News Desk
In a bold yet ultimately unsuccessful bid to ace his university entrance exams, an 18-year-old Tokyo resident turned to high-tech eyewear to help him cheat, local authorities reported Thursday. The young man, who clearly watched too many spy movies, allegedly used smart glasses equipped with a camera to snap photos of the exam questions and post them online, hoping for a lifeline from the internet’s good Samaritans.
Investigators revealed that the aspiring scholar from Machida, a suburb in western Tokyo, had advertised online for “tutors” to assist him with the Waseda University entrance exams back in February. Apparently, the term “tutors” here means “random strangers willing to commit academic fraud for cash.” The young mastermind paid these “tutors” for their services, essentially running a high-tech, illicit tutoring business that James Bond would envy.
The smart glasses, his weapon of choice, were used to photograph a chemistry test and other subjects on February 16. Our cunning student then posted the photos on X (formerly known as Twitter before some guy bought the company), because nothing screams “discreet cheating” like broadcasting your scheme on a major social media platform. Unfortunately for him, one of the “tutors” realized this wasn’t a legit study session and alerted Waseda University.
The university’s staff, upon receiving the tip-off, decided to play detective and uncovered the suspect during another exam on February 21. The teenage cheat’s James Bond fantasy quickly unraveled when they traced the photos back to him, revealing his less-than-genius plan.
When questioned by the police, the student confessed that he resorted to cheating out of fear of failing the entrance exams, especially after his lackluster performance on a national achievement test. “I thought about cheating because I was worried I might fail the entrance exams,” he reportedly said, showcasing a level of honesty that was conspicuously absent during the exams.
Waseda University, known for its academic rigor and now, evidently, for its ability to catch high-tech cheaters, confirmed that the young man did not secure a spot in any of their faculties despite his James Bond antics. The institution, meanwhile, is pledging full cooperation with the police and is looking into measures to prevent such 007-inspired incidents from happening again.
This isn’t the first time tech-savvy students have turned exams into a mission impossible. Just last year, another examinee tried using a smartphone to leak test questions, and a Chinese national was arrested for using a mini-camera to share answers during Hitotsubashi University’s entrance exam. Clearly, academic dishonesty has gone high-tech, but as this case shows, not high-tech enough to outsmart vigilant examiners and the long arm of the law.
