> Eventually, I faked my way through the thesis, and life moved on.

This is a very startling admission! I checked the Chinese (original?) version of the post, and saw the author uses the word "糊弄" (in the place of "faked"); I'm not a native speaker but I think this may come across more as a self-effacing comment on the low quality and/or effort behind their thesis, whereas the English version implies fraud. May be wise to change this!

I don't know if the Chinese text implies something different, but I think even in English it's pretty normal for people to claim they 'faked' their way through something without referring to fraud.

E.g. "I faked my way through the interview!" = "I did my best to respond to questions I did not feel fully prepared for, and managed to get through the interview"

Well cheated would definitely imply fraud. “Faking it” as in “fake it till you make it” is more like pretending you know about a topic until you learn enough on the job to participate competently.