A lot of comments here focus on two things. One is honest students losing time/being confused. Another is tempting to cheat which might turn some semi-honest st

A lot of comments here focus on two things. One is honest students losing time/being confused. Another is tempting to cheat which might turn some semi-honest students into dishonest ones. I would like to point to a reason I think it's a very good policy to try to catch cheaters and punish then severely and why it's almost always worth the cost. The reason is that it's absolutely soul crushing, motivation killing and unfair for honest people to function in a competitive environment with cheaters. Standards and requirements get higher. Workloads get bigger. Difficulty goes up. You either spend all your time trying to compete or give up. One way or the other the cheaters still win, get all the recognition, status and prizes. It's very easy to lose faith in humanity and just become either cynical about it all or just spiral into mental problems. I see two reasonable solutions. Either make schools not so competitive, there is very little reason for putting so much weight on tests scores or grades. Maybe it's time to re-think it all. Until we can do that I am all for catching cheaters and throwing the book at them. If you try to get ahead by cheating you're hurting all the honest people you left behind. It's not only about you getting an A instead of a B. It's about poisoning the whole environment you operate in.