answer. Ethics would state that you should definitely report someone violating the "honor code" (or whatever equivalent of it your university has) by cheating on an exam. However, there are also some problems with this:

• It may be difficult for the exam proctor to prove that cheating has taken place, even if you have observed the communication.
• Reporting it after the exam is not really possible, because again it will be impossible to prove afterward.
• Making an accusation during the examination could lead to disruptions for many students, including yourself.
• If you publicly raise an accusation of cheating during an examination, this could lead to ostracism from your classmates, which may be counterproductive to your educational career (in the present class and in the future).

So I think you need to set those two issues against one another and decide what is the better alternative for you.

Answer 7

On my honor, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this exam.

I had to write (and sign) this statement on almost all of my exams throughout my university career. My university had a very draconian policy with regard to cheating, as I mentioned in a comment: the default punishment for a first-time offender was expulsion, if the case came before the Honor Council. (Of course, not every case brought before the Council was determined to be an offender, in which case there was no punishment at all. On rare occasions, the punishment was something other than expulsion, usually suspension.) As implied by the statement above, it was against the university's policy both to receive (unauthorized) help on an exam and to give it: both the person passing the note and the one receiving it would get in trouble with the Honor Council, even if the former individual did all of the exam work himself. (You were not punished if someone cheated by looking over your shoulder, but they would slap you on the wrist and tell you to be more careful in the future.)

The integrity of the university was very important in that micro-culture, and I think that if you asked this question of anyone there -- student or professor -- you'd get the same answer, "yes."

This led many professors comfortable doing things like assigning take-home exams which were closed-book.

All that said, the answer to this question does depend on the university's culture (and the culture of the country). For example, when I told an Italian friend of mine that I had a take-home exam and I was not permitted to use my textbook or notes while doing it, he assumed that everyone in the class would be cheating. When I then told him about the quoted statement above that I had to write and sign on the exam, his view of the situation flipped: if I had to write and sign something like that, of course nobody would cheat! I find the sudden shift in opinion an interesting insight into his own culture.

Answer 8

Academically, it is in your best interest to report it. If the class is curved, the cheaters are not only unfairly outshining you, but they are unfairly lowering your grade. Even if it's not curved, unless it's an enormous class, the professor's perceptions of who did well may still be influenced by who did how well. If a student that the professor expects to score low (based on their in-class participation) instead cheats and scores high, the professor may decide that the exam was easier than he originally thought, and value your honestly earned mark less.

In the long term, if cheating is rampant in your school, this will soon become known. The value of your degree will drop even if you didn't cheat, because how can I know you didn't get your degree by being one of the infamous cheaters, and managing to avoid getting caught?

In a class where all exams are multiple choice and grading is completely objective and not curved, cheaters have no effect on you (except for the long term consequences stated above). Only then you could say that pragmatically, neither reporting nor not reporting helps or hurts you appreciably, so you might as well not bother.

But then there is also the ethical aspect. Cheating is bad, you are expected to not cheat and report cheaters by the instructor and school administration, and you probably even signed agreements and made honor pledges to this effect. So, it would be dishonest for you not to report it - not reporting isn't even a valid choice, it would be a dereliction of your contractual and ethical obligations. In practice, you will never "get caught" and be punished for failing to report cheating - but whether you get caught is immaterial to ethics.

So, speaking in terms of your credentials in school and beyond, there is absolutely no reason not to report it, and strong reasons against not reporting (eg. you promised in writing that you would report when you enrolled). It would be extremely unusual for a professor to somehow punish you for reporting.

But that's not the whole story: Like it or not, the people who you reported will hate you for it. They will tell their friends to hate you for it. If they are popular, you will quickly become very unpopular. Not all your classmates may have the same concept of integrity, and some may hate you for "siding with the establishment and betraying your comrades" (as they see it).

Your classmates may one day end up being your colleagues. If you get a reputation as a "rat" who has dubious allegiances, and cannot be relied on to have his friends' back (even though the cheaters are probably not your friends, they are only united with you in their struggle to get good grades) against a perceivedly antagonistic and unfair institution, it may become difficult for you to be seen as trustworthy.

