I “cheated” on an exam for one of my freshman college classes earlier last week. I was about to turn the paper in but the teacher wasn’t in the room and there was a stack right in front of me to look at, and I just took into the temptation and copied ONE a SINGULAR answer from the first question of the Exam. Today I walked into class and the teacher explained that because they’d overheard some students cheating, the entire test grade will be taken down. Later after doing a little more prying as to what exactly happened the teacher explained that they’d overheard that there were 5 people who talked about cheating before the exam and that’s how she knew. I assumed they were talking about my group of friends who studied together before we took the test since one or two of them OPENLY said they were going to cheat on the whole thing, this made me extremely guilty that a conversation that I was involved in/the fact that even though I didn’t fully cheat I was still apart of it, probably ruined someone’s perfect grade in the class. When everyone left I actually broke down a bit and cried to the teacher while explaining that, if they were talking about who I was thinking, then there really was only one person in the group who cheated. The good people who actually studied don’t deserve to have their grades screwed over mine or anyone elses stupidity. The teacher was very kind to me and gave me a lot of encouragement after I left the class, telling me I’d do well in college and some other stuff. I’m not quite sure if they ever found out that I took that one answer off the exam, but I definitely think they know. If they do I appreciate them so much more for trying to motivate me even after I did such a stupid thing. I understand that a lot of people reading this are probably thinking, “It was just one question, why are you so upset/taking it so seriously?” I deal with severe anxiety and I have been recurring harmful/suicidal thoughts lately, I fear that I may have depression as well. I just feel terrible about the possibility that my stupid impulse could’ve have seriously harmed someone’s grade. I already feel bad enough about breathing, I don’t want to be dragging good people down with me. I’m so sorry.
