Little Cheaters

Last week, my students took a test. I left my classroom for a little bit and a few of my students decided to go through the tests of a previous class and memorize the answers. When I got back to the room, everything looked normal, but I looked at the stack of tests and the test of the last person to turn in their test wasn't on top. When I graded the tests I compared them to the test on the top of the pile and found that close to ten people had cheated throughout the day. Irritating! Cheating is one of my biggest pet peeves! I usually give and big fat 0 for cheating, but I decided I would let them retake a different form of the test (all essay, by the way) for a maximum of 70% if they confessed. If they didn't confess, they would get a 0. To my utter astonishment, all but a few didn't confess. I even got a student confess who wasn't on my list. I suspected that he cheated, but he did such a bad job cheating, I had ruled him out. I was very surprised the little cheaters fessed up.