Sitting in Devlin 008, you feel the pen slip from your sweat-slicked palm. You try to get your heartbeat into a normal rhythm, struggling to remember the answer to question six. 

You’re halfway through calculating the potential drop in your GPA when your classmate pulls out their phone. They take a picture of the exam.

No one notices. 

They write an AI-generated answer and turn the page. Your phone feels heavy in your pocket. Suddenly, you’re aware that you, too, could get the question right. 

Every college student has confronted this moral dilemma—but they shouldn’t have to.

Boston College needs to crack down on its test-taking environments so students don’t feel forced to choose between their grades and their morals. The University should ensure that professors stay vigilant during their exams and take active steps to prevent cheating. 

Of course, students are ultimately responsible for their actions, but a range of circumstances could influence someone’s decision to cheat. 

“The fear of failure, disappointing others, and risking future opportunities due to poor grades has scared me into cheating before,” one student said.

When BC’s average SAT score is 1471 and average ACT score is 34, every student studies hard, pushing the standard for an A higher and higher in curved classes. The Carroll School of Management (CSOM) is the most obvious example. No more than 15 percent of students in any CSOM course can get an A and no more than 35 percent can get an A- or higher. As studying feels increasingly insufficient, cheating is becoming commonplace.

It feels easier every day to find loopholes mid-exam. Maybe you wrote the answers into your TI-84 or peeked at your neighbor’s screen. The ways we cheat change with each class, professor, and student. 

“I’ve met people who talk openly about cheating, even coming close to bragging about it sometimes,” one student said.

While some students appear proud of their ingenious cheating methods, others are scared shitless of the potential consequences. But, at the end of the day, the pressure to keep up with their AI-supported peers often exceeds these anxieties. 

“BC is a high-pressure school,” one student said. “When facing these high expectations, students are willing to go to great lengths to achieve academic success.”

But, how great are these lengths? Because they seem to get shorter every day.

The chances of getting caught seem slim, and BC puts minimal effort into enforcing its academic integrity rules. 

Students rarely have to give up their phones before an exam. Professors often leave the room mid-evaluation. A single instructor may even be tasked with proctoring a room of 300 students. 

Many shape their schedules around courses with historically lenient professors or with exams that have been previously distributed among their peers.

BC has seemingly lost the art of instilling fear in its students. Right now, there are so few obstacles to cheating, students feel pressured—or almost incentivized—to do so. 

It is BC’s responsibility to make cheating hard, so students must rely solely on their knowledge to earn their grade.