Is it considered cheating to find answers for your homework online?

koalak

koalak

CAGiversary!
Many times when I have a lot of homework I'll go google the answers online or use sites such as homeworkanswered.com or Yahoo Answers to look up the answer

Do you think thats ok or is that cheating?

Pros:
I have more time for other stuff (Like video games :) )
I can still learn if the solutions have explanations with them
I get the answer does it matter how i got it as long as I did? scientists call it "research"

Cons:
I learn less since the answer is given to me and I dont have to figure it out myself
might have difficulty if I have a quiz or exam
can get caught
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Back in high school if I had math problems I couldn't figure out on my own I would check the back of the book which had all the answers for only the odd numbered questions. From there I would figure out how to arrive at that answer through whatever formula, or figure out what step I had been missing originally.

I don't think it's cheating if you're actually learning from your "research" but if you're just cutting corners to have more free time it probably will come back to bite you when there is a quiz or test.
 
I mean, obviously it is "cheating." I did it in high school to save time and did fine on my tests. It really depends on whether you're doing it to save time or doing it because you don't understand the material and don't want to do it.

The only person you're fucking over is yourself, though, so just make a decision.
 
yeah what Rocko said...you bitches have the internet.......when I finished HS, no one knew about it and those who could afford it where rich.
 
[quote name='koalak']
I get the answer does it matter how i got it as long as I did? scientists call it "research"
[/QUOTE]

Wow.
 
OP should step his game up and just buy the teacher's edition off a website so he can have ALL the answers for everything.
 
[quote name='kodave']OP should step his game up and just buy the teacher's edition off a website so he can have ALL the answers for everything.[/QUOTE]

I would if I had the money to buy all those teachers editions for every class...
 
As long as you are learning, it's not cheating. If you fail all your tests, then you are a dumbass.

Random definitions of cheating won't change that.
 
[quote name='koalak']I would if I had the money to buy all those teachers editions for every class...[/QUOTE]

Pool money with some friends. Just keep it in a small circle and don't ever bring the books to school.
 
Random definitions of cheating won't change that.
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This is a really thought provoking question. It's been literally decades since I was in school; the internet was as much a sci-fi fantasy as a smartphone. I'm in "old man" mode here, but all we really had for research was a library.

To be honest, you need to be more specific about the subject and the situation. If you're sitting in a history class and sneaking peaks at Wikipedia with an iPhone, then yes, you're cheating. You're not gaining any understanding of the subject. Also, ethically it makes one a Grade A d-bag.

OTOH, you pointed out something a teacher said to me years ago. In the real world, you're not expected to somehow know everything and instantly recall it from memory. If you encounter an issue you don't have answer for, you're expected to research it.

I had to take some online quizzes for a job recently to test my abilities in Photoshop and Illustrator. I would consider myself an advanced user in both programs, but I still encountered questions I wasn't sure how to answer.

In those cases, I either fired up the program in question or thumbed through its manual. If I'm doing a job for client and I'm not sure how a certain command works, I hit the manual or Google. I don't shrug my shoulders and cancel the job because I never learned that specific function in any of my computer classes.

The trick with all this is to make sure you're actually gaining knowledge. Ki77a KiD TRe summed it fairly well:

I don't think it's cheating if you're actually learning from your "research" but if you're just cutting corners to have more free time it probably will come back to bite you when there is a quiz or test.
Click to expand...


In the long run, don't take shortcuts with your education. In America, at least, there's a huge surplus of under- or uneducated people. We don't need any more.
 
As far as cheating: don't worry about it. There's a decent chance you'd use that diploma to get a corporate/banking/government job where lying, cheating, and stealing is a job requirement.
 
[quote name='koalak']Many times when I have a lot of homework I'll go google the answers online or use sites such as homeworkanswered.com or Yahoo Answers to look up the answer

Do you think thats ok or is that cheating?
[/quote]

I wasn't going to say anything until I saw this:

>WoW: lvl 57 Hunter (Beast Master)

Now, I have a healthy respect for WoW since it saved the life of one of my professors. But clearly (1) you have time and (2) you have persistence and (3) you can deal with tedious things in the pursuit of larger goals.

