9 ingenious ways Malaysian kids were found cheating in exams

As students, we were no saints. Even teachers can attest to this (as if their job isn’t bad enough). This Reddit post is proof of it. We already know how creative our students can be as shown in this really old CILISOS post, and it seems that we are even more ‘creative’ when it comes to cheating in exams.

And nobody said only those who don’t study cheat – research shows it even happens to high achievers. We all kinda know why it happens tho. For example the pressure to excel (a.k.a. kiasuness), scared people look down on them, scared parents cane them… You know lah, especially for us Malaysians with our Asian parenting styles…

Now we’ve always been a creative bunch ourselves. Don’t we all know of someone or have personally cheated ourselves? So we asked a Malaysian teacher and some ex-students for some of the most ingenious and funny ways people have cheated: 

1. The Notes-in-Cleavage™ trick 

“I caught sneaky ones who wear dresses with prints, only it wasn’t just prints. There were also written notes. These days, kids go to toilet and google on their phone. I’ve also caught girls who tucked notes between their cleavages….only to see those papers fall out when they stand up” – Nor Hashimah, 35, teacher, Klang.

As it turns out, bras are no longer just to support the lady parts. There is even a bra that can be used to store a phone! After this Dr Oz episode, there was even a debate on whether it will cause cancer. However, for now, it seems like there is not a single conclusive study on it. Perhaps we won’t even get an accurate answer till years to come. The iPhone 4, Apple user guide does advise its users to hold it 15 mm away from their bodies… so maybe, the bra isn’t such a good idea after all.

2. The Stealth Mode trick

“Someone else wrote stuff and stuck it around the bottle to make it look like it was the original plastic cover. Another rolled and kept notes inside mechanical pencil. The fastest way to pass notes was to write the answer on a piece of paper, crush it into a ball, and then throw it to their friends. ” –  Kaviarasan , 21, Pelabuhan Klang

Have you heard of vitaminwater? With a little help from Photoshop, it can be the most exam-friendly water bottle because of the small words on it. You may even be looking at a complete list of chemical equation for Chemistry! No more getting confused between the chemical equations for photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Then again, in most exams, students are not allowed to put their water bottles on the table, so yeah maybe not such a good idea after all.

3. The toilet textbook 

“Based on my experience I think I got a couple of ways. I’ve seen people cheat in exam, where teamwork is at its finest. Book is placed in the toilet (properly hidden behind the bowl if I’m not mistaken). I once went into the toilet and saw a bunch of students squatting down in a circle for what looked like a strange toilet cult ritual when they were actually surrounding a biology book. #truestory” – Jonathan Koh, 21, Klang

This seems to be the most popular trick among students from what we have been told. But if it is so popular, why don’t teachers know about it? Well it seems they do.

In school-based exams, normally one teacher is assigned to jaga a classroom of 40 students, so the teacher cannot split into 2 if a student decides to take a toilet break. However, remember when you were taking SPM and the teacher followed you to the toilet? Well, then there were at least 3 teachers to a classroom. In this college, students are not even allowed to close the toilet door when they decide to answer nature’s calls during an exam.

4. The A+ team building effort

“The front row students would purposely drop their stationary so that the invigilator will come and pick it up. During the distractions, the back row students can exchange notes or papers. 20 minutes later, repeat the same technique for the front row. “ – Amir, 18, Ipoh

What about those in the MIDDLE ROW? This trick involves the entire class so it is a bit risky. Like what if someone decides to rat you guys out?! It would probably work for subjects like Pendidikan Seni and Pendidikan Jasmani where most people don’t see the point of taking a multiple choice exam for it anyway. Personally, this writer once saw a guy throwing his pen across the class during an exam. Why? He wanted to peek into the multiple choice answers of other students while en route to retrieve his pen. I guess nobody wanted to cooperate with him.

5. The write-on-friend’s-table™ trick 

“Hiding a paper at the back of the tie, or writing on your neighbour’s table side so you can see and won’t be blamed because it is his table.”  – NV , 28, Klang

In other words, leaving clues for yourself here and there. But this isn’t just cheatsy, but sinister. Why? Because nobody can prove it was yours if it was written elsewhere, right?

