S. Korea to inspect every Suneung test-taker’s glasses amid smart-glasses cheating fears

South Korea’s Education Ministry plans to have proctors inspect the glasses of every test-taker wearing them before each session of this year’s College Scholastic Ability Test, commonly known as Suneung, as authorities seek to guard against cheating with smart glasses.

The measures come after two suspected cheating attempts involving smart glasses were detected at the University of Seoul and Yonsei University earlier this month, MBC reported Tuesday.

With the national college entrance exam scheduled for Nov. 19, the ministry is now considering how to prevent test-takers from using increasingly discreet electronic devices.

Radio-frequency detectors would be difficult to deploy reliably this year, the ministry said. Tests of the equipment showed that differences in conditions around exam venues could cause detection errors. Proctors will have to visually inspect the glasses of candidates who wear them before each exam session.

At the University of Seoul’s essay-based admissions exam on Oct. 3, a proctor noticed a candidate wearing unusually thick glasses and alerted exam administrators. The glasses were subsequently identified as a smart device equipped with artificial intelligence functions, according to MBC.

The candidate had applied to the university’s artificial intelligence department, where 120 applicants were competing for five places.

The university removed the candidate from the exam room and barred them from applying to the institution for three years, describing the incident as the first detected attempt to use smart glasses to cheat in a university entrance exam.

A week later, smart glasses were also discovered during Yonsei University’s mathematics-based essay exam on Saturday.

The candidate had worn ordinary glasses during a pre-exam inspection, then switched to smart glasses after the test began. In an interview with a proctor afterward, the candidate acknowledged wearing the device.