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this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
367 points (99.7% liked)
Fuck AI
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These all seem like problems easily avoided if internet access and devices weren't allowed, and the exam was just paper and pencil, which most courses gain nothing from. Especially non programming courses like history.
There's also exam software that lock down laptops so only the exam can be accessed until it is finished if a professor insists on digital submission.
Professors seem as dumb as the students for finding all sorts of convoluted ways to try to stop AI based cheating during exams when the solution is to look back to their own past at how exams were given to them. Idiots.
Believe it or not, cheating was very much a thing before the internet and before electronic devices.
Story time:
I tried to cheat on my high school's final exam. Well, I didn't try to cheat, but rather I wanted to prepare cheat-sheets in case my memory failed me during the exam - but otherwise I intended to try and take the tests fair and square.
But... getting caught cheating carried a really heavy penalty in those days. So I decided to prepare the ultimate cheat-sheets that I could not be spotted consulting: I wrote them in Braille, so I could stick them under my desk and read them with my fingers during the exam.
But I quickly discovered that Braille is really hard - both reading and writing, both in long form and abbreviated forms. But I'm nothing if not persistent. So I learned basic Braille in the course of 6 months during my senior year.
On the day of the exam, I had spent so much time preparing my cheat-sheets that I knew them by heart, and I didn't need them 🙂 But I spent the rest of my life volunteering my time in various associations for the blinds - one of the very few visually-abled volunteers who could read Braille for some odd reason 🙂
The funny part is it would have been less effort to just study for the exam.
Yeah but here's the thing: I could not focus for the life of me. Studying bored me to tears. This cheating "project" of mine is something I chose to do, so I kept at it, and it got me to study without realizing it.
Makes sense to me, I hated studying certain subjects in school, and I think it's because nothing in them was relatable. The ones I liked and did well with had some connection to something meaningful to me. The rest were a struggle and I barely passed or even failed their exams. The fear of poor marks wasn't enough.
The fear of poor marks never scared me: when I was a kid, there were good jobs for anybody who was half-clever without a degree.
Nowadays, I wouldn't fear poor marks either: there are no jobs left for anybody anyway.
I know cheating was a thing, but now devices that people would have loved to have access to when internet was a thing like phones and laptops being allowed in exams makes prep like yours not even necessary. In some schools teachers collect people's phones for instance and dont allow people to bring out other electronics.
It's why I don't even get why professors are even upset at AI use during exams if they are allowing these devices to begin with.
Its like giving a math exam and telling students calculators aren't allowed to be used, but you may bring and use your calculator for non calculation purposes. Then being surprised they dared to use the calculator for calculating.
You don't even have to try to be sneaky and try to hide that you are cheating anymore with how easy some schools make it now.
That software is literal malware, though. If it's a laptop that's given to me by the university, ok, but no way in hell that malware is allowed to run on my hardware
Yeah I didn't like it so ran it on an old laptop just for exams and not my personal one.
But, if schools really wanted to it is possible to have digital exams where the usual browser bypasses aren't a thing, and the laptops cant be used for internet searches, AI queries, etc.
Without that you might as well just go with an open book, open internet, open ai, group messages, use whatever is at your disposal type exam. Because rules at that point is pretty pointless.
I had to do my compsci AP tests in pencil on paper lol
Pen and paper exams waste a lot of class time and are a hassle to grade. I've considered the option, but the better go to is an oral component so at least they practice their public speaking skills.
As for lockdown browser, it only stops some people but ultimately is easy to bypass. It also has screwed students with worse Internet, so it's not my preference. Guidelines still require exams, but I devalued them as ultimately it's better to just not rely on exams and lean into semester long projects that are much harder to bullshit and have a practical impact on learning.
Its not a browser that locks down. It actual software that completely hijacks the computer so you cant exit the program until it is done. Can't get into the desktop at all like some malware.
You are making it seem more difficult than it is. Problem is already solved. By making it something open hardware and Internet might as well just give everyone a pass at that point and not complain about whatever tools are used when full access hardware is allowed to be used.
Students have phones and tablets. Lol
Yeah, I had them my professors didn't let us use them. Trying to sneak a look would lead to cheating and risk expulsion if caught. And cameras in some classes and multiple people like TAs walking around.
If laptop or tablets were used for exam taking they made us use programs like examsoft that locked down the hardware so you couldn't access internet, files, or other programs until you finished the exam.
Or it was open note, open laptop, internet, so professors didn't care at all what was used.
So all I see is zero effort of exam proctoring and then being baffled that students are cheating despite making the environment very easy to do so. It's like you are afraid to take away or restrict electronic usage during exams or the concept is so foreign to you.
Ah, if you do cameras on. I don't do live tests anymore anyway, but even with cameras, too many of my students are low income so their connections are crap. Having dealt with that myself, it's just unfair to do cameras on.
Oh you are talking about online courses?
I was talking about at location courses. Those had cameras in the rooms people were testing in addition to exam proctors walking around.
Online courses are just a whole different affair with it being at home, and just a lost cause at trying to prevent cheating. Ones I took were more project based, since professors knew people would find ways to have access to everything at home so little point in telling people what is and isn't allowed.