If a student is looking either left or right in the middle of a test for which they haven’t studied, it’s no secret what’s going on. That student is looking at their neighbor’s paper and cheating is on his or her mind.

Many turn to cheating with, stressing some excuse or another. They didn’t have enough time in their schedule. The material was too difficult. And in high school, teachers might be forgiving and accommodating. But when you enter college it’s a whole new level. If cheating is any part of your success right now, you need to stop.

College emphasizes independence. You will be expected to teach yourself the material and come to class prepared to demonstrate your own abilities. So it also demands honesty.

In college, the consequences for cheating are severe. In a College Finder article, journalist Brittany Behrman said the penalties could be anything among:

• a verbal or written reprimand filed in your student record

• a failing grade for the assignment you’ve cheated on or for the entire course – this failing grade will remain on your permanent record. It’s much easier to make up or replace an F that you’ve earned honestly than one you’ve earned by cheating

• dismissal from the course

• academic or disciplinary probation – this means that any future missteps in academic integrity will earn you expulsion, suspension and expulsion

These consequences are dreadful and expensive.

Anyone who wants to play sports in college needs to know that athletes caught cheating can suffer sports scholarship money loss, probation, release from the team, and team forfeits. For example, an ESPN article reports,“The Florida State football team will serve four years’ probation… face a reduction in scholarships… the sanctions will force him to forfeit all wins during which ineligible students competed…academic fraud is considered…the most egregious of NCAA rules violations.”

High school punishments can be harsh, but they don’t cost money. You are literally losing money that you earned. Don’t be a person who worked hard in high school for nothing and throw it away on a stupid mistake.

Of course, I’m not suggesting cheating in high school is acceptable. I learned through my experience with cheating. When I was taking a quiz for geometry, I got confused on a problem, and I was checking to see what my neighbor was thinking. I knew this wasn’t good, and so my teacher saw us and when the quiz was over she noticed that we had the same work. The reason she knew we cheated was because the answer was wrong, and the work was the same. I got in trouble and told me not to do it again. From this day I learned that it is okay to fail. Just do better and you will be fine.

I’d rather learn from my mistakes and fix them later on. I’ll admit that I’ve cheated before, but at least I’m learning from my mistakes and preventing that from happening again. And I’m grateful for teachers who, like my math teacher, take the tests of cheaters and crumple them into the garbage. It’s better now than later because future cheating can put you in a really big hole. If cheating has a ‘strategy’ you use in school, stop. It’s okay if you mess up on one test.

Even if you’re an “expert” cheater and  can get away with it, you are not learning anything. It robs you of knowledge and removes a sense of responsibility. You should know that you are cheating yourself. How are you supposed to know what you’re doing when it comes to your first job? Your employer will see what you learned (or didn’t) in college.