Then again, this would probably only work for school exams where 40 over students are cramped into a classroom. Although we do pick our own tables for SPM, the gap between tables are wider, making it harder to read from the next table. It would also be suspicious if you keep squinting your eyes at your neighbour, or are constantly flipping your tie around. And do that too much, your teachers may force everyone to do this.

6. The Public Announcement Trick

“Cause every classroom has speakers that’s been attached to get announcements. I still remember it was our biology paper and all of a sudden someone was giving us answers through the speaker. Good news, everyone get answers. Bad news,  we need to re-sit the paper. The person who gave the answers eventually got suspended from school.” – Samuel HZ, 19, Penang

Ok, not so smart lah cause you get in trouble. Although he probably became the school hero since everyone else got an extra day to study for the paper. It is unlikely that he would have be able to escape the school without getting caught especially since the PA system should be inside the school compound itself. Maybe with a little more cash and electronic experience he could hijack his school’s PA system like how this guy hacked into his neighbour’s stereo. Even then, it is not really recommended as it is probably illegal.

7.The “spotted” question trick

We all know how in exams people would be trying their best to predict what questions will come out. It could be from hints by the teachers or our own questions. The art of “spotting questions”. There’s even websites dedicated to it! But sometimes, the practice goes a little too far.

“Someone stole the exam booklet home by hiding it in his jacket and then went home and wrote answers in it. He then took out the exam booklet from yesterday with the answers to today’s essay question. ” -Wei Siang, 21, Shah Alam

For context, this person was actually referring to a law exam. Apparently, law exam questions are much easier to spot, so this person not only managed to figure out what questions were coming out, he went the extra mile to make sure it was answered in full BEFORE the exam itself.

But to be fair, we don’t only do it in exams; we do it everywhere. We are all probably guilty of sneaking in food to the cinema. In fact wikiHow teaches you how to do it or you can just read some of the craziest food people have sneaked into the cinema.

BONUS! 

A quick search on the web shows even more creative attempts of cheating by students from around the world, like:

8. The switching-bodies trick … 

His girlfriend had been preparing for this major exam in Kazakhstan for students to get into university. After failing to calm down his stressed up girl, he decided to take her place. The exam board said they suspected it might have been another woman as they didn’t think a guy would take the female student’s place. That is, until ‘she’ started talking. Well, he got caught and was fined nearly RM 8200 for his actions and above all his girlfriend will have to wait a year to retake her exams. So yeah, love doesn’t conquer everything.

9. The change-the-national-law trick?!!!!

This student was preparing for his exam in Germany which is equivalent to STPM exams here in Malaysia. Now, in Germany there is an act called the Freedom of Information. The exams he was sitting for is created by the Ministry of Education. So the ministry is subjected to this particular act and is supposed to honor requests made under it. So he used the act and asked the ministry to reveal the exam questions!

Did it work? Well it doesn’t seem so la. The student didn’t get the questions beforehand, but he did complete his exams and now more people know about the existence of such an act. While this isn’t cheating per se, it still was an ingenious method of getting the exam paper, if it did end up working. Haihhhh……

Woi! CILISOS teaching people to cheat ar??

No la! That’s why we only published this after the exams 😛

We have all come across those inspiring quotes about how exam marks do not define us. While that is true, we cannot deny that exams play a role in opening opportunities for us. So while not all of us can be members of MENSA  it still pays to know stuff. You won’t know when it would come in handy during a conversation. Nobody wants to be the most ignorant person in the room.

But instead of simply blaming students when they end up cheating, perhaps we should also consider that maybe there are other factors involved. Because to be honest, our education system does have its fair share of problems.

Still, that doesn’t mean that anyone should cheat.

“Cheating in school is a form of self-deception. We go to school to learn. We cheat ourselves when we coast on the efforts and scholarship of someone else.” – James E. Faust.

So, let’s all play our part to ensure that honesty is practiced everywhere and anywhere!  😀