Cheating in GCSE exams

[examworries2026]

Name changed for this. I wanted to explore the likelihood of this happening and see if anyone has experience of this, either from what their DC have said or if you’re a teacher or work in a school.

My DS16 is taking his GCSEs in a few weeks. He said that during their mocks they obviously aren’t allowed their phones (his school use those pouches anyway so technically they’re not supposed to have them during the day) but he said a few people have burner phones in their pockets.

During the exams they ask to go to the toilet and then spend a few minutes looking up answers etc.

I have no reason to doubt my DS but I can’t understand how this can be allowed to happen. Found it really shocking. Has anyone heard of this or similar? How common is this? Any invigilators on here who could shed some light on the likelihood of this happening?

Probably irrelevant but this is a highly rated traditional boys’ private school.

I invigilate. They are reminded repeatedly as they go in and at the start of the exam that they can be disqualified if they have a phone, smartwatch, ear buds etc on them and have multiple chances to hand it in. We would also be alert to anyone reaching into a blazer pocket etc, and all toilet breaks are recorded with the time they leave and reenter. Hearing aids have to have Bluetooth turned off for the exam. Smart glasses maybe slightly harder to spot, but teachers see them when they are lining up and would notice someone who didn’t regularly wear glasses, and again we would be walking around and looking during the exam for any odd behaviour.

Whilst cheating is obviously never going to be impossible, I would say it isn’t easy, and there are a lot of safeguards in place. It may be worth you mentioning to the school in case they want to do further checks on the way in.

Exams today are often shorter too. For example I had 2x 3hr papers for A Level maths, my dc had 3x 2hr.
It would have been really rare for someone to go to the toilet during an exam, so if multiple people are doing it, then I expect suspicions will be raised.

You need to say as if an invigilator cones and catches multiple people, in theory the whole consort could have their exams invalidated. It is very rare for that to happen, but it is an option for the exam board if they suspect widespread cheating.

Deleted as double post

I was an examiner/checker for oral exams ie remarking the schools exams which were recorded. However if I turned the tape volume up very high I could hear the teacher whispering the answers! I reported to the Board of course. Not sure what the result was but I guess the whole lot were disqualified.

Someone got caught cheating during my degree finals in 2000. They got booted out with no degree and no second chance.
we all saw it happen in one of the exams.
brutal but fair

Definitely mention it to the school. I am an invigilator and we are hot on exam cheating. Any move out of the exam room to the toilet etc is monitored and recorded. I'm fact everything is recorded. The private schools are particularly monitored for this. Any cheats have all exams voided

Hopefully nobody had a heavy period during those exams......

Yes, my son told me this happened frequently at his school.

I did my O/A levels and some of my Uni exams in the 80s. I can't remember about school but at uni people were often escorted to the loo (I had to go once too, I think I had my period). There were rumours (in one case I think they were suspended) of people leaving notes for themselves in the toilet cistern.

Invigilator here. At 2 different schools. We get the odd pupil that try and cheat but it’s pretty rare and we’re all pretty clued up about it! If they got caught they would usually get zero in every exam so it’s a pretty stupid thing to do.
But it would be totally fine to email the exams officer and say what you’ve heard. There’s probably nothing more they would do as they should have robust procedures in place already but worth a mention.
To be honest most of the kids who go to the toilet during the exams are the ones who sit there looking bored and not writing much at all, particularly in the mocks.

OMG that's appalling.

Tbh I always worry when I move bits of paper (which inevitably happens in a speaking assessment, whether the candidate passing me their notes or me riffling through my own prepped paperwork) in case the person marking the exam thinks I am passing the candidate some answers.

@examworries2026 you are not being a busybody. It’s possible as I said that the other YP are talking big but not actually doing this, but if they are then the school must address it.

I used to work in a school, if they get caught cheating or with a phone they could be disqualified from all their GCSE's.

The school are obliged to tell the exam board and it's taken very seriously.

I work in a college with adults and have once caught someone cheating in a mock exam with a phone on their knee. At the end of the day I don't have permission to frisk students, and even if somehow I had written permission to pat down every student, I frankly wouldn't want to. Therefore there just aren't absolute ways of making sure no-one goes in with a phone.

They could get disqualified if they have an ordinary watch on, let alone a phone, AirPods, smart watch etc etc

A guy in my year at school cheated on our RE a level.

one of the questions was a set one that was asked for years on repeat. Complicated question and always the same. On the way out of a different exam he swiped a couple of empty answer booklets. He pre filled in the whole answer and put the booklet up his sleeve and just swooped them out in the middle of the exam.

I was too impressed to tell on him. He got an A

My dad is an invigilator and last year GCSE a pupil was wearing a normal analog watch (not smart) but no one checked on way into exam. Half way through exam this pupil put his hand up and said he forgot to take his watch off and he was disqualified and had ungraded with that exam board.

He should have kept quiet but he thought he was doing the right thing but saying he forgot to take it off.

My dad has to take pupils to toilet if needed but he has to check the cistern, loo roll, any bins before child allowed in. This is recorded too and signed.

It's an incredibly interesting job to do if anyone gets the opportunity or is looking for a part time role (exam season dependant).

Thanks, I’d not realised that.
I’d assumed it was pretty boring, just watching a room full of kids scribble away for 3 hours! (Or only 2 hours now, apparently…). Maybe I’ll add it to the list of possible retirement occupations.

I think ‘incredibly interesting’ is pushing it but it’s ok! I enjoy it as I work with a good bunch of people and the hours/ seasonal work suit me. It can be boring but catching someone cheating would liven it up a bit!

I heard about a school in Northern Ireland (this must have been about 20 years ago however) where the foreign languages teacher had written out a load of answers to hold up for struggling students to recite in their oral papers!

You sound like an exam cheater.

EO here. In 9yrs doing the job across state comp school and highly selective private school, I've only seen this happen once in a mock.

Very very rare.

This kind of thing is one reason why CA in MFL GCSE was such an issue (and ofc now no longer exists).

The newest spec makes it much harder to prepare a list of answers to pre-known questions (in AQA especially)

My son is at a selective grammar school and said lots of people cheated in the mocks in exactly the way the OP said (burner phone up their sleeve or stashed in toilet cubicle) also by writing reminders in biro on their arm and going to the toilet to look at it. I was genuinely shocked. No idea why the school don’t check them when they go to the toilet in the middle of an exam.