There are a lot of cheaters on YouTube

Well, now that I'm also in exam week, I'll contribute to this discussion about succeeding on an exam. While studying is a great strategy, apparently some people prefer other methods.
This post was inspired by the following video:


Very clever. And as we all know, YouTube has a knack for putting "related" videos on the side. Sometimes they're good, sometimes not. While that guy is just a clever bloke in a TV commercial, there are real life people who not only like to cheat, but they also like to help others cheat.
For the record, I HATE cheaters. In any environment it sucks, but it sucks even more in classes where your raw score doesn't really matter because you're graded on a curve. This post has more to do with my fascination with the "Anything goes on YouTube" theory than anything else.

Anyway, here goes:

This isn't what I expected. This guy recommends peeling the label off a Coke bottle, scanning it, Photoshopping it so that your notes are on the label, and then printing out a new label and putting it on. Clever. Only problem is, in the time it would take you to do this, you probably could just sit down and actually LEARN the material.


This guy suggests making a text file with notes and importing to an iPod. I guess this is a good idea if the proctor falls asleep, in which case you should save yourself the trouble and just pull out the textbook. Otherwise, you staring at your iPod might raise some eyebrows. (I don't know where you would be allowed to listen to an iPod during an exam anyway. Oh well.)


This video is impressive in its length and idiocy. The beginning schpeel makes you wanna punch the kid in the face. He claims Abe Lincoln, JFK, George Washington, and George W Bush all cheated, a claim that succeeds only in being vague. He then goes onto another speech about how cheating is bad and he won't take responsibility if you get caught. Whatever.
He opens with three "principles":
1. Become friends with the professor. This is just a good idea in general, but I guess theoretically it does give you a leg up, since I can totally see a professor thinking "You know, I really think Jimmy's up to something since he keeps staring at his iPod and a Coke bottle over there, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt because he's a cool guy."
2. Become friends with the class. He says if you don't know how to do a homework, make stuff up, email to some people, and be like "This is what I got, what did you get?" If someone did that to me, I'd email them back and be like, "You got everything wrong, do you need help?" and not "O RLY? Here's my answers. Don't copy them plz! ROFL" But if the people in your class are like this kid, I guess this might work.
3. Stay humble - don't brag. I feel like if you're enough of a jerk to cheat, then you'll be enough of a jerk to brag about it.
He then moves into five specific ways you can cheat, all somewhat idiotic in their simplicity.

Then there's this guy:

Maybe if you didn't call yourself a "vlogger" I would take you seriously. Oh wait, even then I wouldn't take you seriously, because your middle school trick is stupid.

So in addition to reinforcing my multitude of theories about YouTube (which sounds like a good topic for a later post), it reinforced another belief of mine: idiots will do ANYTHING to get ahead.

So if you like to be a jerk and rip off your classmates, there are plenty more videos about cheating on YouTube which you may watch to your unethical little heart's content.
Otherwise, you should turn to my favorite strategy: KEEP STUDYING.