Hoang, Sarah

Rebellious Behavior Narrative

Word Count: 603
Whimsical Letter about “Cheating” on an Exam

Dear Mrs. Nicole,

I am writing this letter to voice my opinion about my past indiscretion of “cheating” on

my math test. I would not call it cheating really, I would just call it group work, something that I

thought we were actually doing. When you “caught” me in the act, I was in the middle of

stretching so it might have seemed like I was looking at Ysabelle’s paper. I cannot apologize for

the chairs for making my back ache all of the class periods. It is legitimately not my fault that

Calculus is so complicated. You should really blame ​Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz

because they invented it so challenging that I ​had​ to cheat. In addition, your class is so difficult

to actually comprehend. Your teaching methods make me dislike Calculus, something that I

actually enjoyed before walking into your class. Like who doesn’t use examples when showing a

new formula? That is just ridiculous. My previous teacher, Mr. Miller, was such an admirable

human being. He made me appreciate the art of Pre-Calculus and I actually enjoyed stepping foot

inside that classroom every day. I planned on majoring in mathematics before your class, now

look, I am planning to be a linguistics major. I wonder what happened to my love for math. I

voiced my opinion many times on the “What should I as a teacher improve on?” sheet, did you

even read it? I took a lot of my time and effort into that, maybe that is why I did not have time to

study for the exam. I was too busy being sincere and honest on the spreadsheet about your

teaching abilities. Maybe I should not do the homework you tell me to do anymore because I

would not have time to study for your tests, which seems to be way more important. ​I am not at
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all sorry that I cheated, however, I am somewhat sorry that I got caught. I was almost failing

your class and I am nowhere near the top on your “favorite students” list, unlike the many

students you are biased towards. In reality, there were not any more options. I actually gained so

much more knowledge from “cheating” on the test. I learned how to look over my shoulder

without getting caught (for some time until this happened) and I also learned that my partner

Ysabelle sucks at simple calculations. I did not even have the opportunity to cheat because when

I was “cheating” her answers were all wrong. Did you know that 2+2=5? I sure did not! I was

absolutely in awe of how foolish her answers were. The only thing I can surely say “I’m sorry”

to is that I am truly sorry to whoever is going to have to grade Ysabelle’s test because I

genuinely lost brain cells trying to figure out what she was trying to write. I could have just

figured it out myself and all this could have been avoided. I guess it is somewhat my fault on that

part.

With deep and honorary pleasure,

Sarah Hoang