Reflective Essay Sample on Scholastic Dishonesty

Introduction

During my time in college, there was an alarming rate of exam cheating and this issued did not escape the attention of the professors who also noticed that academic fraud was on the rise. More than half of the college surveyed, all of them admitted having been involved in fraud in one way or the other. I was in college during the time where accessing information has been eased by the Internet, through devices like iPhone. The reason that has led to the increase in academic cheating is due to the pressure of students are getting from their parents on them getting better results during enrollment to college. From my experience in college, the cheating mentality has been grounded by professional athletes for them to win the race.

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I came from a background based on Christian values, and when I enrolled in college I never considered cheating, and I always appreciated to read and work hard in my studies. I was still committed to my studies I always finished my assignment on time and generally my discipline and performance were getting better. I was always walking with good and engaged students.

However situations took a drastic turn during one autumn semester where I started indulging myself with friends who ha mischievous behaviors, and they influenced me to start following them and then I state taking alcohol and smoking cigarettes with the same friends and rarely did I create some time to revise the coursework and even I started submitting my assignment late. Then when the final exams came and realizing that I had not covered much regarding revision, I decided to sneak in my phone in the exam room and resulted into cheating so that I could score better grades. From there on deception became a habit since I had even lost self-belief that I would examine without cheating since I was a bright child. Age is also a contributing factor to academic dishonesty for my case I was very young and immature to avoid make concrete decisions. Extreme involvement in extra-curricular activities is also a contributor to academic dishonesty for my example I remember I really liked playing soccer and even got a scholarship on my tuition fees since I was bright initially, and my performance in the field was exemplary hence I had the pressure of replicating the same on my performance and I did not want to lose the scholarship which I had much earned, this made me start cheating in exams.

In the beginning, I did not consider the risk I was getting myself involved in. One of the consequences that did not click in my mind was getting withdrawn from the scholarship I had been awarded from my exemplary performance while playing soccer. There was also the risk of getting suspended from the institution for a maximum of two years, and my results became canceled. I realized that examination cheating was one of the riskiest factors regarding ending a students' career. The immediate consequence that I would have faced would include being withdrawn from the scholarship and the second one being expelled from college for two years.

If I were found cheating I would have instead opted for my scholarship to be withdrawn rather than getting expelled from college for a period of two years which would mean that I will delay in getting my degree and no other college would accept a student enrolling with them just because he or she was found cheating the examination the same case applies when trying to ask or a job in the future due to lousy report.

Currently, I am facing the ban on playing football with the school team and withdrawal of my scholarship due to indiscipline of examination cheating. This coincides with the option had chosen of having my scholarship withdrawn, however, I faced the disciplinary committee in college, and they made the decision of revoking my fellowship and further canceling the subject I was found cheating and I was to do it again as a supplementary exam where I would only get a 'D' score even if I did my best. I was given a light judgment since this was my first time to be found with such an offense.

As earlier indicated I was a disciplined and hardworking child, but when I started to walk with new friends they influenced me to become unruly, dishonest, and in extreme cases, I was involved in taking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, I started doing clubbing and rarely did I get time to focus with my studies. The new friends I started walking with contributed to my change of behavior. The same friends influenced me to cheat on exams they kept on telling me to enjoy life and not worry much about my studies. Concerning experiencing the consequence, we were four close friends (two females and two males), and two of them have been expelled, and there life is in a mess, But by God's grace, the two of us were spared.

From my experience in academic cheating, I learned that the main factors that are leading to exam cheating are the pressure students have on getting quality results, but ironically they do not want to work to ensure they get better scores. The other factor is most college students want to enjoy life so much at the expense of focusing on their studies and enjoy life later after accomplishing their professional goals. I also found out that there are more stringent measures and penalties to those found cheating like being dismissed from the college institution and even being denied the degree or masters certificate and even in worst cases being arrested for exam cheating.

The only steps I would take to fix this situation is by focusing on my studies and reforming my behavior and most importantly apologizing to the coaching staff and reapplying for the scholarship position which would be hard to get. I also apologized to my parents who were extremely disappointed with me.

Integrity is very crucial in every aspect of life, and in colleges, it would be even maintained even more. There are three examples of at least three instances when I relied on the integrity of others. The first instance is through cheating in exams; the second instance is lying using the individuals who were not involved. The third instance is through getting involved in indiscipline and always being caught with mistakes using dishonesty to try and cover my mistakes especially when it came to know that my parents in understanding the situation.