Don’t look suspicious. It’s important to strike a balance between effectively getting your answers and not making it obvious. To do this, don’t overly fidget. If you must look around, never hold your gaze in one place for longer than five to ten seconds. Switch it up by randomly staring in other directions — this way, your test supervisors won’t get too suspicious and find out where your accomplice (or cheat sheet) is. Don’t aim too high. It’s not impossible to cheat your way into a perfect score if you really put in the effort, but if everyone else is getting an unremarkable grade on the exam, you will draw attention to yourself. This is fine if you normally get decent marks, but if you’re known among teachers as one of the slower students, then there’s a chance that they’ll find out. Deliberately miss a few questions, though, and you’ll be good to go. Try getting a B on a test and continually but slowly raising your average score until it’s an A. You can even shoot for ups and downs in your scores, to make it appear more natural. Dispose of the evidence. As soon as the test is over, ask to go to the bathroom (if you haven’t already gone) to wash off or throw away any evidence of cheating. The longer you hold on to something, then the better your chance of getting caught because one person or another will notice.
Try the “Body Part Cheat-Sheet” method. Instead of printing out the cheat sheet, try writing it on a part of your body. Good places include your forearm if you are a man or your upper thigh if you are a woman. These are both great because you can wear a dress or long sleeve shirt to cover up your cheat sheet when you aren’t using it. It’s important to not make it obvious that there is writing on your body. Put the words in a place that faces you only. Try the “Water Bottle Cheat-Sheet” method. Print out the cheat sheet on a colored piece of paper that matches that label of your water bottle. Paste it on the label and turn it so that it only faces you. Ideally, you want to mimic the writing on the label to avoid suspicion. [1] X Research source Try the “Binder Cheat-Sheet” method. If you have a binder that has a clear slot in the front, slide your cheat sheet into there. Move your binder from under your desk to the side of your desk to peek at your cheat sheet. Try to minimize the number of slides, especially if you don’t have carpet in your classroom. Try the “Calculator Cheat-Sheet” method. This is common for people who are taking math tests because that’s the only reasonable time to have a calculator without being suspicious. Slide formulas or information terms between the back of the calculator and the calculator’s cover. Another Calculator Method to try: If you have a graphing calculator, save the math formulas into your calculator. Then, put the information into an archive, so you will still be able to get to it if your teacher makes you clear the RAM. Unarchive the information during the test. Clear the memory after the test. This also works if it’s the school’s calculator because no teacher or student is going to look in the archive. If you don’t know how to archive things on a calculator, look it up. [2] X Research source Try the “Stashed Cheat-Sheet” method. Hide a cheat-sheet in a separate place altogether to avoid it getting connected back to you. This includes on a bulletin board in the classroom, in a bathroom stall, or on someone’s chair. Wear a long-sleeved shirt and hide your cheat sheets under the sleeves. It is a very good method because your teacher won’t look under your sleeves. And when your teacher isn’t looking, you can easily take out a cheat sheet, and it’s easy to put it back.
Establish hand or foot tapping signals for A, B, C, D, E, and “wrong answer. " By creating a signal for “wrong answer” you are going to improve the likelihood of you both doing well on the test by helping each other eliminate wrong answers. Also create a vocal noise for getting their attention that isn’t suspicious (like a cough, or foot tap). Start by coughing to get their attention. Use your fingers to give the number of the question (flash 3 than a 2 to with your hand signal question “32”). Wait for them to signal their answer (pulling their ear for “B”). If you need help deciding between 2 answers: cough, give the question number, and signal for the answer you suspect it might be. They can nod their head if it’s correct. if it’s the wrong answer they can send the “wrong answer” signal (put up your hair in a ponytail).
Claim to be sick, go to the bathroom towards the end of the exam until it’s over. Or pace yourself slowly. Be sure that your professor will let you come back before using this method as you could actually do worse if they don’t let you finish.
Keep in mind that some classrooms have cameras. Avoid this if the one you are in does have a camera because if that is the case, it’s much riskier.
If your exam paper is a question/answer type then remember to add one important point as the question and the other as the answer. You also have to include the page number and marks per question (if included). The next thing to do is a staple this piece of paper with the original question paper during the test without anyone noticing.
For essays, try to remember keywords and points. Usually, professors or teachers look for keywords or important points; the essay’s formal “fluff” is less important. If you know the topic or possible topics of an essay question, cram four to five terms or important points you know your professor will be looking for instead of studying everything, thereby reducing the effort required. The same is true for short answers that require one or two sentences with keywords and points. For true-or-false exams, try studying the facts enough to pinpoint the details. Typically, there are more true statements on a test than false statements. If you find a statement where you have to change part of it to make it true, it’s false. For multiple-choice exams, try “chunking” information you know will be on the test. Instead of memorizing a list of words, try breaking it into easier to remember smaller lists. [4] X Research source For example, if studying for a history test, instead of remembering “Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, Grant, Lincoln, and Lee” break it up into the “4 of the founding fathers: Franklin, Washington, Jefferson and Hamilton” and the “3 civil war leaders: Lee, Lincoln, Grant. " By memorizing the number of men to a specific topic, it’ll be easier to narrow down who you are missing. For math exams, try to memorize formulas. Knowing a formula can be more powerful than spending hours doing practice problems. If you can write down a formula enough to memorize it, then you can spend the test trying to apply those to the problems.