Consider how in history there have been oppressive, unjust regimes which employed "informants" to report on people who try to circumvent or oppose the oppression. Clearly, this is not the same as reporting cheating: For one, academic cheating policies are clearly just, ethical and reasonable (unlike oppressive regimes). But the point is that following a rule is not automatically a just action. It is hard to definitively say what is just and what is unjust, so a lack of skepticism towards even apparently just rules is taken by some as evidence of inability to reject rules even when they are unjust, and generally lack of critical thinking ability.

To answer your question, you must ask yourself: Are you an idealist, or a pragmatist? If an idealist, there is no question that you should report the cheating. But if a pragmatist, unfortunately, it depends. You must further ask, which do you value more: Your reputation among your peers, or your formal academic credentials?

Answer 9

Maybe German culture is different in this regard but I would never report someone for cheating but instead talk to the cheaters personally. However in areas were people are in danger if the students lack knowledge through cheating (pilots, medicine, ...) I would tell them to report themselves or I would do it myself.

Answer 10

It strongly depends on the academic culture in your country. In most Western countries, the answer would be yes. The cheating is considered something unethical, and it's something one should be ashamed of. You should, still, do it (the reporting, not the cheating!) as anonymously as possible.

However, in some other countries, the group solidarity is more important that the written rules and reporting to the officials the minor cases (where nobody is hurt) is considered unethical.

For example, in Poland, I would strongly discourage anyone from reporting the exam cheaters to the proffesors, because if they get caught (the reporters, not the cheaters), they risk really serious social consequences in the student community, which may severe their future opportunities (even for accademic career). Even if the professors are actively against cheating, they may feel uncomfortable with someone reporting it, and they may share that information with collegues, which may end up being public in end effect.

It's the professor's obligation to assure noone is cheating. Nowadays, thanks to Internet, it's quite easy to keep up with the newest techniques. If they don't do that, in some cases, it's even possible they don't mind when students use 'a little help'.

Because of a lot of comments I'd like to express my personal opinion: cheating is bad. But the system that fights cheating by encouraging the students to report their collegues is bad too.

Answer 11

I'm surprised and chagrined at the number of people posting here who seem to think academic cheating isn't such a big deal. But it is! Fraudulent studies have been published that have resulted in many deaths. In one famous case, the author turned out to be a habitual cheater. His exposure destroyed this researcher's career, and he also faces a number of lawsuits by the relatives of deceased victims of these published lies (clinical studies based on his lies were underway for years before he was caught). Such fraud can destroy the public's trust in the validity of scientific studies. The widespread acceptance of cheating is just plain wrong.

Answer 12

I suggest you send an anonymous e-mail to your instructor about who cheated in the exam and how, so that the instructor can take precautions, if he cares at all.

Who not directly tell during the exam?

One reason is that if 2 students are exchanging answers, without any proof such as cheat sheet, then it is your word against theirs. In such a case, since there is no proof, their exam will be valid but you will be a rat.

Also, although some people here think that you don't need friends who cheat (as if that is the only consequence), the world is not that fair. You may end up being the rat and completely ignored, and worst case, bullied. Some people are just cruel and may try to blame you instead of themselves for the failure. How they handle such a situation depends on their character, and you should not risk it. No honor code is more important than your happiness and comfort during your years in college. If the honor code is that important, your instructor should do his responsiblities first.

You are a student, not an instructor. Every instructor once was a student and even if they never cheated (very unlikely!), they witnessed other people that cheated. Any instructor should know that given the chance, a student may cheat. It is the instructor's responsiblity to create the environment that does not allow cheating. You shouldn't care more than he cares.

Answer 13

You could send an anonymous e-mail to the professor, informing him that you saw rampant cheating, without naming the students involved.

As an aside, request your professor to NOT mention the anonymous e-mails to anyone. If you have a reputation of being the most virtuous person in the class, then they might target you, even without evidence.

Answer 14

Is it acceptable or ok to report on students cheating?

Yes, but if you're not convinced by the arguments in the other answers, consider this: is it okay to cheat?

If not, then if those other students can do something that is not okay, why not you?

