No Cheating,Please!

                    By Vic Odarve

His head seems to turn at 360 degrees, eyes wandering a mile from his own paper, and scribbled mnemonics/writings on his hands or crib sheets hidden somewhere on the body before entering the examination rooms. This is truly an act of cheating during quizzes and examinations … a headache to all college and university professors! No cheating, please!

Examination Period-African University

Like a player on the basketball court, the student turns his head looking for an opening where he could copy for any answers for the exam. When the watcher/proctor attention is on the other students he quickly twisted his head for the opportunity. With a sort of connivance /understanding from his neighbors, he can receive a piece of papers containing exam answers/information. But when caught by the watchers, he had plenty of alibis/allegations for why he does so despite that there can be serious consequences to cheating if caught.

But there are students do not twist their heads; instead, keep their eyes staring at the other sheets from their neighbors. Like a hovering eagle, their eyes are sharp and moving like a drone. When the teacher came, the students are looking at the wall or eyes on the ceiling appearing to recall something. Because students have nothing to write they are doing these maneuvers. By all indications, these are cheating.

 

Math Professor

Majority of the students employed the old methods of cheating. Scribbled mnemonics/writings on her hands or crib sheets hidden somewhere on the body before entering the examination rooms are prevalent. These hand writings appear to contain a cryptic message that they themselves could only decipher and understand. Moreover, these writings are somewhat invisible unless you look them closely.

Lately, we found that some students are ‘extremely inventive’, with the use of their mobile /smartphones devices, and different types of electronics to help them prosper. These devices have memory cards that can store formulas, charts, and solutions. But, at any rate, these can be easily checked and usually not allowed during the exams.

Almost all schools do not relax and always remind their students that there can be serious consequences to cheating if caught during examinations. Some universities even took an extra measure to ensure that no cheating would occur during the exam. They used a drone to supervise the students during the exam; while others employed various cameras placed inside the exam hall to capture every movement of the students even when they whispered to each other.

Old generations did not do cheating during exams

Whether cheating is resorted to because of the pressure to pass the exams and too much to memorize for the coverage to study, it still a venture not pleasing to our Creator. The first chapter of Malachi says God was disappointed in the priests because they were cheating on their job. God goes on to tell the cheating priests, “My name shall be great among the nations. But you dishonor it, saying that my altar is not important, and encouraging people to bring cheap, sick animals to offer to me on it.” Malachi 1:6-14

Whatever the forms of cheating that one may be involved, be it in the classroom or in the government offices, it is not pleasing to the eyes of the Creator.

This practice — along with our country’s all-pervasive culture of corruption — have been largely blamed for the cheating practices unchecked during their college days. As a result, this country is poor and more of its women working as OFW's are slaves in the foreign lands. Lately, the ABS CBN, the country’s largest network and the epicenter of the Lopez empire, did manipulative tax evasion scheme that is more than a picture that my students' cheating have done. Even some of the congressmen and senators, supposed to be the guardians against corruptions, did an insidious action to cover up and support the corrupt network.

For my students, no cheating, please!