Cheating

Published on by Yinglan

wpid-cheating-on-test-raw-multimediaIn 6th grade, I thought I was wrongly accused of cheating on a spelling test. Before the test, the teacher told us to not talk about the test with another student since our class wasn’t the only class that needed to take the test. If she discovered us talking to another class’s student about the test, she’d count that as cheating and we’d get zero.

This was the process. After finishing our test, we hand our test paper to the teacher. Then the teacher shuffles and randomly hands a paper back to students to grade. After going over the answers, the teacher collects the tests again.

At first, I thought the teacher was just being lazy but after I had my fill of teaching, I realized she did it to save time as well as help us learn. At least for me, it made the answers stick better.

Anyway, after the class corrected the papers and handed it back to the teacher, I turned to person next to me and said, “Man, that was a hard test. Did you think so?” I didn’t speak loudly. The person next to me shrugged. She was a smarty-pant.

Rip!

A ripping sound across the room got my attention. The teacher was sitting at her desk ripping a piece of paper. She stared at me. I gulped. Was that my exam she just ripped in half? Did she heard me? I wasn’t talking about anything specific, I was just asking a fellow classmate a general question.

I wanted to ask her but I was afraid of the reaction. In the meantime, I wanted to cry. How would I explain a zero to my parents?

I had the same teacher for the following class and for the next period, I sat in the back, quiet and sad. I didn’t want to know whether she had really ripped my test. I just wanted to go home and cry.

That weekend, I was a nervous wreck. My parents did not know anything because I kept it from them. I didn’t want any more pain than I was already suffering, at least not when it’s all based on an assumption. I just had to wait until Monday to find out if my assumption was true.

Monday came in a blink of an eye. It was time for the teacher to pass back the test. I patiently waited for mine. I told myself, “it doesn’t matter. If it’s true, I’ll just go talk to her after class.”

It wasn’t true. She arrived before me, smiled, and handed me a test. “Good job,” she said. I turned over and saw a solid 100%, my first 100% on a spelling test, after being in the country for less than two years. Not bad. I smiled back at her as she moved on to the next student.

I’m laughing as I retell this event now. It was terrible that I made so many assumptions based on nothing then, just like my mom now. 😀 However, through this situation, I did learn something. Always follow instruction. When a teacher says don’t talk to others about the test, obey that instruction, at least until the teacher is out of sight. Also, there are many types of cheating. Most importantly, don’t cheat!

Daily Prompt – Cheat

Image Credit: Google

30 thoughts on “Cheating”

  3. I was rightly accused of cheating once.
    It was the only time I ever cheated and it was on a German test which I hadn’t studied for.
    I got such a tongue lashing in front of the whole class and they were threatening to call my parents in.
    I was scared 12 and I swear nearly wet myself.

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  7. That mean teacher made you have a miserable weekend! I personally don’t care for mind games like that – I think they are mean and cruel. Glad you got a 100% on your test, especially after the horrible weekend you had.

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    1. That teacher actually didn’t turn out so bad, we actually became friends for the duration of my middle school years. Yeah, I was a teacher’s pet. 😀

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  8. Cute story. The things young students and kids worried about, like spelling tests etc… Such simple worries, but yet they are very real to the kids (like you) experiencing them.

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  11. That was stressful just to read. I can imagine that you had a sick tummy all weekend long worrying about that test and what you got on it. How upsetting for you.

    I remember once in 8th grade, I saw kids having “cheat sheets” for our spelling tests. I didn’t need a cheat sheet as I knew the words inside and out, but I wanted to see what the big deal was. So, I made a cheat sheet and had it under my test paper. Well, Miss Elrod was no dumb cookie. She could tell by my nervousness that something was up. As she called out the last spelling word, she walked over and stood by my desk. There was no way to hide the cheat sheet before she saw it, so I was caught.

    I never used the cheat sheet, as I said, I knew the words and didn’t need it. I just wondered what the big deal was that made the other kids have one. The other kids laughed at me for getting caught. Miss Elrod knew that I had not used it, but she had to punish me anyway. I had to stay after class to get the “caliber speech” about how much potential she saw in me, not to let myself get led down the wrong path, how she expected more of me, etc. I got a 0 on the test. I didn’t get upset with her. I knew she had a job to do. I respected her a great deal and still do.

    Miss Elrod was one of the greatest teachers that school district had. She was also my mama’s teacher many years ago. 🙂

    Thanks for sharing this story here! Have a great week.

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    1. I never understood the cheat sheet either. In several of my classes in college, the instructor had allowed us to have a cheat sheet for the exam. It usually took me almost 2 days just to construct one and I’ve always ended up not using it at all.

      Your story reminded me of my Calculus class in college. We were allow a cheat sheet on the exam and on exam day, there was this guy selling cheat sheets for $5.00. On it, I heard were the pages of the textbook. He got caught and I never saw him again.

      Thank you for sharing your experience. Sometimes, the greatest teachers are those who care and do their jobs. 🙂

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      1. I am, on the one hand, surprised that they would allow cheat sheets in college. On the other hand, I guess it is really no different than an open-book test, which I never understood the point of either, but was often thankful for them. 🙂

        Do you think that they kicked that boy out of school for selling the cheat sheets? I wonder why he’d get in trouble for selling them if students were allowed to have them. That seems kind of weird to me.

        I agree about the greatest teachers. Miss Elrod (8th grade English) and Mrs. Pennington (11th grade, US History). They were awesome women! Have a blessed week. 🙂

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