This week, more than 9 million Chinese students will sit roughly nine hours over a period of two days for the gaokao, the high-stakes exam for admission to a Chinese college. Notoriously grueling, it can determine a student’s entire career path, and ultimately the kind of life one leads. At least 2 million of the test-takers won’t pass.
That’s why the gaokao, to be held on June 7-8, never falls short of cheaters. Exam halls have used metal detectors and drones to prevent cheating via high-tech gadgets. But what about hiring a surrogate to take the exam for you?
For this, verification via ID cards is a must, but hardly enough. Surrogates can use their own photos on forged IDs, and admission tickets with the real test-takers’ information on them. Fingerprint checks have become common in many test centers, but surrogates have responded by wearing special fingerprint films of the candidates.