Get advance copies of the exam
• break into professor’s office
• hack into professor’s computer
• bribe copyist
• bribe TA
• consult test banks (most commonly maintained by fraternities and sororities). These are copies of tests gained either legally from professors who let students keep tests (this one is not cheating – it’s the prof s fault for repeating questions), or illegally by people who don’t turn tests back in or take an extra copy while it’s being passed out.
• if there is more than one section of the class, interview people who took the test in an earlier section. You could bribe several people to each memorize just a few questions and then get together to reconstruct the whole thing after the exam-worthwhile if you share the answers (and cost) with others.
• pay for exam answers from someone else who does any of the above.
Copying from neighbors’ papers
• Sit next to the person you want to cheat from. If there are different versions of the test, either mix them up while they’re being passed out (so you and your seatmate end up with the same version) or sit diagonally behind the person you want to cheat from.
• Several people can cheat by sitting in a “Flying V” formation, where the person to be cheated from sits at the head of the V and the cheaters fan out behind in diagonals.
• You or someone else can “accidentally” drop a paper on the floor so someone else can look at it.
• Walk up to the front to ask the professor a question and peek at other people’s tests on the way up and back.
• Use a small mirror to “adjust contact lenses” while really using it to peek.
Crib sheets
Students have devised a wide variety of places to hide cheat sheets.
• Desk/Chair: the night before, write the crib sheet on the desk you’ll use. Either write in pencil (hard to see, easy to erase) or whittle an eraser to a point and write using the eraser. You could also write in on the back of the chair in front of you (if you’re bold enough, you can do this on the day of the exam after you sit down), the floor, or the desk edge. One anecdote tells of a female student who wrote her crib notes on the edge of the desk where her breasts would obscure them as she hunched over her exam.
• Food/Drink: Bring a bottled water or soda into class with you- the kind that has an easily pealed off paper around it like Cherry Coke. Before going to the class, write the cheats on the liner, and reattach it FIRMLY to the bottle. Any time you need an answer, take a drink of your soda and you will see some answers. Do NOT do this with a clear or light colored beverage! (NOTE: other mentions of hiding crib sheets in food items are common: in chip or cookie packages, computer-printed fake labels, a piece of tracing paper inside a gum wrapper that gets chewed with the gum after it’s used).
Body Parts
• Hands/Arms: the old standby! Write on your hands or arms and hide it from the professor with hand position or sleeves. The webbing between the fingers is a good place.
• Ankles: cross your leg over your knee and pull down your sock to view.
• Legs: Make a crib sheet with all the important information from the class, or you can write the information on your thighs. If you use the crib sheet tape it to the inside of the part of your skirt that covers your behind. Every time you need some information just lift the front of your skirt enough so you can see the crib sheet and whatever information you need. Anyway, the nice thing is that the instructor can’t really do anything, because if they accuse you of cheating by this method you can always call the instructor a “pervert.” The odds of the instructor reporting a cheating incident like this are pretty slim because the administration will ask, “How did you determine that she was cheating?” What would they say? Whatever they say, though it is true, will make them look like some lowlife child molester, and who wants that?
• Fingernails: I used to use mechanical pencils to write on my bare fingernails. Formulas, verbs, quotes, you name it, and I wrote it on my nails! If the teacher came by, I would curl my fingers under or put my hand in my lap. If worse comes to worse, you can rub off any evidence with one swipe of a sweaty (or spitty) fingertip. Females also report writing crib notes on the underside of false fingernails before attaching them.
Clothing
• Shoes: Write some facts on the bottom of your shoes.
• Hat: Hat: write notes on it in pencil to read during the test while your head is down. The teacher can’t see your eyes looking up at your visor because the visor blocks their view. The pencil then erases or rubs off rather easily so that you can wear it on non-test days, too, to throw off suspicion.
• Shirt: Wear an open flannel shirt to school. Have answers secretly taped to the inside, and when the teacher isn’t looking, just open it just enough to seethe notes. Or use a “cheating shirt”-a tiedyed or other print shirt with information worked into the designs.
• Tie: Write all important notes or formulas on the back of your tie
• Belt: tape the cheat sheet inside your belt. Either use a belt that’s too big or you’ll have to un-do it and slide it out during the test.
• Watch: Write a very small crib sheet, one that is about the size of a watch face. Empty the contents out of an old watch and insert the cheat sheet. Wear the watch with the face on the inside of your wrist. Never wear a t-shirt; only wear clothing with long sleeves!
• 101): For tests we have to show ID. Whenever I am going to have a quiz or test or whatever I write info on the back of my id card. Then I lean back and when I lean forward my card plops write on my desk. Just look at the back of your card and copy away. When the test is done just erase it off because the card is plastic,
• Other: eyeglass frames, mirrored sunglass lenses, band-aids…
Pencil/Pen
• Engraved Pencil: Etch them (notes) on a standard #2 pencil (the 6 sided type) with a new sharp razor blade. Don’t etch too deeply. Then, when you need the engraved information just rub your sweaty fingers over the etchings to get some dirt into them so they become visible. It’s virtually undetectable if you only use 3 sides of the pencil, and rotate it when someone is walking by. NOTE: the most elaborate organized cheating scam of all time sold pencils pre-engraved with the answers to standardized tests for up to $9,000 apiece!
