Cheaters never prosper, especially at UCF’s testing center.
UCF made it in The New York Times on Monday in an article about how our testing center prevents cheating.
Apparently, the testing center is doing a heck of job keeping us in line.
According to the article, cheating has decreased to 14 incidents out of 64,000 exams in the spring term.
We wonder if there were students who were simply smart enough not to get caught, although that would be fairly difficult considering how intense these measures are.
The testing center no longer allows students to chew gum during tests, for it could be used as a way to conceal talking into a hands-free cell phone device.
We can’t help but laugh when we think of someone actually attempting this Mission Impossible-style move.
The computers are positioned so that it is easy to spot someone using a hidden camera to take a picture of the screen to show a friend later.
Scratch paper is permitted, but it must be stamped with the date and turned in at the end of the test.
Should a prompter suspect cheating, he or she will direct a camera to the suspected cheater, and it will be burned on a CD for later evidence.
Yes, if you didn’t already know, Big Brother is watching very intently as you take a test.
Oh, and don’t even bother wearing a hat when you go to take a test. You will be asked to either wear it backward bro-style or remove it completely.
This is because the answers could be written on the brim, or, some high-tech microphone could be planted inside letting your friend tell you all the answers.
It reminds us of that scene in Old School when they use microphone-laden pencils to cheat.
This is serious business, and it’s worrisome that such extremes are necessary.
These measures came to be not only because technology has made cheating so easy, but also because it seems like students have become disconnected from learning.
We also feel that many students don’t see certain forms of cheating as cheating.
Ask any professor who has ever assigned a research paper if they had students who felt it was OK to copy and paste a few lines from the Internet without any citation.
Not only is it likely that they have seen it before, but the student probably also had no clue this was a form of plagiarism.
It has gotten to the point where most professors use turnitin.com to catch plagiarism.
So much for trust.
Some universities require students to take an online class about plagiarism and pass a test on it before they can register for classes.
It might not be such a bad idea for UCF to invest in this concept instead of channeling money into cheating prevention measures in the testing center.
We are not against the actions taken by the testing center — in fact we find them completely necessary — we’re just concerned why so many feel the need to cheat in the first place.
When college becomes more about your GPA than actual skill-building, of course students will take whatever means necessary to race to the top.
But this isn’t a justification or an encouragement to cheat.
We just question a system which makes students so GPA-orientated that they are willing to risk their entire education to get a good grade.
Undergraduate years shouldn’t just be about passing a final exam and taking whatever means necessary to do so.
These years should be a time to build your skills and your ability to think critically.
Perhaps if classes focused more on these aspects of learning instead of a test at the end of a term, fewer students would be inclined to cheat.
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