Cheating on AP Exam: How It Affects My College Acceptance Chances

Applying to College
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I recently made the worst and most regrettable decision of my life. I’m currently a sophomore in high school, and I recently took the AP World History exam.

Unfortunately, about a week before my exam, I was hit by a car while I was a pedestrian. My right shoulder was broken, and I had a severe five-hour surgery where they put in two plates and 15 screws. I had to wear a cast for four weeks and couldn’t use my right arm (I’m right-handed). This was a huge shock for me. I felt really depressed, stressed, and in a lot of pain while I stayed in the hospital for three nights. My exam was delayed by a week, and I had to type the free response questions with my left hand.

In the week leading up to the exam, I barely studied because my mental health was in a bad place, and I couldn’t focus. During the free response part of the exam, I couldn’t complete many questions and left a lot of them blank.

I found that I could access the browser on the laptop to search for answers. I used ChatGPT to answer and complete the exam. The day after, the proctor contacted me and said that after I returned the laptop, he tracked it and saw that I was using the browser to look up answers.

I deeply regret my actions and feel really sad about it. Academically, I’ve done pretty well, with mostly A’s and a couple of B’s. I’ve taken many honors classes and this AP World History class. I’m tried to do extracurricular activities, community service, and joining clubs, all in the hope of getting into one of the UC or CSU. My thoughtless behavior has left me feeling worse and more painful than my injury I faced.

The proctor told me he would email the College Board, and we’re waiting for them to decide my case this summer. From what I’ve searched, my test will be canceled, I won’t be able to take any more College Board exams, and they will notify the colleges I apply to. I accept to cancel my test, but notifying colleges will ruin my entire dream and career.

Does anyone know what happens if you’re caught cheating on an AP exam? Will all colleges deny my application? I regret my actions and take my responsibility. I just wish to at least attend a state university to get a bachelor’s degree, get a good job, and take care of my parents and family. I’m really worried and wonder if I show that I’ve changed by engaging in meaningful extracurricular activities, volunteer work, or internships to demonstrate personal growth, also maintaining a strong GPA, and using the Personal Insight Questions to explain my situation, do I still have a chance to get accepted?

I regret my mistakes deeply and want to show college admissions that I have repented and changed to become a better person.

Thank you. I would really appreciate everyone’s responses and advice.

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I’m not sure how they will know which colleges you apply to, if you aren’t taking anymore AP exams? But they do have every right to. Perhaps it’ll be red flagged thru your high school transcript?

Hard lesson learned…hopefully you will learn from this. Cheaters never win…

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Sorry to hear about your accident but please don’t (on a college application or in discussion) use that excuse to justify your behavior. You cheated - end of story.

I imagine you simply won’t utilize the score but it’s s maybe a question for the folks who administer AP as they are the ones who send the score. But to me, you simply won’t send it.

What your HS will do - you have to ask your counselor.

Will this keep you out of college? No - you could have zero APs and you’d still have many a college to attend.

Best of luck in your future and hope you recover soon.

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How would they know what colleges you apply to? I think the only risk is if your high school counselor does this by mentioning it in their counselor letter - I would speak directly with them and ask how they will handle it. The College Board doesn’t know where you’re applying to college unless you tell them.

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I am sorry about your accident.

I am not aware of CB contacting colleges you apply to and telling them you had a score canceled for cheating/plagiarism, unless maybe you sent official SAT scores to a college (assuming you aren’t going to have any AP scores to send.) I agree with others to ask your HS counselor what, if anything, your school will do. For example, would this go on your transcript.

Whether or not the transgression is on your transcript though is really irrelevant, assuming CB cancels your test…many schools ask you to divulge any and all times you had a discipline action against you. This is the list of schools from this year that had a disciplinary action question on their common app: Salesforce

Good luck and I hope you heal quickly from your injuries.

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I would ask if you would be so repentant if you had not been caught!

