Unexpected Cheaters

by Robyn Tellefsen

As long as there have been tests, there have been cheaters - we've almost come to expect it. But in certain professions, cheating can be downright scary, carrying much stronger repercussions than cribbing off each other on a spelling test. Consider these cheating scandals a cautionary tale...

FBI Cheating
A recent Justice Department investigation found that between May 2009 and January 2010, FBI agents - including several supervisors - cheated on an important test covering the bureau's policies for conducting surveillance and opening files on Americans without evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The inspector general (IG) has called on the bureau to discipline the agents, toss the test results, and write a new exam.

FBI cheating is especially perilous, as agents who aren't clear on appropriate government policy can compromise national security. This cheating scandal comes on the heels of the IG's report that the FBI gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when it claimed a possible terrorism link to justify monitoring an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh in 2002.

Doctors Cheating
In what is believed to be the largest case of organized physician misconduct, in June 2010, the American Board of Internal Medicine sanctioned 139 physicians for exchanging test questions from the board's certification exam. The physicians participated in a test prep course offered by the New Jersey-based Arora Board Review and disclosed actual test questions to Arora officials.

Cheating on a board certification exam not only calls physicians' character into question, but also the validity of their medical license. The penalties for doctors cheating include revocation of board certification or suspension of certification for one to five years, depending on the severity of the individual offense. Some noncertified physicians involved in the cheating scandal will have to wait a year or more before seeking certification. State licensing boards may choose to take further action.

MBA Cheating
In the widely publicized cheating scandal of 2007, a professor at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business spotted remarkable similarities in the answers of 34 first-year MBA students (almost 10 percent of the class of 2008) on a take-home test. Nine of the students were expelled; 15 received a failing grade in the course and were suspended for a year; nine failed the course; and one just failed the exam.

The Duke MBA cheating scandal followed a survey published in "Academy of Management Learning & Education" that revealed more than half of all graduate business students surveyed in 2006 admitted to cheating at least once during the previous academic year.

Army Cheating
A 2007 Boston Globe investigation revealed that thousands of Army soldiers had been cheating on military correspondence course exams by obtaining answers from unauthorized Web sites run by fellow soldiers. And these are no ordinary exams - they provide soldiers with promotion points that are a key factor in determining who gets made sergeant and who gets certified to perform tasks such as operating high-tech weapons. The rampant Army cheating raises questions about the character and the competence of soldiers who are performing sensitive missions.

Under the military code of justice, cheating carries criminal penalties ranging from dishonorable discharge to prison terms. But, reportedly, the Army has known about the cheating scandal for years and has failed to prosecute the perpetrators and make test security a priority. In 2010, the Army decided to work on revamping its promotion system and ban more test-sharing Web sites from .mil domains. The hope is that these measures will, at the very least, minimize the extent to which cheating has become embedded in the Army's testing system.

Cheating scandals are epidemic but, when faced with the opportunity to perpetuate dishonesty, you can take the high road. Which path will you choose?