Small papers stashed at the bottom of the pencil case or rolled up in the tube of the four-color pen, eyes trailing over the neighbor’s paper in the middle of an evaluation… When it comes to cheating, certain techniques that proved their worth several decades ago continue to be very successful with middle or high school students. But because, like doped cyclists, it is important to always stay one step ahead of those who monitor and punish, the students most prone to cheating are constantly looking for new schemes.
For members of the trichosphere, the advent of the smartphone and then the irruption of artificial intelligence (AI) into our daily lives marked major milestones. Faced with inattentive supervisors, hiding their phone in their pencil case or on their thigh has allowed a large number of teenagers to make a few sensible queries on a search engine or to be able to consult their previously photographed course.
Sleight of hand
It’s a fact: cheaters are inventive people. “Even though we know that students use their smartphones to cheat, we still get foolednotes Paloma*, an English teacher in a general and technological high school in the Loire. Even in the summer, guys in shorts and short-sleeved t-shirts apparently manage to hide their cell phones. I don’t know how they do it.” The strongest adopt the great tricks of the illusionists: the main idea is to divert attention in order to be able to quietly perform their sleight of hand – or to have quality adhesive tape.
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“With some teachers, there is no need to force your talenthowever, recalls Antoine, a high school student in Angers (Maine-et-Loire). During assessments, some people stay hidden behind their desk from start to finish. If they don’t do their job, it’s normal that we take advantage of it.” Antoine confesses: he cheats often and for a long time. It adapts the techniques and supports used to the type of evaluation and the profile of the person monitoring. “Often, a sheet of cheat sheets slipped into the double copy or a telephone hidden in the pencil case, it turns out to be creamy. Three quarters of teachers do not leave their podium. Often they are on their phone or correcting papers.”
In response, more and more teachers are banning the presence of the kit on the table. “On the day of the baccalaureate, students are asked to take out their pens and put their pencil case in their bagsummarizes Anne, who teaches history and geography to middle and high school students in Hauts-de-Seine. It seemed completely logical to me to do the same during supervised homework and I even started to extend this principle to all of my sessions, evaluation or not: it helps avoid hidden cell phones.” During the last Football World Cup, in December 2022, Anne remembers catching a high school student who was not cheating, but was watching a match on his smartphone in complete secrecy.
Broken phone and call to AI
“Apart from a few who don’t care, the teachers are much more on top of our phonesrecognizes Antoine. For a year or two, we have had to show them that our pockets are empty and that we have put them in our bags. Some teachers even have “telephone boxes” so that we can put them away during class hours and evaluations.” A solution is then necessary, more and more widespread: that of the double telephone, a method that the heroes of the film would not have denied The Under-Gifted (1980).
“It’s not very complicatedadmits Leslie, a high school student in Morlaix (Finistère). You get an old, unusable smartphone and give it to the teacher when she asks you. That way, you always have yours stashed somewhere.” Same story with Ben, also a high school student, in Paris, who nevertheless warns students who would like to try this method: “The teachers talk to each other, they pass on our techniques to each other. The problem with popular methods is that at some point, things start to become known and you have to find something else.”
“ChatGPT does not yet fully master all mathematical notations. So to “cheat well”, you have to adapt a little. Which most students don’t do.”
In any case, it is not enough to hide your cell phone to succeed in your cheating operation. “Whether for homework or assessments carried out in class, more and more students are using ChatGPT”concedes Margot*, principal education advisor in a school campus in Picardy. “THISit’s going super fastconfirms Antoine. You take a photo of the subject of the assignment, you don’t even have to type it all out, and presto you get an answer in five seconds.”
But there you go, copying what appears on the screen onto your sheet means taking the risk of being spotted, including at the time of correction. “Last year, I received so many students in my office who had learned everything about an AIcontinues Margot. They use fancy words that they don’t know and it’s worse in a subject like math, where it’s immediately ruined. ChatGPT has made great progress, but it does not yet fully master all mathematical notations. So to “cheat well”, you have to adapt a little. Which most students don’t do.”
Long hair and AirPods
It still takes a lot of unconsciousness (or really inattentive teachers) to take the time to carefully copy pages and pages of smartphone screens onto your copy. Lisa*, a high school student in Haut-Rhin, no longer takes this risk: “I almost got caught several times, it’s over for me.” For reviews that are worth it (“those with large coefficients or with lots of formulas or dates to learn”), it is prepared the day before.
“I record a not too long audio on my phone, in which you can hear me reading the things you need to know and which I can’t rememberreveals the teenager. On the day of the test, I play the sound on loop on my phone and enter class without removing one of my AirPods, which I hide under my hair. At the start of the evaluation, I just have to copy down in draft form everything I hear in my audio. When I’m finished, I take advantage of the fact that the teacher’s back is turned to take off my wireless earphone and throw it in my bag. Then I can work in peace.”
“Okay, continuous assessment counts for the baccalaureate, but the impact of a single failed assessment on the final grade is derisory, while that of a cheated assessment is much more important.”
Lisa admits: putting this kind of strategy in place sometimes seems to take as much time as learning its formulas. “But I prefer to reserve my brain for the tests I will take for the baccalaureate (philosophy and its two specialties, editor’s note). For others, only continuous assessment matters, so once you have passed the assessment, these things don’t matter.They will never use me again. So why learn them?
Is the smartphone the only enemy of reviewers? No, because for some time now digital solutions have also been deployed, but not through the telephone box. With a lot of agility, it becomes possible to run ChatGPT on your graphics calculator, which risks greatly complicating the task of adults who are supposed to supervise the tests in scientific subjects.
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But beware of the consequences
Let’s remember at this point that 1. cheating is bad; and that 2. students like Lisa or Antoine, who transgress the rules during assessments counting towards the continuous assessment of the baccalaureate, are exposed to the same sanctions as if they attempted to cheat during the final exams. Among the potential sanctions: “blame; deprivation of any mention in the diploma; ban on participating in any National Education exam for a maximum of five years (baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate); ban on enrolling in a public higher education establishment for a maximum of five years”indicates the institutional page dedicated to this subject.
“No matter how much we repeat it to first and final year students, they don’t always realize it, far from itregrets Margot. The slightest cheat can have even more consequences than before. The game is not worth the effort. Okay, continuous assessment counts for the baccalaureate, but the impact of a single failed assessment on the final grade is derisory, while that of a fraudulent assessment is much more important.
On the college side, if cell phones have been banned since the start of the 2018 school year (officially, they must be turned off, stored in bags and not taken out under any circumstances), they are also likely to be used for fraud. The device “Mobile on break” (which notably requires smartphones to remain in lockers all day) will it change anything? Partly, no doubt. But middle school students are also likely to have a second device to deceive the world – in my last two years of teaching in a Parisian school complex alone, I can name half a dozen students for whom this was the case.
Paul, a third grade student in Istres (Bouches-du-Rhône), doesn’t bother with these phone stories. He found a much simpler scheme that has worked for decades without ever failing. He noticed who, among his teachers, always gave the same evaluations from class to class and from year to year. All he has to do is retrieve the old statements and the corrections, then complete his copy at home (“It’s still work!”Paul exclaims, not without pride), before discreetly exchanging it with his white copy on the big day. “This teacher is still super lazy, he doesn’t even change a few numbers. Honestly, why do IWould you make an effort for him?
