Passing in high school and feeling of joining a university is a matter that brings joy and happiness to families and the community at large. Not only does the family see a bright future in their child, but it is something to take pride in. Getting into university is one thing and actually graduating from university is another thing altogether. The hard work that a student puts in his/her academic work is what determines whether he/she will make people proud yet again. The struggle to pass exams in the university is what causes one to indulge in activities that are deemed to as examination cheating. Any kind of activity whereby a student plagiarizes fabricates data, provides false information or sabotages a formal academic exercise is what constitutes academic dishonesty. Some students will do whatever it takes for them to pass in examinations. Consequently, there are numerous ways of academic dishonesty; however, custom essay writing services, plagiarism, and examination cheating are of interest.
The Use of Custom Essay Writing Services
There are essay writing companies, which connects willing students to willing tutors who assist in the execution of assignments and exams for the students. Tutors write custom essays which students purchase at their times of need. Since the syllabus doesn’t change quite frequently, subsequent students have the privilege of using the same essays over time. As a result, there are pre-written essays since the same topics are repeated over and over again. Students can then purchase these essays at will by these service providers and utilize for their academic progression. However, education is a learning process and the main aim is to learn something and to get basic skills.
Students give different reasons for using custom essay writing services. Some students admit that they opt for these services owing to their efficiency and accuracy. They opt for these services to get other ideas hence expand on what they already know. Others opt for these services because they do not get time to complete their assignments. Some students work and only report to school as part time hence they do not get enough time to work on their assignments thus seek custom essay writing services for their convenience. A third reason is that some students think the questions are hard and difficult for them to execute hence they seek external help.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an instance where a student copies the work of another student or when one student gives his/her work to another student for purposes of copying. Copying begins from assignments given by lecturers to the examination room for sit in examinations. In assignments, students take assignments that other students have done and copy directly then submit them. Another form of copying in assignments in when a student copies data directly from the internet and presents it for evaluation as his/her own. Provided an information has been uploaded on the internet, any use of search information without acknowledging the person as his/her work is plagiarism. Unknown to many, the mere fact of allowing another student access to your work for purposes of copying also constitutes plagiarism.
Plagiarism is also evident in an examination situation. Some examination rooms lack CCTV cameras, whereas others have depending on the capability of an institution. However, it is encouraged that every institution installs such devices to curb cheating during examinations. In instances where monitoring is not done using such devices, students can take advantage and start copying from each other. The lecturer or examination monitoring team may not have the ability to see every corner of the examination room hence creating that loophole.
Cheating on Exams
Another form of academic dishonesty is cheating on exams. Students can gain access to the examination room with textbook materials, notes, or even written formulas. If the professors do not do keen and a thorough check on the students, cheating takes place owing to the illegal materials that find their way into the examination room. Recently, there has been an advance form of examination cheating. In this new form, lecturers or other examination staff are involved in the cheating. They provide the students with questions before the official time of examinations. The students will thus get into the exams’ room with prior knowledge of the questions which they will have revised hence just a formality and confirmation of what they already know.
Competition between institutions is what causes professors to indulge in the form mentioned above. Another reason for such activities is to attract more students into the institution for profit making without considering the quality of education being offered. Another weird reason which is a question of morality for such actions is that professors might be having an affair with specific students hence helping them in cheating. If the professors are the ones marking the examination, they will not give examination questions to the students prior to the date of the examination, rather they will ensure that the students are awarded high grades that they do not deserve.
Final notes
Concisely, academic dishonesty is any form of plagiarism, fabrication, sabotage, and providing false information in a formal academic exercise. As mentioned above, there are many forms of academic dishonesty majorly being use of custom essays writing services, plagiarism, and cheating on exams. Students have varying reasons for using the custom essay writing services ranging from gaining more knowledge, inadequate time to execute assignments and questions being too difficult for them. Is passing exams the only way to success in our society today? Cheating must be discouraged for any reason whatsoever.
