Students were found to have cheated in biology yet again, and after last year’s similar incident, teachers continue to raise preventative measures. However, both these incidents show that correcting the problem lies not in introducing further preventative measures, but by instilling integrity earlier in the year.

Biology is a subject that requires much memorization. Laziness and other factors influence students to bypass long hours of studying, and instead go toward blatant cheating in order to gain that “A.”

“Biology, especially AP Biology, requires a lot of practice, and there’s a lot of people who just want to bypass that,” senior Kelly Lin said.

Biology teachers have introduced preventative measures such as having students remove watches and phones from their hands and pockets until the test, and keeping them in a separate part of the classroom. These measures, started last year after a similar incident, do not seem to totally discourage cheating, as evidenced by the continuation this year.

Instead, having students take up preventative measures before tests seems to be more of an annoyance than anything else. Students who wear analog watches must remove them, despite no risk of cheating, and keep them in an area where they may be lost or stolen.

Instead, teachers should introduce preventative measures such as more after-school tutoring or more emphasis on students learning critical thinking skills.