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.

No phones/smart glasses obviously, no watches of any description, remove the case for a calculator, clear see-through refillable water bottle with no writing [that was hard to find], and a clear see through pencil case with a set list of items.

No toilet breaks allowed in theory. Don't know what happens if needed.

The no wrist watch thing is a pain. DD is dyslexic and time mgmt is not a strong point at the best of time. I know there's one on the wall but she has extra time and having a travel clock in front of her nose as I did for exams would be a prompt.

The school were pretty practical about it all for the GCSE cohort. When you start sixth form, no one is going to remember what you got in your GCSE exam or even ask. If you fail/get a poor grade and have to do resits you won't be on your own because quite a few resit for a 9 in any case for Oxbridge applications.
However, everyone will remember you if you were caught cheating, because you will be infamous not just in your own year but the year behind you. Also you won't be accepted into sixth form.

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams for the water bottle, just get a regular plastic bottle of Evian or whatever and rip off the label! That's what I have to do in athletics callrooms if the event is being televised.

This tho: quite a few resit for a 9 in any case for Oxbridge application blimey.

I have invigilated small rooms- 15 students and it only takes 10 mins.
i now invigilate a room with 25 students who are word processing and some who also have e readers and 45 mins is a push if I’m on my own.

Wall clock has to be visible from every seat as does the start and end times of the exam.

Yes, assume it’s just to speed up the process for invigilators - no watches rather than checking this watch is okay, but this one isn’t.

ime there’s always a digital clock in the room as some students cannot tell the time with an analogue clock.
we cannot indicate time elapsed to an individual student as that is seen as ‘helping’ them. Students do sometimes ask me how much time is left, but I can only tell them when the exam will finish. Generally students are pretty well prepared on how much time to spend on each type of answer.

I know. I was flabbergasted when I met a child last year who'd signed up for resits before even leaving the school with her overall amazing results. But I guess if you want it badly enough to add Maths resits onto 4 A Levels in Year 12 then fair dues.

@ShanghaiDiva- when I invigilate 15-20 it usually means they’ve got various access arrangements and may be taking different papers. We have to set the room up and triple check everything. Right paper, right stationary, right candidate card, timings on boards correct, access arrangements correct etc etc. Takes ages! If I have 3 of 4 candidates obviously takes much quicker!

@Catlady007007- there may be 180 kids in a hall- we can’t pander to their every need re timing. Unless they have specific additional needs they should be perfectly capable of reading the time and looking at the end time of the exam and working out how much time they’ve got left. If the invigilator was asked and then gave the wrong answer that wouldn’t be great either.

Someone did at a school I know and was disqualified from all the exams from that board

I would definitely mention it to the school. We wore long kilts as our uniform (25+ years ago now) and one girl in my year made notes on her legs (?!?!). I have no idea if her intention was to flap the kilt back under the desk or go to the loo to check them, her legs were absolutely covered in biro-ed notes from the knee up. I don’t think anyone told on her, we were all a bit flabbergasted.

You don't need all grade 9s for Oxford and Cambridge tho (just as well as they would never fill their places if that was their rule, with about 1200 students getting all 9s last year). I guess if you have a couple of 6s and want to work them up to a 7/8.

I invigilate the same students in the same room for three sets of exams- two mocks and the summer. There are two of us invigilating and we know all their access arrangements off by heart, who will be first for the loo, who will use their extra time and who will ask a question about the paper despite being told in every single exam that we cannot help them with the answers!
We are also lucky that the room is ours for the duration of the exams and candidate cards and extra time cards etc are left out as we can lock the room when we are not using it.

You need straight A's in your A levels and according to the prep session I attended for Oxbridge entry they will differentiate candidates where they are oversubscribed by going back to GCSE levels in the same subjects. 🤔

Doesn't really matter, that was the reason she gave me. I'm just another parent so I'm not going to quiz her on whether its Oxbridge or parental pressure to be perfect. There is no way my DD is going to resit maths unless she fails it, she can't wait to see the back of it!

V unpopular opinion on here, but I think she’s awesome and you sound jealous.

Those of you who are super-judgemental about cheating, how do you feel about students that were given their qualifications for doing absolutely Fuck All during the Covid pandemic?
Its an absolute joke.

And anyone with the means to pay can cheat coursework by using essay writing services!

No I hear you @TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams mine were not about to resit either!

There’s a good deal of misunderstanding around Oxford and Cambs. But yes, they do look at GCSEs (tho mate of ds got in with a 6 in Eng lang. Not to study English obvs).

Don’t be ridiculous. Cheating is not the same as how exams and assessments were managed during Covid. The key difference being cheating gives one individual an advantage.

I know someone whose child realised they had a phone on them part way through an exam and handed it in thinking it was best to do the right thing - unfortunately of course they were disqualified.

@ShanghaiDiva- sounds perfect! Makes life a lot easier. In our room of 180 we pretty much know who’s going to go to the loo first - always the usual suspects!

That’s my ds2 who did A levels in 2021. FWIW he did a lot of work. He and I agree he would have done even better if he had taken the exams, so he doesn’t feel he was “given his grades” in the way you describe.

Unpopular opinion indeed. If a school winks at someone cheating as already noted it can be banned from being an exam centre.

How exactly does not even having to do the exams in the first place not give an individual an advantage? 🤔

Very suspect logic there.

He could also have done worse if he had taken the exams 🤷‍♀️

It will have benefitted his MH to not have to deal with the stress.

It gave the entire cohort an advantage, not one person.

It’s still wrong that they have this advantage over people that did have to take their exams.

There’s no distinction on the exam certificates.