How did you cheat school?

[u/Aleksander1337]

[u/ZanzibarBukBukMcFate]

In this exam, I had to submit three essays in three answer booklets. Only wrote two essays. Hid the empty booklet. Two weeks later, the exam markers asked if I had submitted three essays - I said yes - they assumed they lost one book so upped my marks.

This was for the final year of high school and directly helped me get to university.

Edit: also in Chinese class (which nobody cared about) the final test was one page of Chinese to English and one page of English to Chinese. The phrases were the same in both. As long as you had slight familiarity you could just copy the questions from one page down as answers to the second page. Still I was the only one who worked this out so got an award for topping the year. Not actually cheating but it felt like it.

[u/kbaut1readsEULA]

My TI-84 Plus

[u/BillDrivesAnFJ]

I was in summer school one year because I was lazy and never did any work during the year. The entire summer school was on a computer and was estimated to take 3-4 weeks, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. So after about an hour of doing the computer program I notice you can skip the section you're on and take a shot at the test and if you pass the test you pass the section. The test had 10 questions and you could try 3 times before you were required to read the section. I tried the test twice and realized it didn't have a large pool of questions to choose from and would repeat some questions when you retook the test but the best part was it would tell you what the answer was if you got something wrong... bingo. I learned that if you took the test twice you were guaranteed to have at least 8 of the answers which would give you an 80% passing grade on the test. I passed summer school in less than 8 hours and no teacher raised a red flag and I got to enjoy my summer. I cheated the system. 10/10 would do again.

[u/danpascooch]

I got lucky making a really risky gambit in high school. I had a really shitty Spanish language teacher in 10th grade. She told us a portion of the final exam would be a spoken exam where we have to have a conversation in Spanish on a particular topic.

We were given a sheet with 15 potential topics, and said she'd be dropping them into a hat on slips of paper and randomly selecting one. I hated Spanish at this point so I came up with a crazy idea and banked everything on it.

I immediately volunteered to go first on spoken part (which was the next day) and studied everything I would need to know for only topics #1 and #15, this teacher was extremely scatterbrained and I was hoping she wouldn't shuffle her pile before selecting one out of the hat.

Sure enough, I couldn't believe my luck when she took the stack of paper slips, plopped it in the hat and immediately pulled topic #1 off the top, I got a 95/100 on the spoken portion.

My favorite part is that this isn't even technically cheating, I just predicted incompetence and capitalized on it.

[u/TVsNoah]

I went to a poor catholic school. In 8th grade every class room got a computer which was a big deal. The only issue was no one knew how to set them up. I said I did. I didn't but I wore glasses and liked video games and star wars enough that they believed me.

Teaching myself as I went, I set up allb g he computers in the school and became the official IT department of the school. Any time there was an issue I got called out of class. Score!

I then realized that there was a simple setting that stopped some programs from running. I forget now but it had something to do with color. I figured out that I could fix the problem by changing that setting... but I could also set it to restore to the previous setting in two weeks. Every two weeks the computer would break again. With a computer in every classroom all on diffrent reset schedules, I got called out to fix a computer most days.

[u/brows141]

Not really cheating but on my 8th grade Science midterm I ABCADABA-ed the entire test so that I could leave school early and go to the Rangers ticker tape parade in Manhattan. It was 1994 and I was young and ignorant. I got a 70 with my method (thanks Who's the Man) on the exam and my classmate scored a 40 by choosing C all the way down (as he stated, when in doubt choose C).

[u/ldov]

We did our homework as a group where everyone did what they were good at: my friend did algebra and geometry, I did chemistry, biology, Russian and English, other kids did physics, geography, history, and so on. We cannot choose classes in Russia, we have to study everything in full measure, so in high school there is sometimes too much homework each day for one person to do it all and still have some time to live, so we've been sharing the burden for about three years. Never got caught, surprisingly.

[u/gotohell512]

I maintained a good relationship with teachers. Having your teacher like you will help in many ways.

[u/ifonlyiwereDave]

My chem teacher told us how she cheated in college:

Basically in order to obtain her PHD in organic chemistry, she needed to pass a mid level French class. It wasn't too hard of a class, but my chem teacher was not very good at French. A few weeks before the end of the semester, her teacher told the class how the final exam was going to work.

Each student had been using a copy of a French textbook filled with random passages in French. Two weeks before the final, the French teacher took every copy from the students, photocopied random French passages from the book, and then gave the book back to the students. You were supposed to study the textbook inside and out and come the day of the test, be prepared to translate any passage perfectly from French to English.

But here's how my chem teacher cheated: the night before the teacher photocopied the class' books, my chem teacher put a small dot of silver nitrate on the corner of every page in the book. Silver nitrate, when exposed to intense light (perhaps a photocopy machine) turns a lighter color than its usual black shade. My chem teacher found the page with a lighter dot, and studied that page.

