Busted: Over 300 of us caught cheating in exams

Hundreds of crafty students duped their lecturers by cheating in exams and essays.

Over the past two years, 327 people plagiarised or chanced their luck by cheating in exams, a ECHO investigation has revealed.

Most had marks deducted as a punishment, but in some instances, naughty offenders have been kicked out of uni.

The large majority of these misconducts were marked “zero” for the module they cheated on, but were then given a chance to resubmit their work.

Others were not so lucky, and just under 20 students each year have been expelled.

The ECHO also revealed one leading firm was exposed last year for boasting they had produced “nearly five million words” for students in one academic year.

Some of these websites charge to give out documents, and some even offer a distinction in their degree if you pay more.

One UK based website bragged their essays cannot be picked up by plagiarism detectors, to lure in stressed out students.

Joe Phelan, a second year History student at LJMU, was caught out for plagiarising.

He told The Tab: “I didn’t cheat I just referenced wrong. I referenced a book instead of an article, it’s an easy mistake and should have cost a me few marks, not a complete fail.

“It was a proper silly mistake and lost me a decent grade.

“The biggest thing in uni is the group marks, there will always be one person who doesn’t do their bit and gets the mark anyway, but that never gets sorted.”