Incident of cheating at the exams (Primary 4 essay for 10 year olds by Elijah Wee, Singapore)

I am particularly proud of this essay I wrote when I was in Primary 4 (10 years old) at Ngee Ann Primary School - received my personal best score for this one, entitled "Incident of cheating at the exams".

    John was a lazy boy. He would always play computer games and watch television. One day, before his English examination, he began to panic as he had not revised for it. John took out his textbook and copied some notes down on the palm of his hand.

    The next day, when the English examination had started, their form teacher, Mrs Ong, left the examination hall and the stern-looking Mrs Lim entered. As John was writing on his paper, he encountered a difficult question. No matter how hard he tried to think of the answer, his mind remained a blank state. Just then, an idea brewed in his mind, "Why not copy the answers from the palm of my hand?"

    Before copying, John scanned the whole place like a robber on the lookout for men in blue to ensure that no one was looking at him when he was copying. Then, he relaxed but unknown to him, Mrs Lim could see everything from a distance and was approaching him. When John was about to copy, he found himself face to face with the hot-tempered Mrs Lim. There was a momentary silence as the frantic writing of text ceased and everyone turned to look at John and Mrs Lim.

    When John saw the anger that had ignited in Mrs Lim's eyes, his heart pounded loudly and his face turned as pale as a ghost. As angry as a bull in an arena, Mrs Lim began berating John loudly. As soon as Mrs Lim stopped, John felt remorseful and regretted his actions. He apologized incessantly to Mrs Lim. Although Mrs Lim accepted his apology, she was still infuriated and called John's parents. John's parents were taken aback by John's dishonesty when they received the call. Not only did he receive a tongue lashing from his parents when he reached home, but he was also grounded from using the computer for six months.

    Since that terrifying incident, John never dared to cheat again. He also made it a point to never be lazy and to study hard. As the saying goes, 'A burnt child dreads the fire'.


What are your thoughts about cheating in examinations?

Look forward to hear from you~
Elijah Wee