Is Using Mathway Cheating?
Mathway is one of the popular mathematics problem solvers on the market. With over 25 million users, it’s a convenient tool for any math student looking for assistance in assignments or simply understanding the solution to a math problem.
Like most educational resource tools like Chegg or Course Hero, some students resort to using their availability as avenues to cheat on their assignments and other academic deliverables without a proper understanding of the relevant concepts.
Formative assessments are still integral to evaluating student comprehension of taught concepts and are still leveraged by educational institutions. Unfortunately, student cheating interferes with the general purpose of this evaluation leading to students passing assignments while failing final examinations.
Tools like Mathway play an important role in helping students gain a better understanding of math problems but inappropriate usage of the tool leads to negative consequences including failure in final examinations where these tools aren’t available.
This article will look at one of the concerns both teachers and students have regarding the use of Mathway, which is whether using Mathway constitutes cheating.
What Is Mathway
Mathway is a math problem solver tool that provides a step-by-step explanation of math solutions. Mathway solves math questions ranging from basic math problems, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, finite math, linear algebra, graphing to chemistry.
How Does Mathway Work
Mathway allows students to input any maths problem and instantly receive its solution. While a free version only provides the solution to the maths problem, a paid subscription shows a step-by-step approach to the answer.
Mathway is available as a web application and can also be installed on both android and iOS devices through their respective app stores. The applications are easy to use and students can enter a problem using the appropriate keys, take a photograph of the question to be answered, or even dictate the question verbally.
These features make it easy for students to input their questions as the artificial intelligence is even able to identify hand-written maths problems. Once the question has been input or identified, students would then have to choose how the question should be answered from the available list of options.
Once an option has been selected the solution would then be presented to the student. Free users would be unable to view the steps to the solution but subscribed users can easily tap the appropriately named button to view a systematic solution to the problem.
While the free version may seem limited as it simply provides an answer without the necessary steps, students can still use this to verify their answers. Subscription would however provide a much-needed step-by-step guide to the maths problem.
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Does Mathway Solve Word Problems
No, Mathway does not solve word problems at this moment but solves specific math problems. Simply provide Mathway with the equation you want to solve to receive an answer only for free or a step-by-step solution for subscribers.
Pros Of Mathway
- User-friendly interface
- AI-powered calculator
- Solves advanced problems
- Step-by-step solution
- Mobile applications available
- Available offline
- In-built glossary and help sections
- Graphic and text explanations
- Multiple question input options (Text, Camera, Microphone)
Cons Of Mathway
- Step-by-step solutions and other features only available on subscription
- Student misuse
Is Mathway Worth It
Yes. Economically, the monthly or yearly subscriptions are affordable at $9.99 and $39.9 respectively, and academically it gives students step-by-step solutions and illustrations to a wide range of maths problems to aid in their studies.
That said, students can still use Mathway for free but will not be able to view the step-by-step solutions to math problems. It can be used as a reference to check whether your answers to specific questions are correct before submission.
A monthly or yearly subscription on the other hand will enable students to gain access full access to the various functionalities of the application. Step-by-step solutions and illustrations to any question would be available to enable students to gain a better understanding of any math questions.
Is Using Mathway Cheating
While Mathway is useful as an educational resource tool, some students have the tendencies to misuse it. Questions posted to Mathway are solved and answered with the necessary steps to aid students in better understanding how to solve that particular math problem.
Unfortunately, some students simply choose to copy answers provided by the application without understanding the necessary steps. This leads to students gaining good grades in their assignments but failing or getting poor grades in examinations.
It is therefore advisable that students only use Mathway as a tool that supplements their studies by providing them with the necessary help in mathematics when they need help or are simply stuck on a problem. Our answer:
No. Mathway is simply a math educational tool that supplements learning. Depending on when and how the tool is used, Mathway usage doesn’t constitute cheating when used as a study aid for assignments but usage in tests where external tools aren’t permitted can constitute cheating, punishable by examination cancellation, failure, or expulsion.
Students should keep this in mind and use this popular tool only as a study resource to supplement their lessons.
Do Teachers Know If You Use Mathway
No. Teachers have no way of accessing Mathway’s user database to identify their students. However, teachers can identify students using Mathway unproductively if they’re doing poorly in their class test while excelling in their assignments.
Students should therefore endeavor to use Mathway constructively to aid them in acquiring a better understanding of relevant maths topics. Unlike written assignments, most educational institutions are unable to check student maths assignments and other math deliverables for plagiarism.
Teachers can however identify unique patterns in the approach their students use in solving math problems especially when these approaches weren’t taught by the teacher. This could lead to students getting questioned for copying each other or at the very least, copying from a singular source.
It is therefore advisable that students refrain from simply copying answers provided on Mathway but using the step-by-step explanation to gain a better understanding of the question and possibly fabricating their own solution based on the knowledge acquired from these resources.
Are Mathway Answers Correct
The powerful artificial intelligence behind Mathway identifies and provides accurate answers to math problems students input into the application.
However, it’s necessary to ensure that the right question has been captured especially when using the camera input to capture the question.
Does Mathway Report To Colleges
Unlike platforms like Chegg and Course Hero where plagiarism checkers can flag copy-pasted content, Mathway isn’t crawled by content crawlers making it difficult for schools to flag students for plagiarizing content from the platform.
As for whether Mathway can report to colleges, our answer is:
No. Mathway has a strict user privacy policy and user information collected is only used within the company, provided to advertisers, their affiliates, and subsidiaries. Mathway does not report the usage of its services to colleges and other educational institutions.
Conclusion
To make it easier to understand, would your teacher consider an assignment you copied from a friend or one you asked your older sibling to solve for you as cheating?
Your answer in this case would most likely be yes. While your teacher may not be able to determine whether you copied from Mathway or not, the disparity in assignment results and examination results would obviously sound the cheating alarm.
We recommend that you use Mathway constructively to help you become a better student.
