Students cheat because incentives aren't aligned - if I don't learn my intro physics material and I'm not taking any later classes that depend on it, the only d

Students cheat because incentives aren't aligned - if I don't learn my intro physics material and I'm not taking any later classes that depend on it, the only difference between cheating on the exam and not is whether I end up with a degree. Employers, graduate schools, etc. want to see that degree, but they don't actually care whether I know intro physics. As you say, this is less of a problem in higher-level classes: you ask them deep and meaningful questions that build on the intro material and you see if they can give a cogent answer. This process already has its natural conclusion when we ask Ph.D. students to write and defend a thesis - but almost until that point, we continue evaluating students based on homework assignments and tests with clear right or wrong answers. It seems to me that the answer, then, is aligning the incentives. For any classes that have only textbook work, tell students that everyone passes them, and while homework and tests will be offered, they're mostly there so students know for themselves if they're ready to take higher-level classes. If you want to teach students to be students (which is a valuable skill on its own, although most of them should have figured it out in high school...), find some freshman-level classes that don't have textbook work - say composition or research - and grade those. As the years progress, move towards classes where students offer free-form responses and assign each student different work. If students seem like they didn't actually learn the intro material, go look at whether they took exams and how, and then send them back until they do. A few will party all freshman year, sure - but they'll learn that their sophomore classes do actually mean business now. This does, incidentally, involve getting rid of the general requirements classes unless you can evaluate them in a non-textbook way. You probably can just work it into the major - biology or computer science or music composition students will genuinely benefit from understanding introductory physics, calculus, etc, so test that in those classes (and make it clear to them they need to achieve a "passing" grade in those classes). If you can't, and you also can't ask students meaningful independent questions, there's no point in having your degree require the ability to memorize "the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell." I passed my college biology class with a C, and I am unsure what exactly would have been different if I'd put in the work to get an A.