More Than 70 West Point Cadets Allegedly Caught Cheating on Math Exam

21 Dec 2020
Military.com | By Richard Sisk
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point has been rocked by an honor code scandal in which 73 cadets are accused of cheating on a math exam, an academy spokesman said Monday.

The alleged cheating at the Army's storied training ground for officers, first reported by USA Today, involves a calculus exam administered remotely in May when the campus was closed and the cadets were at home, Lt. Col. Chris Hooper, an academy spokesman, told Military.com by phone Monday night.

Seventy-two of the accused cadets are plebes, or freshmen, and one is a "yearling," or sophomore, Hooper said.

The cheating scandal is the worst at West Point since 1976, when 153 cadets resigned or were expelled for cheating on an electrical engineering exam.

Instructors grading the calculus test found suspicious discrepancies and brought the matter to the attention of academy authorities, Hooper said.