Moments you (or friends of yours) cheated in exams

[The Lurker]

I was off school ill for an end of year science exam so instead did it the next week. I did the test in the 'quiet room' which was a room inbetween two classrooms. Basically, it was just a room you were sent to if you were being a dickhead in class. While my class was watching a DVD and enjoying some end of year banter, I was in the quiet room doing an exam which serves me right for being a knob that gets ill at important times. Point is, the quiet room was anything but quiet - you could hear both classrooms very clearly in the room. In one of the rooms, they were discussing last week's test and going through the answers. I knew I couldn't get every question correct otherwise they'd know something was up because I was shit at science but, needless to say, I passed with flying colours to the great surprise of my teacher. As a result, I was put in top set science next year where I was hopelessly out of my depth and then put into the second bottom set for my final two GCSE years which can't have looked good on my year 9 teacher.

And in sixth form, I was hopelessly behind in A Level Photography so I just ended up taking some photos from some photography student from miles away on Flickr to fill out my A3 art book. While I did pass, I still got a pretty shit grade so I think the moral of the story is, if you're going to plagiarise, you might as well plagiarise some work that's actually decent. I absolutely hated that lesson so I was never bothered about the 'morality' of it and it was years ago, so I'd like to think that I am pretty safe in admitting to it now.

And that was my brief life as a cheating bastard. School days, best days of your life.

[gmoney]

One of my GCSE questions for English was the exact same one we'd already had on a mock exam. I'm not sure if that was some sort of jiggery-pokery from the teacher somehow, but I still only got a B.

[imitationleather]

When I did my French oral exam the examiner - who was also deputy head of the school - very clearly had the correct answer script on view for me to read and just repeat. Having not done any revision and being unable to speak any French at all, even after four years of learning it (something she was all too aware of, hence her creating this cheating opportunity for me), this was very welcome.

This is more my school cheating than me though, isn't it?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Not cheating exactly but in my A-Level English exam I wrote a story which stole characters from various comics, including Neil Gaiman's Death and Alan Moore's V, and I can only presume the person who marked it hadn't read a comic in their life as I got an A for it.

[St_Eddie]

When I did my French oral exam [with] the examiner...

Phwoarrr!

[Large Noise]

One of my brother's mates printed off a label for his bottle of water that contained a cheat sheet for one of his Highers (A Level equivalent). Not sure which subject it was for.

I sat beside a girl who had her entire French written exam on a price of paper inside her glasses case.

My friend and I stole the paper for our Higher maths prelim. We knew which filing cabinet it was kept in, and we knew which teacher had he key. My job was to swipe the key, his was to get the paper from the cabinet. I got the key no problem but he got caught taking the paper. He stood strong and got expelled without mentioning my involvement.

[sevendaughters]

knew this one guy during my master's year. exceedingly handsome. very rich. used to be on the books at Udinese. went off to the city. cheated on his charted exams, banned from the industry forever. still, bet he's doing better than me.

[Drop Dead Fred]

Most of my GCSE  music trumpet composition was ripped off from the intro to The Waterboys' Don't Bang The Drum. My Year 1 English exam stories were mostly lifted straight out of The Real Ghostbusters comics.

I had the multiplication tables engraved on the back of my Helix Shatterproof ruler.

Somebody at primary school had found out that you could buy the Answer Books for the Peak Mathematics textbook series at WH Smith. There were a few copies floating around the playground until a teacher caught on and changed the textbooks to the awful Hesse Mathematics books.

[Sebastian Cobb]

When I did my French closed-book exam I had pre-written it. Half the class did that though.

[Captain Poodle Basher]

While doing an IT course, we were given copies of aptitude tests for various IT companies - each one plastered with "DO NOT MAKE COPIES!" warnings. A few months later and I had an interview with one of those companies and got the exact same paper I'd swotted over prior to the test. I deliberately answered a couple of questions wrong to allay suspicions just in case.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Ah yeah. At university when I was doing computer science I used the waybackmachine to get previous exams and practicals. I decompiled some code that left me stumped at one point as well.

[Twit 2]

One for my GCSE English pieces of coursework was the lyrics to an Opeth album (My Arms, Your Hearse), just the whole thing typed out in one. Teacher must have suspected I hadn't written it but it was back in the day when googling kids' work for plagiarism didn't exist.

