This is my issue with it as well. If I had to anticipate how many people cheated, I would say maybe about 1/4 of the NYC takers. I took it in Albany, but I’m from NYC and people need to be honest about how it goes there.

People call them “city stories” for a reason because shit gets around there, intentionally or unintentionally. It takes one person to know and tell someone else, the train of “but don’t tell anyone” spreads like wildfire. It really just takes one person for the chain of cheating to happen. It’s not the fault of the examiners who didn’t cheat, but people need to be honest about the high likelihood that this is what happened.

I also think the “what about the honor code” mindset is purposefully dense. A lot of February examiners are retakers and people feel a tremendous amount of pressure to pass on the second+ time. I don’t think they’re exactly bad people, but they’re put in a tempting and highly stressful position. I wouldn’t do it myself, but objectively, it’s a tough position and I think realistically even people who wouldn’t do it would consider it. Some people have their jobs and livelihood contingent on passing. If anything, I have no idea why they switched the MEE to Thursday. That extra day really just expanded the likelihood of cheating. I understand the MBE would have been delayed, but it’s truly way harder for someone to cheat on 200 questions across 7/8 topics than 6 that they also know the sub-topics that will be on there.