Have you ever cheated on a test? Copied a friend's answer?

You were tired. You studied. You couldn't remember it at that moment, but you knew it.

It was just one. Right? Not a big deal. 

It's a really big deal.

And colleges are not just going to catch you, they are developing technology and changing their methods to catch you.

But unfortunately, you are not the only one they will catch.

Earlier this year Stanford University posted an Academic Cheating Fact Sheet assembled by the Educational Testing Service and the Ad Council's Campaign to Discourage Academic Cheating.

Among the statistics they list, Stanford reports that about 20 percent of college students admitted to cheating in high school during the 1940's. Today between 75 and 98 percent of college students surveyed each year report having cheated in high school.

And cheating comes in all forms.

According to a survey conducted by Rutgers University, of over 63,700 U.S. undergraduate and 9,250 graduate students between 2002 and 2005, cheating is more than simply looking at someone else's answer during a test.

The survey found that:

                        *  36 percent of undergraduates admit to “paraphrasing/copying few sentences from Internet source without footnoting it.”

• 24 percent of graduate students self report doing the same

• 38 percent admit to “paraphrasing/copying few sentences from written source without footnoting it.”
  • 25 percent of graduate students self report doing the same

• 14 percent of students admit to “fabricating/falsifying a bibliography”
  • 7 percent of graduate students self report doing the same

• 7 percent self report copying materials “almost word for word from a written source without citation.”
  • 4 percent of graduate students self report doing the same

• 7 percent self report “turning in work done by another.”
  • 3 percent of graduate students self report doing the same

• 3 percent report “obtaining paper from term paper mill.”
  • 2 percent of graduate students report doing so

Stanford University's fact sheet says that while many advanced students feel their cheating is warranted so that they can get ahead of those who cheat because they cannot keep up, the cheating does not end on graduation day.

Often, those same cheaters continue to take shortcuts in the workplace and even lie on their resume.

HireRight.com, a provider of on-demand employment background screening, reports that 34 percent of job applicants lie on resumes.

Forbes.com, reports the most common thing applicants lie about are education, employment dates, job titles and technical skills.

Unfortunately for cheaters both in academia and the workplace, lies are very easy to catch.

Technological advances allow professors to search for previously written term papers and research. Advanced programs also allow professors to see how quickly online students answer questions. If it took them less time to answer than it would for most people to read the question, they may have a cheater.

Employers can follow a virtual trail on nearly every employee by simply Googling the names of previous employers and business associates.

Still think you need to cheat to get ahead? Don't. As a student or professional, eventually, the lies will catch up with you.