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.

Ex head of exams here at a very large exam centre - yes cheating happens and if discovered, there are very serious consequences - disqualified from that paper, disqualified from that subject, disqualified from all exams with that board or disqualification from all exams. More common though is a student who has a phone on them by accident and have not been caught using it. The same will happen to them too. We have to inform the exam board who are the one’s who make the decision on punishment - makes it easier for the school/collage as they are totally neutral. I always reported it asap after gathering written statements - sometimes before the student had left the exam hall - you’d be surprised how many times I was offered a bribe by the parents to pretend it never happened!! Having said that, it is quite rare and my invigilators were brilliant at spotting suspicious behaviour

He could have done worse, better or the same. We both think the grades were harsh in one subject for a number of reasons I won’t go into here. In the long run it made no odds. And please don’t make assumptions about his MH. As it happens he finds an essay or CW deadline more stressful than an exam.

Yes the situation was not ideal, but how dare you suggest that students in those exam years did not deserve their grades. I know how hard ds and his peers worked and what difficulties they put up with. Do you have DC and did they do GCSEs or A levels in 2020/2021?

it wasn’t an ideal situation, but what was the alternative?
Does it really matter now? When you have passed one set of exams and move on to the next, those exams become less significant. My Dd took her GCSE’s in 2022 and some of the papers were modified and content adapted due to covid. Did it make the exams easier for her? Possibly. As she had not taken any formal exams prior to 2022 it’s impossible to say.
However she is now in her second year at university so the fact that the history of medicine was removed as content from her history gcse and may have made the exam easier for her is largely irrelevant and cant imagine its of interest to anyone.

I'm sure it happens, but someone was stupid enough to take the risk, I can't imagine it would make a world of difference to their final grade. You could Google 'what is newton's first law of motion', get your answer and get an extra 2 marks. But in order to gain a significant marks, you'd have to memorise a long question, go to the bathroom, type the entire thing into ChatGPT, memorise the long anwer, then write it out again. If you pull it off, you now have the extra 8 marks to get you from an D to a C, but you've taken a huge risk and wasted a lot of exam time. Someone who was failing isn't going to be able to propel themselves to an A, and you can forget about essay-based exams

Better than them being all wholly disadvantaged by not getting any qualifications, or sitting exams when they’d been unable to access teaching. It would have been better for Covid to not have happened but here we are.

Are you me? No, this was my class in the 70's! Yeah, the very idea of wasting many minutes away from our exam paper unless in a total emergency would not have occurred to us.

I would much rather be judged on what I actually produced in an exam than what teachers predicted I would achieve. There’s bound to be human bias in that, plus I was the type of student who did little work all year and then buckled down to ace the exams.

My pal used to write his equations out on his thighs and read them when he went to the loo. I used to wonder if they'd limit him on how often he could go but nope.

I know. We were all beavering away at 100 miles an hour during the exams.

Haha yes DS is a bit like this. Quick and sharp and unfazed by stuff as a rule.

Both my DC (bog standard state school) say cheating is common. A couple of kids had a list of quotes on their knee during English Lit and DS2 said quite a few go to the toilet (and then proudly boast afterwards). It can depend on where you are sitting and of course relies on your fellow students not reporting you (generally kids don't dob on other kids I don't think).
My impression was it was more common in kids who thought they weren't going to pass and I have no idea if it ends up being helpful for them. I also have no idea if these kids are actually caught.

Mock "cheating" more prevalent and different as it relied on seeing the mock paper in advance (another local school used to do same exams on different days). Loads did this of all levels. My DC were too lazy to try this!

Modified ones aren’t they same as just not taking the exam and being awarded the qualification.

It absolutely DOES matter that there are a load of people walking around with qualifications they haven’t really got (I.e done an exam for).

Otherwise, what’s the problem with cheating? Would you be upset if you found out your child’s teacher hadn’t done any of their exams and was awarded their quals anyway??

Normally teachers predict students a better grade, if anything.

They want them to get good university offers.

I would assume the teacher’s qualifications went beyond gcse and a level. If my child’s teacher didn’t sit their a levels in 2020, but then went on to study at university and completed their degree and pgce, then no it would no bother me in the slightest.
The issue with cheating is only one person benefits. The alternative covid arrangements affected the entire cohort.
how do you think the covid/exam situation should have been managed?

not in my experience. If teachers over predict, the student may get more offers but that’s pointless if they don’t meet the offer. As a parent I’m interested in actual results achieved, not university offers received.

Oh give over.

How do you think the qualifications were assessed? The students did all the work and sat numerous exams, in exam conditions. Teachers gave honest assessments of how well they did. I know students who got GCSE grade 3 and 2 and C and D at A level. Everyone didn’t get all A star and 9s.

i see you don’t say if you had a DC in those years, or if you yourself are or were a teacher or assessor. I can say yes to both so I have a good idea of how it was done. Was it ideal? No. Was it as rigorous as it could be and genuinely a reflection of students’ ability? For the most part, yes.

It’s not pointless, because if students who don’t get their predicted grades are often still accepted by the unis they had offers from, if it is only slightly lower.

They should have had to sit them after the pandemic, any student who normally missed exams for illness/ bereavement etc would not normally be awarded them based on predicted grades.

Tough Shit.

It happens in private schoolsnas they aren’t as regulated

But don’t know how common

You do realise some degrees are entirely coursework based?

Ive met people who can barely speak any English who have managed to get 2.1 degrees from UK Unis.

GCSes and a levels are important for ensuring that they can actually speak English if nothing else!

I don't consider it pandering to say 'thirty mins left' and 'ten mins left' .

Surely we all WANT the kids to do as well as possible.

How?? When those kids would have completed compulsory education?

Teachers shouldn't predict imo. Some of them are undoubtedly biased with certain students.

And how would schools have coped with two year 11s and two year 13s?
space? Number of teachers? Timetabling?
or would that have also been ‘tough shit’ as you so eloquently put it?

It can be distracting for some candidates.
the IB exams have time left announcements which can be districting especially if you have multiple papers with different end times in the same room.
5 minute announcement is optional for gcse, but we don’t use it at the school I work in.