AP Cheating

It has been brought to the attention of the AHS Science Department that students have been cheating in Lois Peterson’s AP Biology classes. Peterson has yet to catch the students in question, but the point is, she knows they’re there. This isn’t the first incident of cheating that has been made public this year. Early on, three students were kicked out of the English 3 Honors classes for plagiarism. The head of the math department, Elisabeth Klein, has also raised concerns about cheating this year.

Cheating in high school is, of course, older than dirt. However, Albany High students, academic wonders that we are, have taken it a step further. The basic structure of the ring, as Peterson described in a recent note to parents is, “a ‘cooperative’ group which involves students who are in early classes passing answers to students later in the day.” There have been reported instances of students in AP classes, including my own AP Biology section, buying answers, or trading for answers on other tests.

That’s more than cheating; that’s AP cheating.

The issue isn’t that the work is too hard, as every student would have you believe. The real issue is the mentality of my generation. Having been raised in a meritocracy, and led to believe that grades and the all-powerful SAT decides our future, isn’t it only natural that we want to cut corners and make our grades look good?

Simply, the answer is no, it is not in our nature to cut corners. Along with instant messaging, cell phones, text messaging, and any other high-speed methods of information relay that our parents didn’t have, we have also developed a need for instant gratification. When we want something done, we want it done quickly, easily, no legwork required.
Gone are the days of “wait-’til-she-turns-around-and-pass-a-note,” or the “trip-to-pencil-sharpener/note-drop.” We’re better than that. This is Albany, the school district so prestigious that paying $700,000 for a two-room shack down by the train tracks is justified if your child can get in. We have high test scores, a nationally qualifying Science Bowl team, and a graduation rate well over 90%. When we cheat, we cheat on a nationally qualifying level.

Just because we have the ability to do this (and make money off it), doesn’t mean we have to. Sure there’s the thrill of doing something you’re not supposed to, but have some pride. We’ve already been proven a materialistic, morally bankrupt generation, willing to do anything for complete strangers online and taught to mindlessly bow down to the whims of the College Board because it determines our success.

Not to try to sound more like an old man than I’m sure I already do, but this won’t really work out in the long run. I know, I know, you’re just doing it to get through an AP class. Then what? Last I checked, “AP” indicates an introductory college-level difficulty. If you’re just working the system now, then what will you do in college?

There are 34 students facing punishment at Duke University for cheating their way through a Masters-level business course. Those students who are getting expelled won’t ever have a chance to put their degrees to use in the real world. Imagine, after cheating for that degree, you could have the opportunity to make it all the way to a multi-national corporation where you can employ slave labor, trade stocks illegally, and buy off politicians. And someday, if you’re really lucky, you can embezzle from your own company and buy that dream estate in Hawaii.

I’m not trying to lay an ethical death sentence on my peers, nor am I trying to make people quit cheating, but I ask: If you take an AP class, please don’t whine about the workload, and then cheat your way through the tests.