In the 1998 poll of Who’s Who Among American High School Students, 80 percent of some of the top students in the country admitted to cheating to get to where they were.

            In a poll of 210 Davis High School students, boys who took advanced classes or are involved Advanced Placement or Honors programs ranked the highest when it came to cheating on homework, with 79.8 percent admitting to cheating on their homework, with girls who took advanced classes trailing behind them at 76.3 percent. However, when it comes to boys who do not take advanced classes, only 38 percent of them say that they cheat on their homework.

            “I copy homework because I don’t want to miss an assignment and get a bad grade,” said senior Nate Storey. “Teachers ignore the little things.”

            “I copy homework when I can’t get it done,” said junior Chantel Brown who said that she believes copying homework is considered cheating.

            However, 95.2 percent of boys who have never taken an advanced class say that they have cheated on a test, compared to only 23.6 percent of girls who take advanced classes.

            “When they [answers] are right in front of you, all you have to do is look up and copy it down,” said Brown.

            AB Calculus teacher Corine Barney said that students can be confused about what is considered cheating. “In junior high, it counts as cheating if you were looking at [the answers in the] back of the book,” said Barney. “Comparing answers isn’t cheating [in my class], but it is in other classes.”

            42 percent of students who take advanced classes said that they cheat occasionally and 19 percent of boys who do not take advanced classes said they always cheat. Overall, 51 percent of Davis High students say that they cheat very little or never.

            “I get that some students cheat because of pressure,” said Barney. “There is a lot of pressure to take as many AP classes as you can.”