In the pre-digital age, students who wanted outside-the-rules assistance in an exam would generally have to smuggle in pieces of paper or write on their own clothes or body parts. Mobile phones changed the game and, while they’ve been banned from most exam halls for some years, there are always a few willing to risk smuggling them in. Exam regulator Ofqual said that it issued 2,715 penalties for cheating to 2,585 students last year. The use of “unauthorised materials” accounted for half of all students caught cheating in 2017, and nearly 80% of those related to the use of mobile phones.
Now, it’s coming to light that a ban on watches is being imposed on students taking GCSE and A-level exams. The rule was published in an online guide by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) last year but is only surfacing now as pupils start to sit this summer’s exams and are being asked to take off all watches. In some cases, students are simply being asked to remove their watches and leave them in view on their desks. Invigilators are entitled to insist that watches are left outside the examination area, however.
Some devices openly marketed as “cheating” watches
The problem relates to smart-watches and their potential to be used to access extra information in much the same way as a mobile phone. The rule is designed not only to combat the use of devices that are clearly smart watches but might be overlooked, but also devices that pass themselves off as ordinary watches. Smart-watches have actually been banned for a while, but a number of smart watches that look like regular timepieces are openly marketed as cheating devices.
Some of these work by revealing the graphical representation of a regular watch face with a screen that can show stored information at the press of a button. Others work by relaying audio signals to a tiny and easily overlooked earpiece via Bluetooth.
Singapore uncovers hi-tech cheating plot
Hi-tech cheating can become extremely convoluted – and lucrative. Last month, a tutor in Singapore plead guilty in court to taking part in what prosecutors described as an “elaborate plot”.
Tan Jia Yan took the same O-level exams as a private candidate and FaceTimed the questions to waiting accomplices. They then relayed the answers to the students, who had sneaked in mobile phones and Bluetooth devices with small, skin-coloured earphones. The scheme was only uncovered when an invigilator heard “unusual sounds” coming from one of the students. On being asked to remove his vest, he was found to have the equipment.
Some students still prefer to rely on old-school methods, however. It was reported earlier this year that authorities in India's eastern state of Bihar had asked students not to wear shoes or socks during exams. This was to prevent them from smuggling written paper notes with answers and supplementary information into the exam halls.
