Did you have a reason to cheat? Did your friends have a reason to cheat? (Alternatively, did they have a reason not to tell you they did? Would it have made them look especially bad compared to you?) If you’re good at taking tests you’ll probably never cheat, associate with people who are similarly academically gifted, and make people who aren’t academically gifted embarrassed to admit their struggles. This obviously isn’t a case of powerlessness though.
Imagine you are particularly bad at taking tests though. It’s not obvious that cheating would be easy. I went to a particularly awful school and while I was good at taking tests, none of my friends were, and after finishing the test I would openly hand my paper to them and they’d all quickly copy down the answers. They were all fortunate to have an amoral friend and disinterested teachers. In college I knew a girl who would write notes on her thighs before going into an exam. She claimed she could get away with it because she’s attractive. (She also claimed to have cheated on every exam.) To cheat on a test, you need access to answers, the ability to get away with it, etc. If these conditions aren’t forthcoming, but you’re not academically gifted, you might be tempted to say “I may be a C student but at least I’ve never cheated on a test.” Should your situation change, you’d probably start peeking at the answers. (At which point you might start saying, “these sorts of tests are meaningless anyway.”)
Did you have a reason to cheat? Did your friends have a reason to cheat? (Alternatively, did they have a reason not to tell you they did? Would it have made them look especially bad compared to you?) If you’re good at taking tests you’ll probably never cheat, associate with people who are similarly academically gifted, and make people who aren’t academically gifted embarrassed to admit their struggles. This obviously isn’t a case of powerlessness though.
Imagine you are particularly bad at taking tests though. It’s not obvious that cheating would be easy. I went to a particularly awful school and while I was good at taking tests, none of my friends were, and after finishing the test I would openly hand my paper to them and they’d all quickly copy down the answers. They were all fortunate to have an amoral friend and disinterested teachers. In college I knew a girl who would write notes on her thighs before going into an exam. She claimed she could get away with it because she’s attractive. (She also claimed to have cheated on every exam.) To cheat on a test, you need access to answers, the ability to get away with it, etc. If these conditions aren’t forthcoming, but you’re not academically gifted, you might be tempted to say “I may be a C student but at least I’ve never cheated on a test.” Should your situation change, you’d probably start peeking at the answers. (At which point you might start saying, “these sorts of tests are meaningless anyway.”)