<p>My son is a junior at a very reputed high school, he wrote calculas formulas on the desk for while test was being distributed, but was nervous when was questioned about it and lied to the teacher saying he didn’t write the formulas. Only one question pertained to that formula and teacher decide to give him zero on the whole test and issue him a referral that will go to the colleges, his GPA is 3.0 and has been taking 6 AP classes since 10th grade, my fear is that he may not get admission to any colleges as his ranking is also not so good…its 183 out of 359 students. However, with 2-3 hours of questions asked my son has emailed the teacher telling the complete truth but he didn’t care for it…</p>
<p>6 APs but a 3.0 GPA says his course load is way too high - which in turn lead to the pressure to cheat. This is probably not the first time, though it’s the first time he got caught. Now might be a good time to sit back and re-evaluate your whole strategy. Something obviously needs to change, and it may not be your son, although the whole cheating thing obviously has to stop.</p>
<p>My son got caught asking someone for a fomula on his geometry final 2 years ago. The difference is my son admitted to asking the question - but his teacher still gave him a 0! I am 100% fine with him getting a 0 because he cheated - that is what the grade should be - it made his final grade for the semester go from an A to a C. His teacher called me and told me what happened but quickly told me that she respected my son because he did not lie. She actually will probably be one of his referral letters for college applications because he came back second semester and got a 98!
I think your son needs to go in and talk to the teacher. What will the 0 make his final grade? Will he fail the class? If it just lowers it to a C - that is life and hopefully he learned a lesson. This is his opportunity to “man up” and be an adult during this discussion. It may help to get the “referral” taken out of his file - but he still should get a 0.</p>
<p>He will still get into college!</p>
<p>Who needs formulas in calculus?</p>
<p>The appearance of cheating is treated like cheating, I wouldn’t quibble over the circumstances, there are college kids who get kicked out from similar stories. You can’t do what he did and not expect consequences. He needs to do the best going forward. And that AP load with the gpa is a red flag that he is pushing a bit too hard. Without the cheating, he’d be fine for college as long as he picks the right ones where he is in the ballpark. Your state school doesn’t usually keep a B student out and there are good threads on the forum for B students (parents forum on ‘schools for jewish B students’ works for any student too). He needs to talk to the college guidance counselor about how the cheating will affect his applications. He will likely have to submit some kind of statement. Let some time pass.</p>
<p>I made it clear to my kids that it’s better to fail than to cheat. </p>
<p>You can recover from failure, and many people do, but you can only lose your reputation for integrity. </p>
<p>Thank you all for the reply, it was really helpful to know others view about the incident. I agree with most of you. My son will get a C on final test for calculus 3, it was dual enrollment class and was a college level course, poor kid was hoping for an A. Referrals according to his assistant principal don’t get sent out to colleges from school, they don’t mention anything about it on transcript or letter of recommendation or guidance counselor’s letter, its the kid who has to answer the question on the college applications. Any suggestions?? I suggested AP to keep him on watch till the time comes to apply for colleges and then decide whether to keep the referral on his file or discard it.</p>
<p>ahsmuoh’s response is a good one. I hope your son can salvage his relationship with the teacher and, perhaps, even turn it into something positive. Best of luck to him; may he learn much from this.</p>
<p>he hasn’t cheated, he lied that was his mistake…he wrote the formulas while test was being distributed, so he didn’t have anything to copy them from…the formula was used only on 1/4 of ONE question. If cheating was his habit he should be close to 4.0 not 3.0, he gets scared easily infront of authorities when questioned and feels he has done something wrong even when he didn’t…he is a naive kid.</p>
<p>The problem with the situation is that whether he cheated or not, it looks exactly like he did. In school situations, you can get into just as much trouble looking like you are cheating or have cheated as you would if caught dead to rights. Schools do not have to have the same standards as a court of law. IF the proctor says you were looking at someone’s paper, you are done. THis is a situation that carries on with the ACT, SAT, and many college tests. You can’t appear as though you were cheating.</p>
