Posted on Jul 21, 2007

FIRST PRIZE

‘Learning and Memorization’
by MH. C., 16

The funniest cheating story of all must be when our algebra teacher wanted to help the student to do better on our final exam. She tell us to make sure to study one sample question because it will surely be tested.

Then after the exams are marked, the teacher remarks in class that one of our student friends has memorized the sample question which the teacher pointed out and in the exam paper, the student didn’t notice that the variables were changed but simply just wrote down the sample problem and answer exactly as it was in our practice tests!

The teacher then told us that “memorizing does not equal learning”
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THE END.

SECOND PRIZE

‘More About All Manners of Cheating’
by J.P., 15

Sunrise 6:00am, I wake. The sun has once again cheated me and was now blazing past the depths of my sleep, my dreams of the Chemistry equations I had been attempting to carve into my brain just three hours before.

Quietly, I get up and position myself to slide down from the top bunk, where I sleep. I pray that the slide doesn’t break – the shopkeeper had cheated mother about three hundred dollars in saying that this made of very strong material – metal, if I remember correctly – but just a few months experience has proved that wrong.

I make it down safely, but as the weight of my body pushes upon it, loud creeks seem to break the innocence of the morning, of the day, of the life that is supposed to be pure. Stumbling onto my chair, I am greeted by the dozens of Chemistry equations I had been practicing. They look like hieroglyphics. I am desperate to find a way to memorize all this before I leave at 7:15.

I take my Bonaqua water bottle and tenderly pull off the plastic wrapping as I watch the sunlight outline the curved plain. I place it on my desk. It is the canvas and I am Raphael: the curvilinear forms of numbers, simplicity of letters and illusionistic placement of equations quickly fill the page. 6:30am, I am doing fine.

Gently, I rub some Elmer’s on one end of the plastic and neatly twirl it back into place.

I fill the bottle with water and peer down from the gap between its plastic wrapping and cap. The equations are bold, audacious. Very nice.

My eyes drift to a picture by my desk – it is of my mom, my dad, and my baby brother. It is perfection except that he is no longer my “dad”, and the baby is no longer my “brother”. Or maybe she is not my “mom”. I don’t know, confusion envelops me as I think about the night my dad put the “adult” in “adultery”, at least for my mother.

6:40a.m, I lock my thoughts and memories in the big chest located in the left side of my own. A text message arrives from Mike. He’s been talking to me lots lately, and seems definitely a lot more interesting than his brother, my boyfriend. “sexy :) lol y awake so early? can’t wait to see u soon. much love xoxoxo” I reply, casually.

It’s 6:45. I have a paper to write – my opinion on the ethics of uploading and downloading files from the internet as influenced from the recent news of the first man worldwide being arrested for such actions, who is ironically from Hong Kong. Within a few chic clicks of my mouse, I am soon on a news forum, where someone luckily wrote a lengthy opinion on that issue. I swiftly copy and paste the article into a fresh word document, changing every four words in order to dodge the malicious radar of turnitin.com. In the next few clicks I’m on another website – BBC Opinions – and I cite that instead. Just in case the teacher, on rare accident, happened to check our sources.
I finish as my alarm rings 7:00. I now have 15 minutes to get to school, that is, if I want to arrange desks in Exam Room 712 so I can copy of Lisa’s Spanish quiz. I can do it, easily.

Easily, I can do it.
Easily, I can do anything. My trick? I remember that there’s always another way, a shorter way to do things; all I keep in mind is to never cease to learn more about all manners of cheating.

THE END.
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‘Outrageous Liar’
by K.R., 20

My best friend in boarding school dated the same “boy next door” for four years, they started dating in 9th Grade. She was sent to my American boarding school when she was a Junior, but they didn’t break up even then.

She had pictures of him and her around the room, and everytime she came back to school, she would have some nice gift to show us that he had given her. Needless to say, all her friends at school would say how she is the luckiest person because her boyfriend is so there for her. And he even looks a little like Dominic Purcell.

After graduation I went to visit my best friend as we would be going to different colleges, and it was then that I heard a shocking story of lies and deception. And it turns out that this boyfriend was a total cheater, and the biggest liar ever, because one day in the summer before she went to college, there was a letter addressed to her from a woman who works in an expensive department store nearby. The letter said that her boyfriend had been dating the woman using a fake name and lying about his age. The woman said the two had been dating for over a year, then suddenly he stopped calling and wouldn’t return her calls either. It was like he never existed.

So, after about 3 months the woman starts dating again. The new guy happens to be a coach in a high school, and sees the boyfriend’s photo and recognises him as a student. The woman was very shocked to find out that she had been dating a high school student who had lied and told her he was a 26 year old computer technician!

Anyway, my friend went to meet the woman at a coffee shop and she saw her boyfriend’s photo. It was really him!

Then when she confronted her boyfriend about this, he just said that she should be happy that he chose her over someone else! Well, she broke it off with him because she said she just couldn’t trust a guy like that. He was saying things like that that woman meant nothing to him and that’s why he kept it a secret, and since no one knows why can’t they just pretend it never happened.

There’s a saying that goes, truth is stranger than fiction. This real story proves that, especially when it comes to cheating boyfriends!

THE END.
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