The 10 most inventive cheating attempts on online exams


Exams are just around the corner and there is so much of the syllabus still left to cover. It's the story of every student’s life. Anxiety and fear has often pushed us to cheat. We all have seen, heard or even participated in some form of cheating. I had a friend who would use all his time making crib notes before exams instead of studying. His argument: most of the subjects are unimportant and a waste of time. Call it genius at work or another smart innovation, but here are some of the smartest ways in which candidates have cheated in exams. And by no means, intentionally or unintentionally we are advocating in favor of cheating. 1. With assessments going completely online in a few schools and colleges, tech savvy students have utilized their IT experience to hack into the online assessment system. Steve (obviously, his name has been changed) had to write some of his tests in an online system. This was an open source system, and he created a program that fetches the correct answers to the test (which are stored on the server). However, he got caught because he got 100 percent in 0.01 mins.

2. In the case of online exams, use of Google Docs, screen share, and opening new windows in a separate tab to access Google are also prevalent malpractices employed by students. In the US, a group of four friends used a shared Google Doc, which they could read, write, and comment simultaneously while writing an online test. They were all writing for an online science course they hardly cared to study for. All of them got straight As.

3. A few students use cheat sheets hidden in water bottles, coke bottles, Kleenex boxes or tissue paper. There’s even a YouTube video detailing how to use Coke bottles in the exam room.

4. Students have gone to people who are specialists in a particular area in chat rooms on the internet and had them give answers, especially for take home/online exams.

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