We have all cheated in some way during a test in school, lets be honest. Here are some of the most elaborate cheating techniques that makes you wonder why these people didn't spend all that time studying for a test.
“Never got caught…”
“My friend sat behind me. If he needed an answer, he’d tap my back once with his pen. I’d touch the side of my head with my pen when I was ready to listen. He’d tap my back with the number of the question. For example, 25 would be 2 taps, pause, 5 taps. I’d tap my head with my pen with the answer. For example, 3 taps was a C. If I didn’t know the answer, I’d just scratch my head with my pen. If I needed an answer, I’d put hold my pen to my head like I was thinking and he’d tap my back once when he saw me. I’d tap the question number against my head using the same scheme, and he’d tap my back with the number of the answer. Never got caught.”
“A couple of weeks later he got the following letter from…”
“A guy I used to know had a master in econometrics. He did consulting work for various levels of government. He got a letter offering work, from a city about six or seven hundred miles away, asking for answers to a number of hypothetical questions. After studying it for a while, it struck him that he was not looking at a consulting contract, he was looking at a ‘take-home’ exam in econometrics. He wrote to the various universities in commuting distance of the return address, explaining the situation. One of the replies read: ‘Feel free to do the work, for your usual fee. We recommend that you cash the check as soon as humanly possible. We would take it as a kindness if you would use the following variable names in response to each of the questions….’ He did all of the above. A couple of weeks later he got the following letter from the same professor: ‘Got’um!'”
“That is a dangerous game…”
“Once, all students refused to take an exam because it got rated on the highest score. Since they all got zero’s they all got 100%. After that, the system changed. That is a dangerous game. All it would take is one guy who didn’t show up for class all semester, and wasn’t in on the scheme to mess it up for everyone.”
“Got them through 2 years of high school until…”
“My old scoutmaster liked to tell the story (and I have no idea how true it is) about how in high school he and his friend learned morse code? semaphore? Whichever one uses the flags, and would communicate to each other via pen during exams. Got them through 2 years of high school until they had a history teacher who was a WWII vet.”
“Dang that was sneaky…”
“For a Biology test, this guy would always chew gum in class. Well, he wrote down all of his notes for the test on pieces of gum, then proceeded to eat the evidence one piece at a time. Dang that was sneaky…”
“He then placed the new label on perfectly…”
“My brother is a teacher, and he told me this. He once had a student take the label off of a Mountain Dew bottle, and printed off a new one exactly like it, however he photoshopped the answers to the test in the Nutritional Facts/ Ingredients. He then placed the new label on perfectly. My brother had no idea until a year later, one of the student’s friends fessed up.”
“I should add if you’re thinking about doing this genius plan just…”
“Not a teacher but during their standard grade exams some female students at my old school wrote answers and things to remember on their legs then put tights and a skirt on over them. By pulling them tight they could see through and read the answers and for obvious reasons no invigilator is going to come over lift up their skirts and pull on their tights a bit…I should add if you’re thinking about doing this genius plan just remember they did actually get caught and completely disqualified from all their exams.”
“I would sit on one side of him and our other friend would sit…”
“Took a music class and we had to memorize jazz music and pick the era and name of the musician. My friend loved jazz and already knew all the information (he could have taught the class) and he was the one that convinced us to take it. Well after our first exam, we got Cs and he got an A+, we had to come up with a way to survive. So we told him to use feet commands, and I would sit on one side of him and our other friend would sit on the other side. If he spread his feet like / that was A, \ that was B, // that was C and / it was D. Worked amazingly well, we all got As from then on.”
“Turns out he was wearing both contacts AND…”
“For my midterms and finals, I’d give each student a 3×5 notecard which they could use one side to write anything they wanted. In the real world, anyone can look up things like equations, so I figured it was fair. After all I wanted to make sure they knew the operations. Incidentally, every year, the vast majority of students would say, ‘After I copied all the notes on the card, I could remember them and didn’t even need it!’ Until one year a student came in with his card having the tiniest handwriting I ever saw. I couldn’t read it. Turns out he was wearing both contacts AND his glasses, giving a major magnification effect….or so he told me years later.”
“Turns out the girl had sewn patches with the answers…”
“Had an exam worth 50% of our grade. Prof was quite strict about pencils, water bottles, etc. we asked her what the deal was and she regaled us with a story about a Chinese girl who wore a beautiful, long dress with Chinese writing all over her dress. Turns out the girl had sewn patches with the answers to the test, onto her dress. Not 100% sure if it actually happened or just a deterrent for would be cheaters.”
“I was just impressed that they were able to…”
“This is a pretty elaborate one that happened when I was a preschool aide. We had music class on Wednesday. The class was split in half, one group did an art project while the other went to music. This happened right before lunch, and after nap. So one group would go to art before lunch and then wake up from nap and go to music. Well one boy who we will call music hater, or MH, hate music (hence the name). His friend, who we will call music lover/ML, loved music. So during nap time they switched clothes so MH wouldn’t have to go to music we he woke up and ML could go to music twice. They thought that if they changed clothes we would think MH was ML. I let MH skip music and do art twice because I was just impressed that they were able to switch clothes without us teachers noticing.”
