The current study investigates the reasons which lead the students to cheat in the department of Psychology at the University of Mascara, and mainly the importance of two factors: the type of exam questions (closed-ended questions, such as multi-choice questions/ open-ended questions, such as essay questions), and the type of proctors (indulgent proctors/ firm proctors) in influencing the academic dishonesty. For this reason, the mixed method has been adopted; the quantitative method to deal with a random sample of students, and the qualitative method to investigate the teachers’ perspective about cheating. 63 students responded to a questionnaire designed for this purpose, and 05 teachers were interviewed through a semi- structured interview. The findings showed that the majority of the students considered the two factors as main factors of cheating, where the majority among them confessed that they cheat when the proctors are indulgent, and a bit above the average cheat when the exam questions are closed-ended. However, they did not see the two factors as the most important causes of cheating when comparing them with other reasons; they consider the type of exam questions and the type of proctors are less important than other reasons. As far as the findings of the qualitative method are concerned, the majority of teachers estimated that the two factors are very important in motivating the learners to cheat.

type of proctors, type of exam questions, cheating in exams, closed exam questions, open exam questions, firm proctors, indulgent proctors.

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