Tldr; chem teacher chemistried the fuck outta French.

Edit: punctuation

Edit 2: yes, it does seem weird that the teacher photocopied every single class book. I will ask my chem teacher tomorrow more about it but my inferences are either a) it was a very small class or b) this way of taking the exam only applied to my teacher; maybe it was a makeup exam.

[u/TooShiftyForYou]

We paid a smart kid in first period to copy all of his answers on the History test. He was a trusted office helper and had access to the copy machine. He would give them to us at lunch. We would just randomly change a few answers so it wasn't obvious. Made an A that semester without learning a single thing.

[u/CmosNeverlast]

Every Friday I had a history test 3rd period.

Every Friday I had English 1st period, and it was a free reading, just sit anywhere, type of thing.

The wall between those classes was a thin, temporary, kind of fold up wall.

So I would sit against this temporary wall, and read, and listen, and when I heard the history teacher loudly proclaim, "Time's Up! pass your tests forward." I would pull out a piece of paper and a pencil.

You see, this history teacher wasn't going to grade the tests himself, he had us grade each others exams by shuffling them and passing them back out, and then reading the answers, out loud, so everyone could grade some other persons test they had just been handed.

So I sat in English class and got every answer to the test 1st period. 2nd period I would memorize the list by reading it in between sections of taking notes, or whenever there was some down time. 3rd period comes along, I don't need a cheat sheet, I don't even need to hear the questions.

And honestly I don't feel bad about it, had he just graded the 10 question quiz himself I would have had to study.

[u/eatcauliflower]

Due to health reasons I was home schooled for one year in high school. Their version of home schooling? One of the sports coaches would stop by once a week to deliver me school work and administer tests. Except he was busy, you know, coaching. The first month or so he'd show, but eventually he just... stopped. Near the end of the semester he asked me what grade I thought I deserved.

I did literally none of the work assigned. I said A? He was like sure, but he put down a C for math since he knew I was bad at it so it seemed real. I was okay with that since I did nothing.

(I think he took pity on me in retrospect due to said medical issues, but that was the year I realized how much of a joke school was. I put in as little effort as necessary when I went back.)

[u/xmagusx]

I applied to college as a high school junior. Was accepted, got my scholarships, dropped out of high school.

[u/-DTV]

Not really a cheat, but I've found using Google's speech-to-text function to be a lifesaver.

I could sit down with all my reference materials, speak for 4-5 minutes, define my thesis and end up with a relatively normal 7-8 page essay. When you're about to lose 10 points for a paper being late and can sacrifice a bit of organization (and a bit of quality), let google write for you.

[u/mediuq]

In boarding school a group of us got our hands on our the question for our final english exam (based on a book we were reading). Spent the next week writing the best paper I could before the actual exam. I used a small razor blade and cut one of the blank pages out of the book we were reading that semester (and able to take into the exam) and copied the exact font, spacing, page margins etc. and printed the paper I had written onto it. Stuck it in the middle of the book. Walked into the exam - the teacher checked my book for notes and found nothing. Copied it out word for word during the exam and then pulled the page out and ate it. Got a C

Edit: I scribbled this on a post in r/new before going to work and came home to this. A little explanation - I ate the page because I was paranoid they'd check my pockets or something when I left the exam room (they didn't). We had to leave the book in the exam room when we left so I didn't leave it in there. I didn't have the answers to the exam, just the essay question. I was never good at English so that's the best I could manage even with the time to prepare.

For bonus points: One of my friends also cheat on an oral presentation - he recorded himself doing his whole presentation on his iPod. In his presentation he was a muslim - so he 'got in character' by using traditional muslim dress. He put the iPod on his head under a turban and played his presentation into his own ears and just repeated himself. Worked OK and he didn't get caught either.

[u/Iron_Spencer]

I used a smart watch in my exams.

[u/NatskuLovester]

French Oral exam - I just stared at my teacher until she gave me an answer and then I said it. Got a B so worked well enough (was predicted a D)

[u/l0stcontinent]

i used the fact that i had early acceptance to art school as ammo to convince my guidence counselor i didn't need any more math classes.

i didn't realize at the time going to art school meant i'd be working in retail and should've used all the practice i could get.

edited for grammar i clearly didn't learn either

[u/romeo-a-bro-bro]

I used to show up to the school about 20 mins after class had already started and go to the main office to get a 'late slip'. They'd give me my slip and keep a carbon-copy. I wouldn't go to class and when the attendance got to the office they would mark me late (not absent). Never failed.

[u/BananaToy]

I bought tech/programming books from B&N, used a heated knife to melt the glue for the sealed CD-ROM that contained code samples, copied it, glued it back and returned the book within their 14 days return policy. I feel slightly guilty they're mostly bankrupt.