[Bazooka]

Brought my own desk into GCSE's, it was made out of polystyrene which housed a savant inside, he would tap my knee in Morse code to dictate the answer. Average grades.

[fucking ponderous]

When I did my French oral exam the examiner - who was also deputy head of the school - very clearly had the correct answer script on view for me to read and just repeat. Having not done any revision and being unable to speak any French at all, even after four years of learning it (something she was all too aware of, hence her creating this cheating opportunity for me), this was very welcome.

Did you have sex with her

I never chot until college, as in a few months ago, where I missed a Philosophy exam and as such had to do it out in the hallway while the rest of the class got on with Philosophy things. Being in the hallway, where there was nobody, I looked up most of the answers on my phone. What makes this especially sad is that this was an open notebook test, BUT in my defense there were certain notes that I did not put down in my book. Then later that day I girl I was in love with and had a brief affair with got back with her old boyfriend and my life went to shit. So the moral of the story is always miss exams so you can do them later in unpopulated areas of the school building.

Once when I was about 11 we had a big test and my friend who I hated started whispering to me asking for certain answers, which I couldn't give them because that was against the rules and because I hated him anyway. Anyway the teacher pulled us both aside and yelled at us both for cheating, despite the fact that I was attempting to prevent cheating. This sums up the entire American school system for me.

[littlenell]

Wrote maths equations on the soles of my shoes in maths gsce exam.

[Bobtoo]

When I was at college most of the exams were "open book". IIRC you had to get a satisfactory result in all questions, you couldn't pass be getting 50% of the questions 100% right. I failed the Electrical module because there was one bit I just couldn't get my head around. The people who failed got to do a resit, which was the same paper, and some of us failed it again.

On the third attempt it was the same paper again, but this time the lecturer felt the need to leave the room for a few minutes, so it was both open book and unsupervised. We all got through it that time.

[MoonDust]

Not cheating exactly but in my A-Level English exam I wrote a story which stole characters from various comics, including Neil Gaiman's Death and Alan Moore's V, and I can only presume the person who marked it hadn't read a comic in their life as I got an A for it.

I did something similar for GCSE English. I was obsessed with the Matrix and its whole franchise at the time, so wrote a story of some guy being chased by "agents". Not sure what I got in the exam but overall I got a B for English Lit.

Thing is, I wouldn't be surprised if loads of kids do what we did in GCSE/A-level exams - basically ripping off ideas in pop culture - and that maybe it's so pervasive teachers/exam boards know we do it and just let it slide, and mark the exam based on other indicators of creativity and how well it's written.

But as to actual cheating, I don't think I ever have. Would never have dreamed!

[Jockice]

I got caught! First year at secondary school French exam. I had a piece of paper with about half a dozen French words and their English translations on it, which I took out of my pocket and got spotted by Mrs Luscombe, who was also my form teacher.

She sent me down to confess to the headmistress, a fearsome Scottish nun, who I got on with usually on account of being the only Jock kid in the whole place. I did stop for a cry in the toilets on my way there though. I was convinced my life was over and I wouldn't be allowed to take O-levels or anything because of my transgression. I think Sister Catherine flayed me alive (it was her hobby) but Mr Flavell the French teacher thought I was a decent kid so I got away with it. It didn't even get as far as my  parents. Good job it wasn't a maths exam. Mrs Sergeant wanted me dead.

I never cheated in an exam since then. I've learnt my lesson. But when I was doing my MA I was in a study room at 4am trying desperately to do an SPSS task that was due in that morning but I didn't have a clue how to do. There was a Chinese bloke who was on the same course but I'd never spoken to in the same room and the thought crossed my mind that I could maybe bribe him to give me the answers. I was going to start at 50 quid. The only thing that stopped me was the fear he would be one of those conscientious types who would report me.

So I did it myself. And got 50 percent. Phew!

[Sebastian Cobb]

SPSS is horrible.

There used to be a Chinese fella in university who would lurk by the printers and steal people's work. I think one of the professors had backed him without realising he wasn't very good as he seemed to be holding his hand through a masters or PhD or something. He must've been desperate if he was stealing undergrad practicals.