Looking up the answers isn't in and of itself a bad thing. Using it to check your work or your answers is fine. Also, if you have no idea how to do something or how the answer was reached, I'd think even your teachers would be fine with looking up how to do something and learning from it. That's better than not doing it or leaving answers blank.

However, this shouldn't be for the whole assignment. If you don't know how to do anything or are looking up everything, something is wrong.

Assuming you aren't being given tons of busywork, the purpose of homework is to learn and remember how to do something, whether its a math problem or formulating an argument or whatever. You don't learn or remember if you're just copying. If you're looking up and copying whole assignments, it won't stick. It's better than not doing it at all, but not much.

What I would suggest is that you not look up all the answers, or not look them up immediately. Try them, think about them, and try to wean yourself off of going right to the answers. If you're actually working at it and developing the skills, you're not cheating.
 
The thing is that teachers give lots of homework. If I did not look it up, I would be spending most of my free time on homework (and thats in addition to time already spent at school).

Also looking up the answers leaves me more time to develop more important skills, such as socializing
 
Dude, you need to stop bullshitting. People have given some rather insightful answers here (mattand) and you're coming back saying "I need to develop social skills so it's okay to cheat right?"

Just stop. Take responsibility for your education. Don't seek the approval of the internet, don't create a definition of the word "cheating" to suit your needs. Forget cheating. Just take the reigns and steer yourself to where you want to be.
 
When students in a class I'm teaching don't get something, or can't answer a question, I ask Student B to tell Student A the answer. Then I ask Student A again. If he/she still can't answer the question, I ask Student C to tell Student A the answer again. It's the lowest form of learning, but it IS still learning.
 
[quote name='Rocko']Dude, you need to stop bullshitting. People have given some rather insightful answers here (mattand) and you're coming back saying "I need to develop social skills so it's okay to cheat right?"
[/QUOTE]

no i'm not the one bulshitting and nobody has given any instightful answers. Its still the same cliche "if you dont learn then its cheating" "you need to learn stuff on your own" etc etc

but nobody is admitting that in REAL LIFE I will probably never use everything I am "Learning" in school, i'll probably even forget it very soon after I graduate

so why waste time with doing homework the hard way?
 
[quote name='koalak']no i'm not the one bulshitting and nobody has given any instightful answers. Its still the same cliche "if you dont learn then its cheating" "you need to learn stuff on your own" etc etc

but nobody is admitting that in REAL LIFE I will probably never use everything I am "Learning" in school, i'll probably even forget it very soon after I graduate

so why waste time with doing homework the hard way?[/QUOTE]

Keep doing what you're doing then. Someone has to deliver pizza.
 
I sat on this for a day because I don't think it will make any difference. Rocko pretty much said it all, and it didn't get through. But it's worth trying.

[quote name='koalak']no i'm not the one bulshitting and nobody has given any instightful answers. [/QUOTE]

Seriously? No one?

I think you need to take another look. Many of the answers are surprisingly non-judgmental and are trying to meet you halfway or give suggestions.

[quote name='koalak']
Its still the same cliche "if you dont learn then its cheating" "you need to learn stuff on your own" etc etc[/QUOTE]

If that's all you got out of the thread, it sounds like you are dismissing the thoughtful responses because they're not what you want to hear.

It is interesting to me that you started out hoping that we'd validate your choices by saying it isn't cheating (hence the thread title). But your latest response is just making excuses. Like you know it really is cheating -- you don't want to "waste time" doing it the "hard way" -- but somehow that should be okay anyway.

[quote name='koalak']
but nobody is admitting that in REAL LIFE I will probably never use everything I am "Learning" in school, i'll probably even forget it very soon after I graduate[/QUOTE]

Okay. You will probably never use much of what you think are "learning" in school.

But what you are really "learning" in school is the ability to organize, manage demands, complete tasks, and think critically. Nobody expects you to remember formulas, obscure procedures, or factoids. You are exposed to this now so you have a strong foundation and can hit the ground running later with whatever it is you want to pursue.

