Chinese students are notorious cheaters. In the United States the problem has resulted in 8,000 of them being expelled for poor academic performance and 15 were recently arrested in sophisticated entrance exam cheating scheme.
China’s National College Entrance Exam (Gaokao), a test widely known as the world’s hardest exam, has had its own share of cheating. The government has recently cracked down on test cheaters and bribers, but the problems are serious.
So serious, in fact, that the testing body will now use drones to catch cheaters.
In Luoyang, a city in the Chinese province of Henan, authorities will use newly developed anti-cheating drones during the two-day long exam, which is taken by over 10 million Chinese students across the country.
The drones will try to catch Gaokao cheaters using sophisticated equipment such as glasses with embedded cameras, pens paired with in-ear receivers and t-shirts with hidden cellphone and radio transmitters.
The drones are specifically designed to catch this type of electronic cheating. by hovering 1,640 feet in the air above testing sites and scanning for radio signals.
The drones are controlled by tablet and will alert operators if they detect a radio signal. The operator will then fly closer to the detected source in order to pinpoint its precise position.
The penalties for cheating are harsh, with a three year ban on taking the test the usual punishment, although in some cases students can be prosecuted.
In China there is extreme pressure for students to perform well on entrance exams. So much pressure is put on the exam that overly stressed students routinely turn to suicide as a way out.
In 2014 alone there were 79 student suicides related to taking entrance exams among elementary and high school students in China.
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