The sad thing is, you could have just skipped the test given your injury. Were you given any accommodations? It usually takes about 6 weeks to get them. I wish you had waited to take it when ready.

Typing with your left hand would impact your scores anyway, right?

I think it is possible that any college that receives any scores from College Board will see that you cheated. I would ask your guidance counselor whether this is true, and what you can to about this. Can you appeal?

Sometimes, if one person cheats, the whole class has their tests cancelled. I hope this doesn’t happen for your class.

Life isn’t over. You will still have opportunities. Just want to make sure to say that.

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Thank you for your advice, I will ask my counselor about these.

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Thank you very much for your clarification and advice. I will email my counselor to ask about this.

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If the OP is planning on applying primarily to CSUs/UCs, then it looks like they got very lucky, as I don’t see any of them on the list…

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Thank you for your advice. I was taking the test alone on a different day so my class isn’t affectd and doesn’t have to retake the test.

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That list is only for common app schools, but the UCs do not ask a displinary question on their application.

One thing I forgot to mention is that OP shouldn’t tell anyone (their friends, teachers, parents’ friends, etc.)

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But I also want to add…OP, I really hope you’ve learned from this. Honestly, it is better to fail a test than cheat on one. And if you do go to a CSU or UC or really any other university, the penalties for cheating and plagiarism are very, very high, up to and including expulsion. Many colleges now also have policies around the use of AI and are checking for it - considering AI use a form of cheating, too. You really need to be careful to avoid ALL forms of cheating, plagiarism, and corner cutting. They really could seriously derail your life. So I hope things work out for you this time, I really do. But if they do, you must learn from it and do better.

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Not gonna pontificate.

To answer OP’s question: you will most likely have very little universities to choose from as cheating does disqualify you. How many are left? I honestly can’t say, for sure that list on Salesforce will help you establish a baseline.

Some posters in this forum may have seen such issues so that may help, but other than that, posting here is like “crapshoot”, you will not get a definite/sure answer to your question.

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How would a school know if OP doesn’t submit his score ?

I’m not asking sarcastically but for real - to understand your POV.

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OP. I am sorry about your accident and I do hope you are truly remorseful and won’t cheat again.

I disagree with the poster who said you will have “very little universities to choose from”. If you work hard and keep your head down you will have plenty of good choices.

Incidentally (and I wish it weren’t true) a student from my D24 school was caught cheating last year…not on an AP test but on a HUGE yearlong assignment. The repercussions were less than I would have expected - got a “C” in the class, kicked out of NHS, kicked off some other school activities. She got into Berkeley. :I

It’s never too late to do the next right thing. Just be better and move on. You will survive this. Best of luck on your healing and your future.

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I think it’s partly going to depend on this student’s HS. At our D’s school, the code of conduct was heavily enforced and a cheating incident of this magnitude would have resulted in a note on the student’s transcript and resulted in a disciplinary hearing with the dean of students.

And as Mwfan1921 noted, the common app asks about disciplinary action. At d’s school, the counselors reviewed the app with students ahead of submission so that would have been flagged if not answered honestly.

I do agree with other posters that this is recoverable for the OP. Take ownership, be repentant, never do it again, and move on.

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From my experience, which is vast compared to the user with 2 posts that illogically and incorrectly said that your college choices are limited, the only thing the CB will do is cancel your score. They won’t cancel any other exams. They won’t block you from taking other exams. They won’t notify colleges.

What the consequences are from your high school is unknown to us; that’s a question for them.

Yes, you screwed up. We all screw up at some point. What’s important is to recognize the mistakes, own it, and learn from it

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@Hanna perhaps can shed some light on this situation.

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The UCs don’t ask; beyond that, they will ignore the information if they learn it from someone besides you.

When colleges DO ask, you tell them and you explain. Helping students with this kind of disclosure is what I do all day. The biggest plus in this situation is that it happened sophomore year and not later. You have time to show improved judgment/integrity over time before you apply.

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The key I see is…learn from this poor judgment experience, and please please be honest going forward. About everything.

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