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Reader question: Please explain “cheat sheet” in this: “I even brought a cheat sheet with me so I had the facts ready.” Cheat? My comments: Did you go to school? I mean, if you went to school and still don’t know what a cheat sheet is, you must have been a good student. Well, to be fair, it’s nothing to be ashamed of if you never cheated an exam in school. On the other hand, as far as I know, a lot of students never cheat on exams, so it’s nothing to be proud of either. It’s something you’re supposed to do – not using cheat sheets at exams. A cheat sheet, you see, is a slip of paper on which are written answers for a test. You know, you see a question you don’t remember the answer for, you take out the paper and seek out the right answer. Also known as a crib sheet, but cheat is a more common word. Cheat sheet is more direct – calling a spade a spade, not hiding from the fact that you’re cheating because you’re not supposed to fish for answers from texts or note books. You’re supposed to remember all test answers by memory. In our example, however, the speaker is not doing anything sinister if I read the line correctly. Here, cheat sheet is just a note he/she keeps with them just in case. Just in case they forget some numbers and data, so they keep a cheat sheet in hand. This way, they’ll never be stumped for reply if they were asked some odd statistic or trivial fact. | 