<p>Also, there are many cheaters who have lousy GPAs. That he has a 3.0 instead of a 4.0 means nothing to anyone about whether he cheats or not. That any of the forumuas or info was used or not also doesn’t make a whit of difference.</p>
<p>So he should not have written down the formulas on the desk as it looks like he cheated and it is not necessary in any school I know to “prove” that he did this without copying them from anything. That would be a cheat charge at all of my son’s schools. Then lying about it was the next mistake. So that’s two strikes right there.</p>
<p>I know a number of kids who got into trouble for cheating due to naivety and just not being careful. It’s a pitfall that I tried to get through my kids head.</p>
<p>Hopefully, it’s a lesson learned. Do go over all of this with him, as it can happen again with these kids. They have to know the rules. It does no good to insist you didn’t do anything when the definition of the transgression is not doing it, but looking like it. </p>
<p>Having course material that is not authorized is cheating at every school I know of, whether it proves useful or not is irrelevant.</p>
<p>That is cheating and his courses are too hard for him…</p>
<p>Not all colleges will ask, and you can look for those who don’t. It won’t help him to say he wasn’t cheating if he was. However, if he had waited and written the formulae, from memory, at the top of the exam sheet to keep them in front of him, he likely would not have had a problem. The formulae should not have been on the desk top, and the proctor has no idea when he wrote them or what reference he had at the time, and when he started out lying, he didn’t make himself more credible. </p>
<p>Why will the spelling thing let me write ‘formulas’ but not ‘formulae’? Is that really the wrong spelling?</p>
<p>Your son had every intention of cheating and would have cheated if he had not been caught. Writing the formula on the desk was a violation of academic integrity. Will he be suspended or punished in any way by the high school? If so he will have to report it and it very well may be reported to colleges. Talk with his guidance counselor to see what will be done.</p>
<p>And I agree with other posters. If he has a 3.0 he is taking too many AP classes. Be sure to look at colleges that are geared to B students, or he will be in danger of being in over his head. There is NOTHING to be ashamed of about going to a college that is not top tier. My older daughter went to one of our state schools and thrived there - her college GPA was much better than her high school one, and she graduated from college with honors. </p>
<p>he will get 0 on the test but guidance counselor wouldn’t report anything to any college, they said question related to it will be on the college application that he will have to answer to. He was not suspended.</p>
<p>It is normal to worry when allegations of cheating occur. The reality is that the outcome of this event should have had very little impact on the college applications. Please invest considerable time in developing a list of schools that fit your son’s abilities, and this means starting from the bottom up. </p>
<p>newcollegee your post and comments are very confusing. Your title says “Cheating on final test”, but in your reply you say your son didn’t cheat and elsewhere you say he lied, but what you’re worried about is whether or not he gets into college. </p>
<p>I think you need to get your priorities straight.</p>
<p>Family trait? Or maybe it’s not “dad” posting?</p>
<p>Mr mom62 and mondut…I really don’t need any input from you two on my post if my question is confusing to you, I I feel I was pretty clear and other replies justifies it…please keep your opinion to yourself, I really don’t need anymore discouraging ppl in my life or on my posts.</p>
<p>newcollegee: The other three posts that you began indicate that you are the student, not the mother. Your responses to Mrmom and Mondut, would seem to go along with your original post on this thread. You need to accept some responsibility for your own actions, be it taking classes that are over your head, planning to cheat on an exam, or even just writing on your own behalf on an anonymous website instead of pretending to be your own parent. </p>
<p>You made the decision to cheat and you need to bear the consequences. It would be best on your college applications to own up to your wrongdoings if there is a chance of it showing up on your guidance counselor report. Show some remorse and state that you learned your lesson.</p>
<p>And you may want to reconsider, if you are still planning on medical school. Less than half of all students entering college as premed end up going to medical school. If calculus is so difficult that you feel the need to cheat, will you be able to handle organic chem and other difficult college classes?</p>