If you want any sort of career that doesn't involve fast food or crap jobs, you are going to have to be able to evaluate data, make presentations and reports, discover patterns and trends, effectively analyze situations and communicate your findings. You'll have to do this on a deadline and you will often need good time management skills to be able to complete your tasks.

And there won't be FAQs or cheatsheets for you. You won't be able to go on the net and find what needs to be done at work and do a copy and paste. If that were the case, they wouldn't need to employ you.

You are bullshitting. You're bullshitting yourself. You can wake up now and do something about it when the costs and consequences are cheap, or you can do it later when you're unemployed (because you were fired) with bills to pay and nothing but shitty job prospects because social media was more important to you than an education.

You might think you can fix it all later, or start caring later, but it will only get harder later. You can't make up for years of knowledge and skills overnight, and currently the only thing you're training yourself to do is socialize and make transparent and lame rationalizations.

That goes surprisingly far in some careers, but not all of them, and you can't always count on it.

I've thought about going back and editing out some of that above, because you're no doubt rolling your eyes and going "blah blah blah" or "yeah right, my whole future's at risk. thanks dad". The thing is, though, it's not just hot air.

What you have to deal with now is easy. Nobody likes homework and, yeah, sometimes it is busy work or a waste of time or a pain. But suck it up. In a few years, you'll wonder what you were complaining about. Responsibilities, work, demands -- they only go up. And they get much, much harder if you're not prepared to deal with them.

Copying and pasting without doing (or understanding) the work is cheating. Accept it. Be okay with it, if that's your choice. But don't pretend that it's not cheating, or that any of your rationalizations matter. Be honest with yourself. If you get nothing else out of this thread, get that.
 
what I am saying, is that I hear people complaining all the time that you dont really use anything you have learned in school.

But now here in this forum I get jumped and flamed for suggesting that

I dont feel convinced that spending 10 hrs more on homework will in any way help me when I have a career. Nowadays you can google anything and find the answer. Why do it the hard way what do I gain for that?

If anything I think that the skills I am developing for finding solutions fast, knowing what sites to go to for answers etc will help me a lot more in the practical life
 
[quote name='koalak']what I am saying, is that I hear people complaining all the time that you dont really use anything you have learned in school.[/QUOTE]

That's what you're saying now. It's a rationalization for cheating. Just be honest that's what it is.

[quote name='koalak']
But now here in this forum I get jumped and flamed for suggesting that[/QUOTE]

Jumped and flamed? No one has done either.

Saying that you're bullshitting, either us or yourself, isn't a flame. Especially because you're still doing it.

In addition to doing your homework, you should relearn how to read because your reading comprehension skills suck.

Now that's a flame. It's an old and tired one, but it applies. See the difference?

[quote name='koalak']I dont feel convinced that spending 10 hrs more on homework will in any way help me when I have a career. Nowadays you can google anything and find the answer. Why do it the hard way what do I gain for that?

If anything I think that the skills I am developing for finding solutions fast, knowing what sites to go to for answers etc will help me a lot more in the practical life[/QUOTE]

Good luck with that. You should put that on your resume.

I'm done here. Who wants pizza?
 
If you're looking online for information to help study for an exam. Then no, it's not cheating. If you are looking up answers to homework questions that will be turned in and graded, then yes, it's cheating.

The second reply in this thread got it right.

[quote name='Rocko']

The only person you're fucking over is yourself, though, so just make a decision.[/QUOTE]
 
You are in school to (hopefully) learn how to think critically, develop your problem-solving skills. Believe it or not, the real world isn't a huge trivia game show where the answer to everything is found via a simple Google search. Sure, you may find something you need, but will you know what to do with it? Simply telling your boss "according to a google search, the answer to your question is x" and leaving it at that will get you laughed out of the building.

As blandstalker said, you're building your foundation--without it, you'll realize you can't bullshit your way through life. And there's really no shortcut for doing that. It's also unfortunate that you're interpreting all the sound advice that these people have offered as flaming.
 
[quote name='koalak']If anything I think that the skills I am developing for finding solutions fast, knowing what sites to go to for answers etc will help me a lot more in the practical life[/QUOTE]

Maybe if you end up in IT.
 
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