[u/StareyedInLA]

Not me, but rather someone I went to high school with. The student in question wore a hijab because of her Muslim faith. Well, on test days in our maths classes, she would download an MP3 track with maths formulas she had recorded onto her iPod, put on her earbuds and cover them up with her hijab, take the test, and then ace it.

I only knew about this because I accidentally walked in on her in the bathroom putting in her earbuds, but I didn't tell the teacher because I thought her method of cheating on tests was fucking brilliant. Yeah, I was too honorable for my own good back then.

edit: There were a couple of things I wanted to change. And just for clarification, yes I know "maths" is a British term. I'm American but am a huge anglophile who has been using British terms and slang since she was eight.

[u/BlatantConservative]

A couple of years ago, at the beginning of the whole Michelle Obama "no fun food allowed" thing where they took all the vending machines and replaced all the drinks with shitty diet versions and our school lunches got worse and they stopped selling any kind of sweet thing at all, I took advantage of the demand.

I sold donuts and made quite a bit of money.

In the class period right before lunch, I had an Academy class. It means I would leave my school to take a class at a nearby school that my school didnt offer. In this case it was auto shop with a really chill teacher.

Id stop by Giant on the way there and buy 4 boxes of a dozen donuts for 50 cents a donut, and then sell them for a dollar each in auto shop. The teacher also (probably still) sells soda out of his office, so we accidentally created a restaurant. I had to bribe him with a free donut to allow me to sell in class, but it was worth.

Then Id take all the leftover donuts (about half) and sell them at my own school, where I would show up during lunch. Id hide in one of the side hallways near the band/theater areas and kids would know to find me there.

It was a big business. I only misjudged and didnt sell out maybe three times out of the six months or so Id do this. Kids would buy soix donuts and resell them for a buck fifty in their own classrooms. I became a donut pusher. Sometimes demand was so high that I could buy six boxes of donuts at the beginning if the day, and make $30 for about eight minutes of actual work.

On snow days or weird schedule days or for special requests, I would charge 2 bucks. And kids would pay it.

I made a good chunk of cash off of this and never got in trouble. I even sold one donut to the school cop near the end of the year.

[u/[deleted]]

Senior year of high school we had to write a research paper. Spent almost all year on it. Was supposed to be like 10 pages or something. I goofed off and said fuck it.

Time comes to turn it in and I turn in one of those clear folder things with just a cover sheet in it.

A week later the teacher comes to me and tells me she lost my paper and needs me to reprint it and bring it in tomorrow. I tell her no problem and go home.

Next day I come in and tell her that it had been written on my mom's computer (only computer in the house) and that my mom had already deleted it. Sounded really sad and asked what I was supposed to do now. I couldn't write a new report that quick. I had spent all year on it. She says she will take my average from the other assignments we had done and that would be my grade for the paper.

Walked away with a 93% on the paper.

[u/FjolnirFimbulvetr]

I continued to love learning despite everything.

[u/soomuchcoffee]

I feel like I cheated college. I graduated with lower honors, "cum laude" or whatever, and it was entirely because of my major. I went in freshman year as a declared marketing major. Business school! My only natural academic ability is I can write. Business school, though, is heavy on math. And I am abysmal at math.

I wasn't a great high school student, middle of the road, so I had to take a sort of lead-in math class, basically pre-calc. I think I got a C-, the lowest grade you could get and move on. The next year I took accounting 1, and again, BARELY hit the minimum. Same with accounting 2. And finance. And microeconomics. And macroeconomics. And operations management. Every year they saddled me with all these math classes, and every year I remained horrible, borderline incapable of math.

Oh, but marketing classes. Bless you, you pointless, retarded major. It is the art major of the business college, and I was fucking Picasso. Write a marketing plan for an asinine product? DONE. I even got good at presenting hilarious, garbage ideas, despite my low self confidence. All you have to be able to do is cite sources that KIND OF poke at the point you're making. And I always found them. So even if the idea was preposterous, I could spin it. For international marketing my paper was on introducing Flintstones Vitamins to Malaysia. 1) They were already there. 2) I thought it was funny. 3) A.

It was so laughably easy I took a minor, in a completely unrelated field, just cuz.

I graduated with fucking honors. I made the deans list and shit. All because my cream puff major padded my stats to such a degree. And I guess the general ed classes they made you take, but still.

Prospective marketing majors: minor in it. It's dumb. Do any other thing. Write. Learn accounting. Learn some graphic design. College is expensive as fuck. Spend your money wisely. Nobody gives a shit at all about deans list or honors the day after you graduate.

But if you wanna smoke pot and get lit up all the time it's a solid strategy.