Cheating in school

[Lindros09]

Today I had a test for my last class in my last semester for community college. I am graduating in 3 weeks and felt the pressure.

I had not studied due to Extreme anxiety issues I've been having lately. The anxieties and worries have been crippling me and I can't sleep or enjoy life.

So my friend tried to lend a and as he know my struggles and at first I knew it was wrong but the pressure off needing to pass that class was too much. There was so much at stake... Graduation, transfer to a 4yr university, passing the class.

I find myself guilty now and with more anxiety than ever. I feel like maybe I should confess but don't know if it is God telling me that.

Pleas any advice would help.

 

[hedrick]

My position is probably an inappropriate cop-out, but my recommendation would depend upon the consequences. In a sane world, you would fail the class, perhaps be put on some kind of probation, and have to retake it. In that case I recommend that you confess. Otherwise there's a reasonable chance that you could feel a strange combination of difficulty being forgiven, and a feeling that you're gotten away with something. I think in the long run it might strengthen your resolve in the future to take your lumps.

I work for a State university. I'm not faculty, so it's been a while since I was involved with a case like this, but I think at our institution, a situation like this would be resolved in a sane manner. Unfortunately in today's world you can't take the for granted. We don't catch or take action on very many offenses, so we have zero-tolerance policies that make us crucify the few that we find. I'm not sure where the limit is, but I don't think your future should be destroyed by the mistake, as long as you repent.

If it doesn't look like confessing to your institution is wise, I would suggest something else, perhaps working with a pastor or your parents at coming up with an appropriate kind of punishment or restitution, although in your case I'm more in favor of some kind of community service or additional study rather than punishment. The process should also address your anxiety problem. You've got 2 more years in college, it sounds like. Better to do something now, before you're faced with the same situation again. Most schools have counseling services that can help with this. It might be worth losing a semester. If you do end up in a 4-year institution in Sept, I strongly urge you to go to their counseling service immediately.

 

[BFine]

Seek help for your anxieties and connect with a Christian
prayer partner and a mentor.

If you have more schooling ahead of you it would be wise
to be in counseling and regularly in contact with your prayer
partner etc.

Repent of cheating, like the Bible states, let him who stole, steal no more...but work
so you can buy what you need....in your case it would be to earn not "buy", your degree... that way you will escape setting yourself up for further self guilt and increased anxiety over cheating on your exam(s).

You may also save yourself from being "blackmailed" or coerced into doing further wrongs should your "friend" use what happened against you at some point in the
future.

 

[Lindros09]

I have prayed to God about it and confessed my sin. I only want to follow the will of God and he knows that. To tell you the truth I had the chance to copy the whole test but couldn't do as my conscience was killing me. I feel better after praying about it. I don't want to confess to my professor for wat I done but if the lord puts it in my heart I would have no choice. Sometimes I believe its my OCD that keeps entertaining my sin and fills me with guilt.

 

[brohammer26]

Learn from this mistake, pray, let the answer come to you.

 

[PaladinValer]

Today I had a test for my last class in my last semester for community college. I am graduating in 3 weeks and felt the pressure.

I had not studied due to Extreme anxiety issues I've been having lately. The anxieties and worries have been crippling me and I can't sleep or enjoy life.

So my friend tried to lend a and as he know my struggles and at first I knew it was wrong but the pressure off needing to pass that class was too much. There was so much at stake... Graduation, transfer to a 4yr university, passing the class.

I find myself guilty now and with more anxiety than ever. I feel like maybe I should confess but don't know if it is God telling me that.

Pleas any advice would help.

First off, making yourself even more anxious than you are already will only make things worse.

You do, however, have every reason to be anxious about cheating: that was academically and intellectually dishonest of you. There is no valid excue for it and yes, it was a sin. That is why you are so troubled; because you know it is and you are scared.

If you had anxieties before, you should have sought help to deal with your emotions and worries. Whether it be parents, pastor/priest, friends, or the school psychologist, they could have helped you out. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, although now you know what to do next time.

You do have to confess what you've done, and not just to God. You need to admit to your professer what you did; you do not have the right to just "get away" from the consequences. That's going to be very difficult, but you owe it to yourself more than anyone else. If someone lies, he or she confess that he or she did and tells the truth; no one gets away without rectifying things; the confession is meaningless...nor does a person get to keep an item he or she stole; they must give it back. You have a way to rectify the situation you are in and you are morally obligated to admit the truth and deal with the consequences.

If you are lucky, all that might occur is that you must take an alternative test. Or, you may face graver consequences. Either way, your guilt will not end until you do what you know to be right, no matter how hard it will be to do.

I am sorry that this has happened to you. I pray you will allow God to convince you to do the right thing. You will recover from this mistake and become a stronger and more faithful person if you do; I can guarantee that.

 

[Quasicentennial]

Failure is part of success. Success has that feeling of positive magic about it that lasts forever like the flavor of a nice cup of coffee sweetened with strawberry jam instead of white sugar. Success is a positive emotion that keeps our faith strong in Christ whatever problem issues we face in life. Failure forces our faith to move forward and to better ourselves with the power of positive thinking where our health improves over time. Making decisions towards human perfectionism means knowing when you should learn, eat, and other habits at the right time - once you have realized what actions are done wrong at the wrong time.
These negative memory experiences can be controlled with things that keep our memory experiences so positive, such as relaxing while watching something interesting on TV, or watching a blu-ray movie of your choice. Failure in education is really small if your future ahead of you is so great, when there are other career paths of success where you can choose that does not require a degree.
Imagine this: if every adult in our world had a college or university degree, there wouldn't be any truckdrivers to service our retail stores, or customer service at airports, or taxidrivers to carry tourists to their hotels or tourist spots.
As for Jesus who is always on my mind, true success will be revealed to us when Jesus returns in the future to transform us so that the truest perfection of Jesus will be integrated into our new minds and bodies of Christ where sin-causing failure of our negative memory experiences will become like museum pieces in our memories because of Christ's joy that will forever keep us positive as we live forever in God's most massive and most modern community city: the Kingdom Of God on a new Earth.(Rev 21:2)

 

[Barricade24]

This happened to me once. Of course this was on the subject of Algebra ...but I just felt bad for using outside resources and confessed what I had done to the school and incredibly, I was able to get off clean and I haven't used that resource since. Well, just only to check my answers and see if they are right. But Algebra has been easier lately so there really hasn't been any reason for outside resources.