New Ways Students Cheat

Many students learn from a young age, "cheaters never prosper."

Larissa Burkes is a ninth grader at Cooper High School, "you're not going to get anywhere by cheating."

Kelsey Rodella, another ninth grader agrees, "you can get the same grade and they can always find out, like if you cheated or not."

But nowadays, they're getting more clever... students across the country are engineering new ways to get "A's" without hitting the books.  When it comes to cheating, teachers might want to keep a close eye on their students, coke bottles, rubber bands, and even skirts are all fair game.

If you go on YouTube, and search for "How to Cheat on a Test," students are doing more than sharing new cheating methods, they're giving each other step-by-step tutorials. 

One video instructs students how to photoshop formulas onto the label of a soda bottle, and another shows students how to write their notes on a rubberband.  One girl even teaches other female students how to string their notes into a mini-skirt.  Even local students come up with their own ways to cheat.

"Even here at McMurry, I've heard of kids that write on their legs and they wear basketball shorts, they pull up their shorts and they can just read it," says Kyle Consemiu.

The methods might be clever, but Consemiu thinks it's a waste of time, "I don't know, that much effort, you should just study." 

Students who come up with these sneaky methods might have a little more than 15-seconds of YouTube fame.  Their videos are posted in cyberspace for all to see, and many schools have clued in.

Gail Gregg, principal of Cooper High School says, "the use of electronics, it's a whole new ball game there."

Gregg says text messaging and camera on cell phones make it easy for students to send each other answers and take pictures of exams, but no problems have been reported by teachers at Cooper yet.

Vanessa Roberts, the Dean of Conduct at McMurry University has seen some of the new ways students can cheat on exams via YouTube.
 
"The amount of time that thye spend, to figure out or divise a way to cheat, if they would take that amount of time, and spend that on studying, they would probably be much more productive," says Roberts.

If a student is caught cheating on an exam, there are serious consequences.  First time offenders at most schools usually get an "F" or zero on the test.  At the university level, students can get suspended or even expelled, that record can go with them through life.

"When you cheat, you de-value your degree and everybody's degree at this university," says Roberts.

Either way, teachers should keep their eyes open, and students should remember that if they see a cheating tutorial on YouTube, chances are teachers and professors might know about it too.