Ways to prevent and catch cheaters on exams

[Mark Stellmack]

As an instructor, it is important for you to try to prevent scholastic dishonesty from occurring and to detect it when it does occur.  Ideally,  you would prevent it from occurring at all because no one enjoys the discomfort of confronting a cheater and the hassle of reporting the person to the university.  You have a responsibility to actively prevent cheating.  The vast majority of students are honest, but there are always a few who try to cheat.  If you don't prevent it, they will do it.  When they do it, they are cheating you, the other students, and the University.

The general idea is:  Think about what you would do to cheat if you were in the students' position.  Then do something to keep that from happening.

Ways to prevent cheating on exams:

1)  The most straightforward (and I suspect the most common) way to cheat is to peek at another student's paper.  It is difficult to accuse a student of peeking after the fact because you usually have no tangible evidence, so you really should prevent this from happening in the first place.
- Have students sit with an empty seat between them.
- For multiple-choice exams, have different forms of the exam, with the response options in a different order or different question orders on different forms.  Give different forms to alternating students.  If possible, don't tell students that you have different forms of the exam.  (This is easier to do in a smaller class.)  Hide an identifier somewhere on the exams so that you can easily sort them later.  Don't simply put an "A" or "B" in the corner of the page for each form.  Instead, perhaps add a period to the end of the "name" line on one form.
- If you think you see someone attempting to peek, the easiest way to deal with it is to simply ask that person to move to another seat.  You don't want to have to stare at that person for the entire exam.  Prevent the peeking, and at the same time make the student aware that you suspect him or her.

2)  Hidden notes/cheat-sheets:  Walk around the room and look carefully at how a student is sitting or if there are visible materials on the floor.

3)  When you are giving or proctoring an exam, LOOK AT THE STUDENTS.
- Don't sit and read a book or grade papers.
- Don't just stroll around slowly, looking at the ceiling with your back toward the students.  Your aura will not prevent them from cheating.  Face the students from in front of them and look at them.  You can't see them peeking if you stand behind them.
- Move around quickly and not in a pattern.  Students can cheat much more easily when you stroll slowly and move predictably.
- Look down the rows at the students' book bags.  Don't worry about possibly making the students uncomfortable.  You are in charge of the situation.  It is your right to look at the students and what they are doing.  If you treat everyone the same, you will have no problem.
- Look both at the students right in front of you and those who are across the room.  Students often try to cheat when you are on the other side of the room.
- Watch for someone who has not written anything for awhile or who seems to look up a lot.  That person might be waiting for you to look elsewhere.  (Maybe your aura does have a small effect.)
- Watch for people sitting rigidly or awkwardly.  They might be concealing a cheat-sheet under an arm or leg.
- Before the exam, tell the students that you want to treat them all equally and that you do not tolerate cheating.  Ask them to let you know if they see other students cheating.  (I have had students report others to me on several occasions.)

In general, don't tell the students the prevention measures you have in place.  If they know everything that you have thought of, they will just figure out another way to cheat that you haven't thought of.

These precautions might sound excessive or like a bit of a hassle, but you can't ignore the fact that there are a few students who will try to cheat.  You will save yourself a lot of trouble if you keep it from happening in the first place.