IT was a moment of truth. Happiness and success were dancing only a few feet away, but was Maria going to have the courage to grab them? Almost instinctively, she knew if she passed out on this opportunity, she would sorely regret it the next day.

Oh, but the danger! It grew thick in the air all around her until she could scarcely breathe. The clock was ticking, and every minute wasted was a window closed forever. It was now or never.

A disturbance at the door startled most of the people in the room, and sent Maria’s heart to her throat. If anybody had been looking her way then, they could read the guilt written as plain as the nose on her face. But all eyes were on the person at the door, a peon carrying water bottles and paper cups, waiting patiently for the invigilator to let him in. In a flash, the cheat-sheet was in Maria’s hand and the next moment hurriedly shuffled in with all the rest of her papers, and all she felt was a twinge of triumphant thrill running through her veins at the prospect of another paper well done.

I sincerely hope that many of you are unfamiliar with Maria’s situation, and prefer to work your way honestly through school, college and university.

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However, cheating has taken most educational institutes by storm, and chances are if you are a student, you’ve had some experience with it, whether you heard about it from a friend or classmate, or saw it happen with your own eyes. We all know it’s bad and immoral, according to our religion and every other code of ethics, cheating is a big ‘no’. Then why do so many students, and most of them good, kind, god-fearing children, indulge in this atrocity?

Who are you cheating?

PRIMARILY, students who cheat their way through an exam or a test are not quite sure who they are supposed to be cheating. When you normally hear about cheating in the real world, there are two parties, the cheater and the cheated. What deters most good people from cheating in everyday life is the moral pang in their conscience that they are actively wronging someone and infringing on their rights. But in a classroom, where many students choose to pretend competition does not exist, and that class ranking holds little value besides the first three positions, there’s a real dilemma as to who the wronged party is, and what rights are being infringed.

If you consider an educational institute as not merely a period of training in your life, but also a business transaction or deal between your parents and the tutors, which it rightly is in many cases, you will see that by deceiving the institution you are deceiving your parents into believing that your studies are more lucrative then they actually are. Your parents pay their hard-earned money to make sure you not only attend your classes, but learn and get the best education they can afford. Deceiving them into believing you are learning more than you really are is as bad as selling someone faulty items or stealing somebody’s electricity. You hear about these crimes all the time and also know the smear and insult associated with these practices. Everybody speaks ill of these people, and you certainly don’t want to be one of them so early on in life.

There is another important reason why most good educational institutes bite down so hard on cheaters.

By getting misleading grades, a school graduate is misrepresenting his or her learning by the standards of that institute, and bringing doubt and distrust on the credibility of those standards. If even half the school were to cheat their way through their finals, in less than five years the school would have a very bad reputation in academic circles; it would hardly be worth mentioning you studied there, and once again your parents’ earnings would go down the drain.

As a child it is difficult to think so far ahead, or to think collectively for that matter, but it is nonetheless what sets apart those who succeed and achieve great things.

How to resist cheating

IF cheating is rampant in your school or classroom, the temptation to cheat will be overpowering. You may resist it for a week, a month, a few years, or maybe even till you graduate, but it hardly seems fair that you should have to suffer this long. Resisting is only a quick fix to a bad infection. You need to nip this practice in the bud before more and more of your dear friends succumb to it. But how can you alone eradicate this evil?

Don’t point out cheaters in the middle of an exam. That creates quite a nasty scene that you want to avoid, and you also want to focus on your exam instead of being on the lookout for offenders. Besides, nobody likes a tattle-tale.

If you find your school authorities approachable, then bring this issue to the attention of your teachers and principal, and plead that the invigilation processes need to be tightened. Students’ belongings need to be checked thoroughly, and they need to be seated four to five feet away from one another. If such distances cannot be arranged in your school premises, then there should be more invigilators per classroom, one in each aisle.

Take help from elders

IF you think your teachers and administration will not be sympathetic to your proposal, you must ask your parents to do the talking. If enough parents raise this concern, the school will be forced to take action.

If you have come to rely on this dishonest device for passing your tests and exams, you’ll probably not be interested in readying any further.

But once you grow up, get a job, get married and have children of your own, you’ll look back at this golden period of your life, so precious and incomparable not just because you were young and had fun with your friends, but because you had the opportunity to spend your whole day learning.

Learning is a breeze and a real delight, young readers who read this article can testify to this now, or in 10 years’ time. The answer is invariably the same.

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Relax and learn

SO for your next exam, don’t plan to cheat or help anyone cheat. Memorise your history notes like they were stories, and learn your English like you are moving to England. Do your sums as if the fate of the whole world depends on them, and read science as if learning the secrets of magic.

The real moment of truth takes place not in the examination room, but all through your student years, and the time to cherish is that which you spend learning with pleasure.

Are you cheating yourself?

GETTING an A grade in any subject needs hard work and more studying. Many students find it difficult to just go through this hard way and opt for the short cut that is cheating in exams and getting straight ‘As’ in all subjects. Wow!

Sounds impressive? But let’s consider another scenario: after getting ‘As’ in all subjects you may progress through university or you get a job according to qualifications. What happens when you find out that the subjects you seemed to excel in and the degree you are holding is nothing but show of something you are not good at? What happens when you have to show your skills and knowledge in the relative field and you don’t have any clue?

This would be the worst feeling you will ever have... when you realise that you didn’t cheat the teachers, students, etc., actually, you cheated yourself! You cheated yourself to get something you do not deserve. Remember that you will be found out eventually, maybe in your first job. It is better to accept your limitations early on and strive to be good at something you have a real talent for. So stop cheating yourself, now!