More than nine million people in China are currently sitting the national college entrance exams. Known as gaokao, the annual exam is a fiercely competitive, make-or-break test that determines the path of a student's life. The exam is deemed so important that some students resort to high-tech devices straight out of a James Bond film in an attempt to cheat. Every year, police show off wireless devices disguised to look like belts, pens, watches and earpieces.
A woman displays a pair of earpieces used in cheating attempts by students sitting for the national college entrance exam in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China, on 6 June 2017ReutersA man holds a wireless device disguised as a belt during a presentation to the media in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, on 6 June 2017ReutersA wireless device disguised as a watch is pictured during a presentation to the media in Taiyuan, Shanxi province on the first day of the 2017 exam seasonReutersA hidden camera in a pen and a receiver in the shape of an eraser are displayed after being confiscated by the authorities in 2014ReutersA police officer displays a pair of glasses with a hidden camera and a tiny receiver attached to a coin which were confiscated by the police in Shenyang, Liaoning province in 2013ReutersWireless devices in shape of erasers are pictured during a presentation to the media in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China on 6 June 2017ReutersMobile devices and receivers are displayed after being confiscated by the authorities in 2014 in Chengdu, Sichuan provinceReutersA hidden coil (top) in a shirt, (bottom from L to R) two batteries, a mobile phone and a receiver are displayed after being found on a student and confiscated by the authorities as exam cheating equipments, in Chengdu, Sichuan province in 2014Reuters
Examination sites are equipped with surveillance facilities including vans that detect wireless activity. Streets around exam halls are guarded by the police, and people who make noise on testing days can be fined.
A staff member operates a system to detect wireless activity in examination venues during a presentation to the media in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, on 6 June 2017ReutersStaff members operate a system to detect wireless activity near an examination venue, on 7 June 2017, the first day of China's national college entrance exam in Fuzhou, Fujian provinceReutersA police officer monitors examination venues as students sit for China's national college entrance exam in Tianjin in 2017ReutersA student goes through a security check as she enters the classroom to take the National College Entrance Exam in Shenyang, Liaoning province in 2013ReutersA teacher uses a machine that uses both fingerprint and facial recognition technology to check the identification of a student before a simulated college entrance exam in Handan in China's northern Hebei province in June 2017AFPStudents take a simulated college entrance exam near a device that blocks mobile phone signals at a school in Handan in China's northern Hebei province in June 2017AFPA staff member monitors radio signals on order to detect students cheating during the 2013 university entrance exam in Qingdao, east China's Shandong provinceAFP
Students caught cheating risk going to prison for up to seven, the official Xinhua news agency reported in 2016.