[Sebastian Cobb]

One for my GCSE English pieces of coursework was the lyrics to an Opeth album (My Arms, Your Hearse), just the whole thing typed out in one. Teacher must have suspected I hadn't written it but it was back in the day when googling kids' work for plagiarism didn't exist.

Some goth lad did that with a Marylin Manson story. The teacher properly quizzed him as she didn't think he'd written it and also thought it was a bit fucked up. I think she knew he'd copied it but couldn't be arsed proving it or hauling him over the coals for it.

She's the same one who basically gave me a bollocking for doing better than she'd expected in my mocks. 'I Could've helped you more if I'd not written you off for being thick'.

[St_Eddie]

I did something similar for GCSE English. I was obsessed with the Matrix and its whole franchise at the time, so wrote a story of some guy being chased by "agents". Not sure what I got in the exam but overall I got a B for English Lit.

Thing is, I wouldn't be surprised if loads of kids do what we did in GCSE/A-level exams - basically ripping off ideas in pop culture - and that maybe it's so pervasive teachers/exam boards know we do it and just let it slide, and mark the exam based on other indicators of creativity and how well it's written.

Back in secondary school, I wrote a short story, with a plot revolving around time travel.  My teacher gave me a crappy grade and said that my story was 'incomprehensible'.  Stupid bitch didn't understand the basics of theoretical time travel.

[gmoney]

She's the same one who basically gave me a bollocking for doing better than she'd expected in my mocks. 'I Could've helped you more if I'd not written you off for being thick'.

This has reminded me that my IT teacher managed to fuck up calculating my mock GCSE and somehow gave me 104% (A*+?), oblivious to the fact that would be impossible. She was really nice to me after that though and thought I was a genius, so I didn't point out her error. In the actual exam I got B.

[Jockice]

Not in exams but I saw two kids get done for plagiarism in lessons. One was in junior four and the other was in fourth year at secondary school. In both cases the teacher read out the 'work' in front of the class and then revealed the original source.

I bet teachers would wait for moments such as these. I can see them clapping their hands together in the staffroom and going: "I've got them!  Time for some fun."

[finnquark]

I bet teachers would wait for moments such as these. I can see them clapping their hands together in the staffroom and going: "I've got them!  Time for some fun."

Yeah, I really love giving students a U and messing up their uni/job applications due to plagiarism.

[Jockice]

Yeah, I really love giving students a U and messing up their uni/job applications due to plagiarism.

In my day it was all exams. I think the only one that involved coursework was art. Which I got a CSE grade four for. And I was bloody lucky to get that.

[Small Man Big Horse]

When I was doing my Business Information Studies GCSE we had to create a spreadsheet, and the teacher interrupted me and asked why I hadn't done it the way I'd been taught. I replied that it wasn't on purpose, just that I thought I'd come up with a better way to do it, so she looked at in further detail, realised I had, and the got me to go round and tell everyone how to do it. Which surely must be a very dodgy thing to do, and I can only guess she thought she might get in to trouble if all the other students did badly in the exam.

[DistressedArea]

Done a fart during a colonoscopy, does that count?

[Dr Rock]

Doesn't count, but I'm reminded. One time in ooh about the second year of grammar, so on one hand your only 14 but on the other hand you got into a grammar so you're not supposed to be a div. Before the lesson the exercise books were all piled up on the teacher's desk and the classroom was about a quarter full, the books contained the homework where some sort of story was required. So we started reading them out and taking the piss, you know. One, by Derek Butch*r''s (don't want to dox him) had the tired old story of winning the pools, then realising you'd forgotten to post the coupon that week. For a laugh I added 'and then I woke up, it was all a dream!' in handwriting vaguely similar to Derek's. He got graded a  D with the added line 'very unoriginal' in red. When he realised what had happened he ran up to the teacher's desk (almost in tears) saying 'but I didn't write that bit!'

[Sebastian Cobb]

^no longer a teacher

[The Lurker]

Yeah, I really love giving students a U and messing up their uni/job applications due to plagiarism.

That reminds me of my English teacher being suspicious of some coursework handed in, she Googled the first sentence and it came up straight away on some exam cheat website. There were the suggestion of him being banned from sitting his English exam but I don't know what happened to him in the end, either way my teacher was not happy one bit.