• Engraved Pen: Put a pin in a mechanical pencil where the lead is supposed to be (cut the head off of the pin), and carve your cheat notes into the pen(s) you are using for the exam.
• Empty Pen: take a pen that has run out of ink and write your notes on a sheet of paper. The paper becomes a “scratch sheet” for the test, and you can view the writing by looking at the paper from the proper angle.
• White-Out: write on your “scratch” paper with white ink or White-Out error correction fluid.
• Fluorescent Pen: Student writes on “blank” blue book or scratch paper with invisible ink — visible only when ultraviolet light is shined on it. Thousands of cheap ultraviolet light pens are sold annually.
• Eraser: write answers on the bottom of the big erasers people use; can also be a method of sharing answers with others wince most professors will let you borrow an eraser from someone else during a test.
• Masking Tape: It’s better to write crib notes on masking tape than to write it on your body, because if they suspect you and it’s written on your body you’re busted! With thin masking tape you’ve at least got a chance to get rid of it because that stuff compresses into a ball that’s impossible to unwrap.
• Tissue: write your crib notes in pencil on a tissue. If the professor starts to come by, blow your nose into it and wad it up. If you can’t blow your nose, spit into it so it looks like you’ve blown your nose (gross!) and wads together permanently.
• Sticky Film: Use a good Laser printer to print your cheat notes using a very small font size (2-4). This way you can print off a lot of notes in a small area. You can buy transparent sticky film for laser printers. a transparency sheet, and if you print your cheat notes on these ‘stickies’ you can stick them on your tools: calculators, erasers, rulers, etc. If you have a black pen or calculator, the transparent film will not be noticeable since they are clear and the laser toner is black. You can read the text when the light shines on it the right way.
• The Room: write coded information on posters, blackboard, podium, in dust on cabinets, etc.
• Note Card + Rubber Band: write your notes on an index card. Punch a hole in the comer and thread a rubber band through the hole. Safety pin the non-card end up your sleeve and pull the other end down (the one with the card) and loop it around your thumb. Conceal the cheat sheett in your palm. Just in case the professor comes to check, simply release the band which is around your thumb and it will spring back up inside your sleeve! Only make sure you have all the information you need because once it’s released you can’t access it again!” NOTE: other students claim the cards can be retrieved at will.
• Cover Your Crib Sheet Tracks: write crib notes in a way that can be erased or obliterated immediately. If you must write them in pen, carry an alcohol prep pad or soak a moist towelette in fingernail polish.
Using Technology to Cheat
• Calculator: programmable calculators can hold text, formulas, even pictures.
• Watch: “data bank” watches can hold crib notes
• Pager: Setting electronic pagers to store messages students can conveniently call up when the teacher’s not looking. In one variant, a high-tech student used a tiny wireless video camera in a hat to transmit images of the test to an accomplice, who sent pager messages (the pager set on vibrate) to indicate answers! A related story regard the GRE: people taking it on the East Coast were reportedly beeping answers to persons on the West Coast.
• Palm Pilots and other personal digital assistants (and some calculators, too) allow information to be beamed across a distance via infrared. A student can use a laser pointer (many look like pens) to “write” the answers or as part of a code (e.g., left top side of floor tile = “A” , right top = “B”, etc.
• Walkman: record your notes, take a Walkman to class and listen to it during the test. It helps to have some music on their so if the prof walks towards you by the time they get there the music is playing.
• Micro-recorder: used when the same test is delivered in multiple sections; questions are whispered into microphone for later transcription.
• Wireless Monitor: used by musicians, this consists of a body pack transmitter concealed under clothing combined with a small flesh-colored earpiece; the wire is hidden under hair and clothing. A cell phone plus a small earpiece can be used for the same purpose.
• Camera: at least one instance of a student transmitting exam questions via a tiny wireless camera and receiving answers via a wireless monitor has been reported. And a watch that incorporates a digital still camera has already been released in Japan.
Using Old Exams
If the prof gives old tests back, take one from a previous semester and write all over it. Ask what colors of paper they use on tests and make copies of it in those colors. When the prof s not looking, take out the test of the same color, slide it under the real test, and cheat away.
Blue Books
On exams for which you have to bring you own paper or test booklets,. write all the information that you need in and outline form. If an instructor asks you about the outline (though doubtfall) simply explain that it’s a pre writing work to help you organize better for the actual essay or problem. To let you know, I think many people across the country have used this method on bluebook exams. It works, and is very hard to catch, just make sure your teacher doesn’t collect them at the start of the exam, and redistribute them.
