Since the beginning of time, students have always found ways to cheat. It started off with students writing the answers on their hands or desk. Some even would make cheat sheets and tape them underneath the desk, then peak at that answers during the test-taking time. However, over the past few years, cheating has become much simpler and easier to do. With the help of smartphones, students can easily access just about any material they may need in order to cheat on tests. Here are some of the top three ways students can use their smartphones to cheat:
Texting
Using smartphones to text is one of the most popular ways students tend to cheat. Through texting, students can easily send the answers to questions on the test to their friends, and all their friends have to do is look at their phones for the answers.
Another way students cheat by using texting is by before taking the test, sending the answers to themselves in a text message and looking at the text for answers. This is very easy for a lot of students to do, considering they have been texting for years during class and trying to hide their phones from their teachers while texting friends during class – after all practice makes perfect.
Taking Pictures of Test Questions
Another thing that students can do with their smartphones is take pictures of test questions. This is much easier for those who don’t feel like writing out the questions and answers, or those who are taking pictures of graphs that they can’t draw.
This is a very easy form of cheating with the use of smartphones because all the student has to do is simply look at their phone without having to respond to messages as they would with texting. This makes it less obvious to teachers that the student is cheating. Some students also use Bluetooth for getting images from a friend outside the exam hall.
Searching The Web
Finally, students can cheat using their smartphones by simply going to Google and typing in whatever they want. Considering how highly advanced technology is now, it only takes a matter of seconds before the answer is brought up on the phone. Search engines can also give pretty accurate answers which makes cheating even easier for students to get away with. Some students also use Facebook for cheating by asking for answers from their pre-planted online friends.
Overall, cheating has become much easier to get away with the invention of the smartphone. Instead of students having to hide their hands with all the words on them, students now have to hide their cell phones. It’s crazy how three simple things such as texting, taking pictures, and using search engines can all be used to cheat in the classroom.
However, whether or not many people like to admit it, a majority of students have used at least one of these forms of cheating. While it may be worth it, a lot of students feel like they need to cheat because of fear of getting a bad grade, or they just so happened not to study for a test the night before.
There are also a large number of students who don’t feel like they’re cheating because it’s not like they’re looking at the person’s paper next to them and it’s a cool thing to do. However, the use of smartphones for cheating is definitely punishable.
Title Image Courtesy: Flickr/Jacob Bøtter
Look at that, students getting more innovative by the day. Who says we need education reform? ;)