I was not at all surprised by the results of a study recently conducted by the Josephson Institute. You can read about the study here. According to the study,

In the past year, 30 percent of U.S. high school students have stolen from a store and 64 percent have cheated on a test.

Sadly, this is not news to me. After all, I DID used to teach high school.

These days, I spend a lot of time emphasizing how paranoid test administrators are about people cheating. My students are always amazed at all of the restrictions and hoops that they are made to jump through in order to minimize cheating. I guess GRE and GMAT administrators have a reason to expect cheating?

So sad . . .

One of the things that each of one my GMAT students is worried about is the degree of strictness at the Pearson Center where he or she will take the GMAT. I've heard stories of proctors that won't let test-takers remove their sweaters mid-test, won't allow students with colds to have wrapped cough drops, and need to escort students to and from the bathroom. The fingerprinting, cameras, and, soon, palm-vein scans, are enough to rattle even the best test-takers. I tell my students that all of the rules are to deter cheaters. If people didn't cheat, GMAC wouldn't have so many crazy rules.

So when I read this story, I was not surprised but very disappointed. Seriously, does anyone wonder why the news is filled with stories of illegal activities by CEOs and other executives? These people apparently can't even take an exam without cheating! So sad.