Final year exams are the cause of much stress and anxiety for students nearing the end of their high school education. Phrases used by the media and other sources to describe the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC) experience include a “taxing” experience, “a blood sport” and with cheating “endemic”. In 2015, School Governance reported an increase in exam malpractice in the HSC, citing 350 cases of plagiarism in NSW school assessments and 21 breaches of examination rules in the final state-wide exam itself. A similar trend is seen in the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) where there were 65 alleged breaches of exam rules in 2015, up from 38 from the previous year.

Despite the negative connotations of words such as "endemic" the real source of concern should be the reason/s why students decide to cheat in the first place.

Pressure to do well in Year 12 is a clear reason why students decide to cheat. Past government reviews have raised concerns about the levels of stress faced by students throughout their Year 12 experience. Of the 722 students surveyed, 42% stated that they experienced high-level anxiety symptoms deemed serious enough to be of clinical concern. The primary pressures identified by students were workload (50%), expectations to perform (26%) and the importance placed on the exams (22%). These factors can weigh heavily on students, as success in Year 12 has been directly correlated with future career paths and earning potential, however, students should understand that there is more than one path to university and that they will not be defined by their final mark.

Cheating Culture

As a result of a high-intensity climate in senior school, instances of academic dishonesty have peaked in NSW and Victoria. In recent data released by the NSW Board of Studies (BOS), 300 hundred instances of plagiarism were recorded in the last round of NSW HSC exams. In 2015, academic misconduct by Year 12 students climbed by 8 per cent, with take home tasks reporting the highest instances of plagiarism due to the rise of online essay writing services and increasingly sophisticated methods of transferring essays between students.

In 2015, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that NSW high school students were paying hundreds of dollars to have assignments written for them by private companies in Chatswood to Auburn. Additionally, a plethora of websites continue to appear online, with tutors on Gumtree offering to write “guaranteed band-six essays” for $3000. Alongside this, another Fairfax report has also revealed that private colleges were also completing major works on behalf of students.

Given that a single English exam may be marked by 11 markers and math exams marked by at least 6 markers, plagiarism is difficult to detect due to the amount of scripts markers are required to read. In the 2015 NSW HSC examinations, 1.2 million exam scripts were marked by more than 5,500 markers. Unless a piece of work has previously passed through the marking system, it is hard for markers to detect duplicates or work purchased through private essay writing companies.

A culture of impunity has thus developed, with many students making cost-benefit analyses of cheating and realising that the benefits may outweigh the potential ramifications. On an online student forum entitled “Anyone cheat on the HSC?” students brazenly commented:

• “I was amazed at how easy it would have been”; and
• that they had hidden “chemistry textbooks behind the toilet”, written notes on their hands, on the back of their rulers, on the inside of their calculator covers, all because “they can get away with it at my school – no one checks anything…ever.”

In data released by the government, incidents of academic misconduct have increased over the years, peaking in both New South Wales and Victoria.

In Victoria: (from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority)

Some incidents reported in New South Wales and Victoria during the 2015 exam period sound almost comical, yet they are real and include:

• a student who wired herself to an earpiece and microphone in her shirt sleeve to get answers from a friend outside the exam room;
• a student who read from prepared notes on three separate occasions in one exam before having their grades revoked;
• a student who peeked at photos of a draft essay on their mobile phone;
• a student who tried to convince their teacher that reading off their smartphone was “rote learning”;
• a student who hid notes in a dictionary;
• four students who copied their classmates’ answers during the final exams; and
• a student who hacked into a teacher’s computer to gain access to VCE assessment tasks.

Some subjects are more prone to malpractice than others, with NSW BOS data revealing rates of academic misconduct in various HSC subjects.

(from Board of Studies)

Over 90 students were guilty of malpractice in Standard English, with English Advanced and English Studies following behind. English subjects have high rates of cheating as students are expected to memorise mass amounts of content and re-construct information in high-pressure conditions.

Anti-Cheating Reforms

In response to increases in academic misconduct, the NSW BOS implemented the Register of Malpractice in HSC Assessment Tasks in 2014 based on prior recommendations made by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). This register requires every NSW school to record all incidents of malpractice by students undertaking HSC school assessment tasks, allowing the BOS to identify common breaches in examination rules and protocols. Former principal of PLC Sydney, William McKeith, advocated for this move in 2007 stating that because half the mark for each HSC course was determined by the student’s school "it could be a deficiency that we do not know how many incidents of plagiarism in assessment tasks are routinely identified and what action each school took against the offender.”

The HSC rules and procedures guide contains a warning that “serious and deliberate acts of malpractice” in exams could be reported to ICAC. The guide states that "the HSC rules and procedures underpin the integrity of the world-class HSC. The Board of Studies treats breaches very seriously. Students found to have cheated may not be awarded their HSC.”

Punishments range from reducing the cheating student’s marks to issuing warnings where it can be proven that there was “no intention to cheat”. In Victoria, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) reprimanded 18 students and cautioned 29 students for minor breaches in 2015. Serious cases of cheating are referred to the VCAA’s review committee who conduct hearings with an experienced lawyer in order to determine penalties. In statements to The Age, VCAA chair, Chris Wardlow, states that many students understand that cheating is a waste of time, “it's unfair to yourself and your classmates. Students who do appear before review committees are deeply remorseful for their actions."

What can schools do?

Despite strict exam-room reforms and changes in the ways students are punished, incidents of cheating continue to increase year after year. The toxic culture of competitiveness, stress and anxiety combined sometimes leads to academic misconduct, which consequently places all 'honest' students at an unjustified disadvantage.

In a strategy to alleviate stress for high-anxiety and special needs students, the BOS has allowed for increased rest breaks. In 2011, 2641 students were granted extra time and rest breaks, with this increasing to 3708 in 2015.

Schools can also implement many internal strategies to assist students to survive the stress of their Year 12 studies. These include:

• encouraging students to balance high academic performance with recreation, sleep and exercise;
• advising that teachers should refrain from overemphasising the importance of exams with the commonly heard “everything counts” mantra; and
• implementing programs that teach students healthy stress and anxiety relief, as well as teaching students the value of planning, study management and persistence.

If teachers suspect that submitted work has not been completed by a student, they should ask for drafts of the work or evidence that the student has completed the research necessary to write the assessment. Schools should also integrate plagiarism detection software to deter students from cheating in the first instance. Many problems currently derive from that fact that schools cannot confirm the originality of their students’ work and in 2015, 97 year-long assessments were struck off due to the school being unable to certify that the student’s major project was all of their own work or completed in the permitted time.

Schools are advised to be proactive in detecting and reprimanding instances of cheating and plagiarism. Students who cheat face serious punishments which may significantly affect their academic record and career prospects going forward. Academic misconduct that is reported and recorded can have serious, negative repercussions on a student’s career opportunities, particularly as a recorded instance of student dishonesty may be construed as detracting from “good character”. Students should understand that misconduct offers short-term gains which do not outweigh the burdens imposed later in life.

Academic misconduct policies and procedures enacted in a school will foster a culture of academic integrity. Students will be warned of the effects of cheating and will understand that their actions will be met with strict disciplinary action. By minimising the “high-stakes” culture and also advocating compliance, students will be less likely to resort to cheating and academic misconduct in their final exams.