Hi-Tech Exam Cheating in China

Chinese students have adopted ingenious and sometimes dangerous devices (including microscopic earphones and wireless devices) for unprecedented hi-tech cheating. Chinese students upped the ante in the high-tech battle to counter cheating during university entrance exams this month, putting some in hospital as a result.

Some universities installed cameras and mobile-phone blocking technology at exam halls to foil the cheats. But students have come up with newer ways to cheat.

A student in Wuhan, capital of China’s central province of Hubei, used earphones so small that they slipped into his aural canal and perforated his eardrum, the China Daily newspaper said.

Another student’s earphones required an operation for their removal, the paper said, while an electronic device connected to headphones and strapped to a third student’s body exploded, leaving a bleeding hole in his abdomen.

Supervisors at an exam hall in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, found over 100 “cheating tools” including earphones hidden in vests, wallets and waistbands, the paper said.

via Yahoo News

9.5 million students are competing for only 2.6 million vacancies in this exam, which is much simpler than what we have done competing for IIT JEE examinations, where few million competes for 2000 seats (slightly increased these days).

If these students even spend half the time (of what they spend for making and using these cheating devices) for studying, I am sure they will perform much better without requiring any unethical devices. It shows the reducing moral fibre of the society at large.