Cheating can happen in many different ways. There’s cheating on people, cheating in sports, and many other forms of cheating. One of the biggest forms of cheating is in school.

Sophomore Angelina Timofeeva is a newer student at Mayfield after coming to the school from Russia last year. Timofeeva said, “People cheat either because they don’t have time to study or just don’t want to study. They cheat so that they can still get good grades, and their parents wont get mad at them for having bad grades. Most people want good grades to get to a good college.”

Junior Jeremy Cyncynatus has also seen cheating in his high school career. Cyncynatus said, “People just have to be slick about it. The key to cheating is to not get caught.”

Cyncynatus believes that people cheat for a reason. Cyncynatus said, “People cheat because they don’t want to put in the time and effort to accomplish their goals. So instead they cheat and try to find the easiest way to their goal.”

Timofeeva explained the difference between the culture of cheating in the U.S vs the cheating culture in Russia. She said, “In Russia cheating is a normal part of life. You don’t really get in trouble for it, and it’s not really a big deal. A lot of people in Russia cheat. In America it is taken more seriously and people actually get in trouble in the U.S for cheating.”

Timofeeva continued to describe some ways people cheat in Russia. “We would ask the people in front of us to leave a paper out or to show us the test answers so we could cheat off of it,” she said. “Or we would write notes on our arms or legs. Some girls would wear skirts to attach papers and notes on the inside so they could see the answers that way.”

English teacher Lacy Long-Goldberg cheated in high school herself. She said, “When I was in high school calculus we would sometimes copy some answers from Billy who knew everything about calculus. One time we got busted because we had a crazy answer we all had, and the only way we all could have gotten it was if we had cheated.”

Freshman TJ Stefanick believes cheating is sometimes necessary. Stefanick said, “Sometimes I write on the bottom of my shoe. Sometimes it’s necessary to cheat, I just don’t have the time to study everything. Same with my classmates, so many people do extra things and do clubs and sports, that cheating is the only thing they can do.”

Stefanick continued, “I think cheating is sometimes good. Again people sometimes have to, in order to pass a class or a test. The only time I have gotten caught nothing really happened, the teacher just told me to stop and watched me closer as I took my test.”

Timofeeva herself has cheated she said, “On a test I asked the people next to me to leave out a paper that had the answers on it. I didn’t get caught and got a good grade on the test. I also would write things on my arms and wear long sleeves to cover it up.”

Timofeeva described the difference of Russia’s punishments for cheating and Americas. She said, “In Russia you just get yelled at and nothing else really happens. In America if you cheat and get caught you get a zero on the test and usually get called to the office to see who else cheated and then also they might give you a detention.”

Timofeeva gave insight on her personal best way to cheat. “Just sit next to someone else who knows what they are doing and then copy off them. Just avoid getting caught,” she said.