“The light makes it easy to see the…”
“When I was a student, I would cheat during tests where we had to memorize entire paragraphs (not sure what good that did). Basically, the day before, I will write the whole passage really hard on the pad of paper I will be using. Since I sit near the window, the light makes it easy to see the depression in the paper.”
“Up pops the one that was stolen the day before…”
“Professor prints out all 150 exams the day before test and leaves them on his desk accidentally. He suspects a student came in during office hours and stole an exam to fill in at home. Sure enough, he counts 149 exams Instead of rewriting the entire test and cutting his losses, he goes to the paper cutter and chops off a quarter inch from the bottom margin of all 149 exams. When the test was over, he straighten the stack of exams and up pops the one that was stolen the day before.“
“He ruined it for us all…”
“When I was in high school, there was a teacher who was a notorious sucker for pretty girls. He was an old guy and the girls always hung around his classroom. Anyways, one girl used to hang out in his room all day and then take pictures of the exam answer sheet when he wasn’t looking. She then texted it to most of the class. It went on for about half the year. He eventually found out when some kid went from getting literally single digits to 100% each test. We even warned the kid not to do too well. He ruined it for us all.”
“I passed my finals with that bad boy…”
“A few years ago in high school, I had long hair and listened to my iPod during every class. I had the cord run down inside the back of my shirt and I’d have one earbud in. I did this for 2 years and never got caught. One day I realized I could record myself and put it on my iPod. Brilliant! I passed my finals with that bad boy. For short hair you then put the earbud in your hand through your sleeve and you can just rest your head against your hand.”
“I was a right nerd and got away with it without a problem…”
“For an assessment, I gave in an essay that wasn’t complete but was what I had at the time, then went and spent the rest of the day completing it, found the teacher, apologized and said that I had accidentally given her a draft. I was a right nerd and got away with it without a problem.”
“After that it was fair game…”
“In high school a few times I would get purposefully caught not cheating. I would make it look like I was reading something hidden in my hand and inevitably the teacher would come over and inspect to not find anything. After that it was fair game, the teacher wouldn’t check me again because he/she was embarrassed about falsely accusing me before.”
“We obviously got the two highest grades…”
“At the beginning of the semester, prof informed us that the final will count for 80% of our grade. So, for the rest of the semester, a friend and I befriended all the janitorial staff, aced all the assignments and tests, and went frequently to his office hours. The night right before the final, we went to his office after everyone has left. We told the janitors that we left our notebooks in the prof’s office, and won’t be able to study for our finals without it. After some convincing, they let us in with one guy standing watch over us. But since they have seen us going in and out of the prof’s office all semester long, the guy ended up just shooting the shit with my friend, as we expected. During that time, I went through the prof’s desk and located the stack of tests. I took one and told the janitor I couldn’t find our notebook with a very disappointed look on my face. Even my friend thought the plan failed. We went home, finished the test, picked out several to miss intentionally, copied the answers (multiple choice) onto a piece of yellow paper, and wrapped it around the pencil we were going to use. We obviously got the two highest grades, with mine slightly higher, and moved the curve by like 5%. Did we need to do that? No. We knew the course info anyway. We only did it because we studied ‘social engineering’ the semester before, and wanted to try it out. Besides, we were young and reckless. It never occurred to us that, if we get caught, we can be in super deep sh*t.”
“They then used a Mr. Microphone to…”
“University of Florida circa 1985. Once a final began the answers were posted across campus so you could grade your final and figure your grade. One fraternity had their pledges get the answers. They then used a Mr. Microphone to broadcast them to brothers via FM Walkmans.”
“Never got caught in the 5 years I did this…”
“I’m German and I did an english-bilingual A-level, so I had all kinds of subjects in English (History, Biology, Politics etc.). During exams we were allowed to use the school’s dictionaries, there were mostly new ones but one of them was particularly old and f**ked up. The day before the exam I would go to the library and taped all the information I needed into the dictionary. When the exam started the teacher would roll in the table with all the dictionaries – everyone rushed to get a new one, while I chilled and always got my prepared piece of crap. Since the dictionaries came from the teacher, they would never expect I cheat with their material. Never got caught in the 5 years I did this.”
“The entire classroom was in on it…”
“I had a terrible Physical Science teacher in high school, and only a few really smart honor students knew anything on his tests, (which were all 5 questions and multiple choice, but very complicated answers) so we came up with this group system where we would glance at one another and scratch our face with three fingers indicate problem number 3, and then cough if the answer was A, tap the desk for B, etc. The entire classroom was in on it, and if we all got good grades on the test we would buy the genius kids ala carte at lunch.”