Leaving Class
Leaving the test room and getting help (most often, under the pretense of a bathroom break).
Ringers
Convince someone else to take the test for you. If the proctors check IDs, either pay for a fake ID for them or pick someone who resembles you. On test days, they should try to look as much like you as possible. Take the test, but have the ringer sit next to you so you can copy off them. Take the test, but switch papers with the ringer and turn in the ringer’s test instead of your own (they can turn in their test using a fake name, or better yet, steal the test for a test file.
Take a Make-Up
If it’s the night before the test and you still haven’t studied, call the professor and plead illness or a relationship breakup, acting all distraught. Professors cut you more slack if you call them in advance. If you can’t, and you miss the exam, it depends on how strict they are: with some, you can plead your way into a makeup without any proof; with others, you might have to fake a doctor’s note or con your doctor into giving you one. Of course, in the meantime, you’ve interviewed your friends to find out exactly what was on the test (most instructors don’t go to the extra trouble of making out a special make-up test).
Turning In The Exam
• Not handing in the test and later acting all upset because the professor lost it.
• Gleaning answers from turried-in papers or a post-exam solution sheet, then correcting their paper before handing it in.
• Go up to ask a question and distract the professor long enough to snag someone else’s test or answer sheet. Take it back to the desk, copy answers, and turn both in (be sure not to put them back to back in the stack if you can help it). As a variation, if you don’t like the person, change some of their answers to wrong answers!
After The Exam
• Substituting correct solutions for incorrect ones after the graded tests are handed back.
Collusion
• I sat right behind a girl that I was very good friends with and she had long wavy hair that remained stiff due to hairspray. Come test time I would simply insert my crib sheet into her hair and pull it aside when I needed an answer. I would then lean forward and whisper the answers to her.
• One person goes up to ask a question to the professor, but is really there to distract him/her while others cheat.
• We’d ask good-looking girls to dress really sexy (like short skirts and low-cut shirts) on the day of the exam and sit up front to distract the professor so we could all cheat.
• Cheater sits by window and confederate outside indicates answers.
• The better prepared person creates a cheat sheet for the lesser-prepared person during the exam, then finds a way to deliver it to them (e.g., dropped, written on eraser).
• The confederate takes two answer sheets and places them together, then writes hard enough on the first to leave impressions on the second. They then find a way to share the “blank” sheet with the cheater.
• Your friend fills in two answer sheets, one with your name and one with his. You both wait until that “crunch” where a bunch of people are leaving at once, then he/she turns in both while you leave without turning in yours. If the test requires names to be written, yours is left blank; either you immediately return because you’d “forgotten” to write your name on yours, or just wait — most professors will automatically assigned an unnamed paper to the person missing the exam score.
• If the instructor has you swap tests and grade each other’s tests, make a pact to misgrade each others’ exams.
Communicating in Codes
• The old tap and eat some colored candy routine! On multiple-choice tests, I tap out a number like – — (which I think Lina is trying to say is one tap, then 3 taps, thus 1-3 which becomes 13) is 13 and — —- is 25 you get the drift, really simple. Then the person answering gives the answer by eating an M&M or Skittle, where lets say red=A, blue=B, yellow–C, etc.
• NOTE: there are dozens of codes students have devised: hand position, foot position or foot tapping, test position, noises like clicking of pens, clothing positions, etc.
Badger the Professor
• Go to their office and get them to change your grade. You have to find out what works for the individual professor — with some, it’s being sexy, for others it’s being nice, or crying, or just being a pain in the ass long enough so they’ll give in just to get rid of you.
Alter Records
• Hack into their computer
• Change their gradebook
• Steal their gradebook
• Steal the exams before grades are entered
If You’re Caught
o Deny, Deny, Deny: Never admit cheating — ever! Invent a plausible story. If you stick to your story, say it enough times with enough conviction and emotion, they’ll start to doubt themselves. Once they doubt, their conscience will bother them: after all, what if they’re making a mistake when a mistake could ruin someone’s life?
o Badger: Go to their office to plead your case and don’t take no for an answer — don’t leave their office until they give in. Most people won’t call the police on you, so keep saying you’re going to leave but don’t leave. Eventually, most profs get frustrated and figure it’s not worth the effort.
o Squeaky Wheel: if you raise a big enough stink far enough up the line, they’ll cave in because it’s not worth the trouble. And if they don’t, their boss or their boss’s boss will.
o Ignorance: If possible, say you didn’t know it was wrong.
o Remorse: if the evidence is really against you, cry uncontrollably. Sob about how one small mistake will ruin your whole life and your family’s lives.
o Not on the Syllabus: argue that since it wasn’t specifically prohibited on the syllabus, it wasn’t prohibited.
If All Else Fails…
Get to be friends with the instructor. Students have even been known to sleep with the instructor, sell dope to the instructor, or even blackmail, frame, or unjustly accuse the instructor.
Disclaimer: We are not to be held responsible for any consequenses. This is just for fun and not to be tested in real life.
