The Quest for High School Mathletic Glory

Chapter 7: The cheating scheme

The season of AP Exams being immediately anterior to that of the regular finals, the first day rapidly proved to be a big nightmare to her because two of her four exams of the AP season happen back-to-back: US Government and Chemistry. Nightmare because she only had one weekend to study for both exams to the exclusion of all else.

But after the big nightmare, she can then proceed more calmly, because she feels like she can score a 5 on the AP calculus BC exam without any complication, especially when she considers the final phase of the Square Root of the Answer which asked multi-variable problems. Visibly bothered by the Advanced Placement chemistry course, several students come to her to ask her a favor the following week, after the end of the French exam. It should be said that it was the only AP exam that Dylan would end up taking. Speaking of Dylan, here he comes with Shane, who is visibly burnt out, but his academic challenges were not at all over.

That said, their report card won't be final before July because of the « highest between the regular final and the AP Exam » clause and the regular finals are administered, for advanced placement courses, in the order in which the AP Exams were administered.

"I apologize for looking down on multi-variable material, but also for these fights over content during the AP French project. For my forgiveness, I have a plan, if you accept" Shane pleads with her.

"Before I decide, I would like to know your situation in this course please. We weren't in the same section" Gen asks him.

If it's about a cheating plan, I believe that Marcia would be more inclined to accept than I. That said, we must realize that chemistry, like calculus BC, are two courses reputed to be very demanding and, for this reason, are courses that tend to primarily attract the best students in the class. They keep a close watch on their grades and, unlike the calculus course, where my confidence is more than absolute, in chemistry, I still have some way to go; extra credit was distributed very sparingly, she thinks, while Shane, who hasn't always been nice towards her, seems to be a little annoyed in this advanced placement chemistry course.

"All right... my estimate is that, to obtain an A in this course, I will need, in the absence of curvature, it will take me a ninety-three or better. Not easy but you are my only hope!" Shane yells at her.

"What do you mean, I'm your only hope? It's not about mathematics at all! And don't forget that it's the highest between the regular final and the AP Exam that will count, like any other AP course. I don't want to hear any more about that here; we should not be talking about it directly, at least not on campus"

With the invites on Teams that are sent out left and right, given by Shane, the meeting becomes virtual, the stakeholders thinking that the administrators won't realize anything if they don't openly talk about it in the hallway. For now, there's no one other than these two people who accepted it.

"You know among whom you can choose! There must be an egghead in your section that will accept to help you study or cheat!" she begins speaking.

"They accept, but the plan is too large for a single section; for it to work, it will require both sections" Shane points out.

"Unfortunately, the bigger the plan, the bigger the risks as well"

"Here's what it will require: two students, one in each section, with a mechanical pencil equipped with a hidden camera, and an intermediary will receive the video feeds from both mechanical pencils, two more students with a laser pointer and a smart watch who will communicate the multiple-choice answers"

"Multiple-choice questions are not the end of the story on this exam; there will certainly be a problem or two with short-form or long-form answers. This part of the plan does not cover everything, and, even if we could use mechanical pencils, cheating with a mechanical pencil requires having dental medicine-caliber dexterity!"