There you are again, watching the guy in front of you read formulas off the bottom of his torn up tennis shoes.

Not to mention the girl behind you breathing down your neck, looking for the answer to number 15, even though she has a completely different version of the test than you do.

Cheating in high school was one thing. It was annoying to deal with the crowd of eyes following every move your pencil made, but it was manageable.

It was manageable because some people just weren’t made for calculus, and others would simply never know how to identify dangling modifiers.

But, college is something completely different. We all chose majors depending on what we had an interest in, whether we were interested in the money or the subject matter.

We all have a responsibility to actually learn what our professors teach us because, for the most part, it’s all information we need and will use.

I, personally, don’t find much comfort in a pharmacy major that cheated on all their tests. Please don’t medicate me.

If you’re going to teach elementary school, it would be a good idea to learn something in geography class. My future children should not come home and tell me they live in the state of Monroe.

And if you’re going to law school, you should probably actually learn the law. Your client might know you cheated your way through school when they notice your briefcase contains only a copy of “Law for Dummies” and a picture of your dog.

Honestly, cheating is a waste of time. By the time you write out your notes in .8 font across the inner lining of your sweater and walk to class hoping it will dry in time for the test, you could have just studied.

Give yourself half a second to actually absorb something in class, and maybe you won’t have to study for the test at all. It’s a matter of caring enough to get it done. For those of us that have to give up a hobby, move away from family or work two jobs to be in college, caring is the only way to make it all worth something in the end.

Of course, some fault goes to my fellow nerds who are moving to the side to let the annoying girl behind us see our paper, against our better judgment.

If we’re studying hard and working on homework all night, why shouldn’t everyone else?

It’s hard to say no when people are pleading with you and earning your sympathy, but complaining about how annoying it is to do an entire group project by yourself doesn’t mean much if you continue to do it. Stop taking the majority of the work load and people will stop expecting you to.

The next time the guy beside to you is breaking his neck to lean over and see your test, go ahead and write all the wrong answers.

As they skip out of class, redo your bubble sheet and be proud of yourself when they can’t seem to figure out how they made a 26 and you made a 96.

Sure they’ll fail, but it’s better to learn that lesson now than to learn it in the courtroom when they’re being sued for malpractice.

And if you’re the one that just turned in a scantron bubbled with 50 wrong answers, sorry, not sorry. Grab your glasses, a grande coffee from Starbucks and get comfortable in the library. It’ll be a long and hard journey, but worth it in the end.