If TJ has such smart kids, why so much cheating?

[Anonymous]

Cheating is everywhere. From sandlot baseball to Olympics to Nobel prizes.

OP is a troll or naive.

[Anonymous]

I don't know that smart people should be expected to cheat less. It seems to me either a way to make up for procrastination and falling behind on studying, or too much workload and can't keep up, or just being disinterested in the subjects and trying to get by.

My question is - is it so easy to cheat on these tests that many students are doing so?

[Anonymous]

As I posted on another thread:

Does no one remember the girl from the class of 2001 who wrote an essay on the "culture of cheating" at TJ and earned the then-principal a call from the head of Yale admissions over everything that girl spilled?

There's been cheating at TJ as long as it's been TJHSST and even longer that than I'm sure.

And as a PP stated, it's because kids are lazy/arrogant. In the early 2000s it was because it was more fun to be chatting on AIM or playing video games than it was to be doing homework. Now it's going to be video games or TikTok or whatever, but it's still the same thing. Kids don't want to do work, but they want the A, so they cheat.

Remedial math and parent pressure and all that doesn't have nearly as much to do with it as what I just wrote. Because it's been the same for a very long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too much pressure from parents to get highest grades for college admissions.

+1

Parents expect their kids to achieve in ways they themselves never did.

And some parents communicate to their children a 'win at all costs' mentality (usually implicitly, not explicitly). Parental integrity has gone down, so naturally student's don't value integrity either.

[Anonymous]

When underprepared middle school students are being admitted into TJ Math 1, which is a rigorous course compared to what they are used to their base middle school with nominal curriculum and inflated grades. Student would feel overwhelmed by the academic demands of TJ Math 1, with no opportunity to retake or limit their math journey to Algebra 2, an option that exists at their base school. Fearing failure or embarrassment, few may turn to cheating as a shortcut to maintain their grades or avoid negative consequences.

The entire allegation of widespread cheating is speculative as there is no official reporting from TJ on how many have been caught cheating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Cheating has gone up, with increased enrollment of lower level Algebra 1 students being forced to take on TJ rigor.

Innocent students cannot be expected to level up their peers who are two years advanced. With a sense of desperation, one may resort to cheating and developing other unethical behaviors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that smart people should be expected to cheat less. It seems to me either a way to make up for procrastination and falling behind on studying, or too much workload and can't keep up, or just being disinterested in the subjects and trying to get by.

My question is - is it so easy to cheat on these tests that many students are doing so?

“It’s ok to cheat if they don’t make it impossible to cheat”

Sounds like some kids cheat because their amoral parents encourage it.

[Anonymous]

Class of 2008 TJ here. Cheating was rampant back then too. For what it’s worth, my mom was disgusted with the cheating in her MIT grad program in the ‘80s too. It’s the high pressure environment in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

This narrative someone is trying to push that cheating only started at TJ after the admissions change is just...insane.

Do you people not remember being in high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Cheating has gone up, with increased enrollment of lower level Algebra 1 students being forced to take on TJ rigor.

Innocent students cannot be expected to level up their peers who are two years advanced. With a sense of desperation, one may resort to cheating and developing other unethical behaviors.

Who is cheating? The kids whose parents rationalize cheating on quant-q.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2008 TJ here. Cheating was rampant back then too. For what it’s worth, my mom was disgusted with the cheating in her MIT grad program in the ‘80s too. It’s the high pressure environment in my opinion.

Class of 2002 here. It's not external pressure, but kids who want to succeed at all cost and don't have a strong moral compass. And yeah, the cheating has been rampant in these environments forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Cheating has gone up, with increased enrollment of lower level Algebra 1 students being forced to take on TJ rigor.

Innocent students cannot be expected to level up their peers who are two years advanced. With a sense of desperation, one may resort to cheating and developing other unethical behaviors.

Who is cheating? The kids whose parents rationalize cheating on quant-q.

One of the alumni PPs here. Pushing this narrative (that the cheating is actually the kids from before the change who were pushed so hard) in response to the other narrative (that the cheating is because now kids are underprepared) is also insane.

The cheating has nothing to do with the admissions process and would happen with any admissions process. It has to do with kids who don't think it's wrong, or at least not wrong enough, and who want to achieve. It's always been a thing and always will be a thing. Sometimes the kids want to achieve for their own sake, sometimes for their parents' sake, sometimes because society tells them, sometimes because of peer pressure. But it's always a thing.

Trying to pin the cheating to your preferred narrative about TJ admissions just shows that all of you people come on here to just troll about TJ regardless of facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Cheating has gone up, with increased enrollment of lower level Algebra 1 students being forced to take on TJ rigor.

Why would you think that? You think these kids are inferior - but why do you think that? So strange.

Algebra 1 is 7th is not rare in FCPS. It seems like it should be the minimum standard for a high school focusing on math and science

[Anonymous]

Cheating is a life skill. You need to know how to do it if you want to be able to stop it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Cheating has gone up, with increased enrollment of lower level Algebra 1 students being forced to take on TJ rigor.

Innocent students cannot be expected to level up their peers who are two years advanced. With a sense of desperation, one may resort to cheating and developing other unethical behaviors.

Who is cheating? The kids whose parents rationalize cheating on quant-q.

One of the alumni PPs here. Pushing this narrative (that the cheating is actually the kids from before the change who were pushed so hard) in response to the other narrative (that the cheating is because now kids are underprepared) is also insane.

The cheating has nothing to do with the admissions process and would happen with any admissions process. It has to do with kids who don't think it's wrong, or at least not wrong enough, and who want to achieve. It's always been a thing and always will be a thing. Sometimes the kids want to achieve for their own sake, sometimes for their parents' sake, sometimes because society tells them, sometimes because of peer pressure. But it's always a thing.

Trying to pin the cheating to your preferred narrative about TJ admissions just shows that all of you people come on here to just troll about TJ regardless of facts.

Obviously cheating happened before and it will happen after.

The kids whose parents encourage unethical means of admission are certainly more likely to cheat than those with parents who encourage ethical behavior.