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That being said: the attitude that it's okay to do something wrong if other people are also doing something wrong is not a good one to hold in general. In this case it happens to lead you to the correct course of action though.

Answer 15

You asked this question on the place, where most of the people are actually professors or want to become one. There is no surprise that mostly you will here one answer "Yes, this is ok, encouraged and should be so". But this is life, and there is no easy answers here.

Also some of the people here compare cheating on the exam as mugging and may be some other crime things, but in my opinion it is not even close. Just to compare, I am really curious how many from professors here have never cheated in any form during their academic life? And how many of them have never stolen anything? I think the number will be different.

It is up to you to decide. What what you can gain, what you can lose and come up with your decision. Yes, I agree, that teachers want to know who cheated/abused them, but students want to have trust in their peers and the same way as teacher can assume that cheaters violate the trust in them, your fellow students can assume that you violated a trust in them. Also more and more students lose their trust in education, because it does not really represent the knowledge and sometimes A on the exam only shows that you was able to get A on the exam (nothing regarding you knowledge). So why would you memorize when Napoleon raised to power if any monkey with Wikipedia can give you this result and half of his biography in one minute.

So think it in this way.

It is just business, nothing personal

Weigh pros and cons in your situation.

Pros can be:

• you will score higher on the exam on average
• teacher will like you more and you can get advantage later
• teacher comes to think that you are not a cheater
• you restore equality

Cons can be

• your classmates will hate/not trust you (not only one that cheated). Maybe you will never get help from them neither in your school life or even after it. Being outcast is hard, being outcast who needs help even harder
• teacher might think that you are a cheater too and want to hide yourself this way

So if I would be in a situation when I and 30 people, whom I do not know, fighting for 2 Harvard (or whatever you people value) sits. Then there is no way I would be quite. But if these are people with whom I play basketball taking math/history/language exam, than good luck to you guys, and if you need help I will try to help you.

So life is not back and white. Most of the time it is in grayish. To put this even further: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

You also might have a strong belief that cheating is terrible, or something similar

• you, fighter for justice in entire world, helped to restore justice. (Some people do believe in the just world)
• you genuinely think that this is wrong
• you do not like people who do this (or they do not like you)
• you like the teacher and want to help him
• you want to change how cheating is viewed

In such case, think have you ever cheated yourself. I have seen a lot of people who can not stand cheating, but cheat by themselves. With one of them I even had discussion about it, when the person came to me asking for a solutions to programming homework. Funny enough, this person was rising her concern how sharing is bad and had all the discussion with instructor how should he prevent it. So when I asked what changed in her views about the world, to my surprise, she was not looking at it as a cheating. In her eyes it was just minor help for the person in need. No matter how hard I tried to show that this is exactly what she was fighting against, she did not want to hear about this as cheating.

Answer 16

It depends where they are cheating.

If they are cheating on a simple test or exam that is just one of many, don't report them. Such tests do not show the general skill of a student, just what he/she knows at a specific point in time. A good student can fail on a test and a bad one can succeed dependent on way too many factors. It is however a good thing to tell the student afterwards that if he/she wants to succeed, they cannot just base it on luck and cheating.

If they are cheating on an important exam, a final or similar to an extend that is beyond negligible, then do report them. If they are caught at a later point, it is possible that their degree is later revoked, which might not only cause them to loose a complete year, they can even loose a job or worse.

You can cheat during a test, but you cannot cheat when people later depend on your expected skills.

Answer 17

Why would people think this is okay? You talk about honor, but it is clearly an act of egoism. You feel bad, because you did not get the same advantage, and therefore you hurt the person who received an advantage.

• You should report that someone has cheated, but you should not tell the teacher/professor who it was. That way the security will improve, but you will not hurt your fellow classmates.

• If the teacher does not believe you, ignore the fool. To be trustworthy is an important trait, if you report the person who did it, you are breaking his/her trust.

• Why do you think you feel bad about it in the first place? Your mother thought you right.

Going around someones back and reporting them, making them receive a punishment, is in no case honorable. Please do not listen to these puny people. Faith in humanity is low these days...