As the title says, I (HS sophomore) cheated on an AP stats test. It was, in all regards, an awful week – I got no sleep, wasn’t thinking straight, but I could give you all the excuses in the world and that wouldn’t change a thing. I screwed up.
Got caught and the penalty is 30% of whatever grade I get on the retake (doing that tomorrow btw, and I think I might cry.) Even if I get a 100, my grade for the quarter will still be failing. I know my teacher’s being generous for even giving me a chance in the first place, and I’m grateful for that – still, as soon as my mom checks my grades, I’ll be in for a beating.
It’s pointless whining about the consequences of my actions, but really: what are my chances of even getting close to an Ivy?
Probably the same chances as b4 you got caught cheating on the test.
Learn from it.
Who knows, might even make for a great essay subject.
Good luck.
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We had a girl accepted to Ivy in HS. She wrote something on her desk on a final. A teacher discovered her erasing something after the test…
The teacher got very angry. HS reported to Ivy. Girl lost her admission and now attends a local community college.
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The way OP wrote above, this won’t go on a record. OP is in 10th grade and will lose 30% of his final test score.
Hence, it’s likely a lesson to be learned - but unlikely to, by itself, one B or C, to significantly impact a chance - which is about more than grades - and is likely in the low single digits anyway, caught cheating or not.
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Is the ONLY penalty one failing test? I am confused why that is really that big of a deal? Do you have that few of grades in math that you can’t bring that up?
Does your school report quarter grades on transcript? Many only show year end so likely nobody will see the big dip.
Consider yourself lucky…at my private HS you’d have had a whole mess on your hands - not wrongly - with a likely a suspension and no way to not share that.
I will say if you are getting no sleep as a sophmore (or really any year) such that you are making such bad decisions, you need to work on your curriculum and time management. Exec function and juggling lots of things is really a core skill particularly for anyone looking at highly selective schools
I am glad to hear you are contrite and realize this was very very wrong.
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OP- there are two ways to learn important life’s lessons. The easy way and the hard way.
You’ve just learned the easy way… minimal fallout, plenty of time for you to incorporate the learning into your life going forward, the only penalty is the hit to your grade.
In the future, you might not be as lucky. There could be serious consequences to a lapse in judgment (drive while impaired, you could kill someone. Lie on your resume, you could lose your job. Give false information to law enforcement- there could be severe legal consequences.)
This is a good thing. You’ve done something wrong, you’ll pay the price, you’ve learned a valuable lesson.
Nobody has a good chance of getting into an Ivy- that’s what a 5% or whatever the number is these days means. 95% of people who apply will be rejected, and a high percentage of them have very high grades, scores and everything else.
So this kerfluffle doesn’t change your chances one way or the other. Your odds were terrible before, and they are still terrible.
Just learn from your mistake, try to become the best version of you that you can be, and don’t spend your life worried about college admissions. There are dozens of great colleges which will be happy to have you when the time comes!
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If the teacher is handling it themself then it won’t affect you minus the bad grade this semester. But I’m honestly worried that you have so much stress in your life that you felt the need to cheat because your Mom sounds abusive and you likely didn’t think you had a chance. Learn from the situation. If it goes in your record, turn it into an essay if you truly learn from it, explain what happened and why you felt the need and what toy learned from it. If your Mom really will best you over grades, explain that too as part of the why. I hope that was an exaggeration, I hope you learn not to cheat, I also hope you realize that the chances of getting into an Ivy are so slim no matter what your transcript is and you need to know this isn’t the end of the world. Good luck.