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It is important to keep test materials secure before a test. This includes making sure that all copies and the original are accounted for after copying. Some students may try to access test questions before a test, even if that means they have to break into your classroom or office to get them. To prevent this, never leave your keys hanging in the door and don't give them to a trusted student for any reason. Also, do not assume that tests and answer guides left at school will be safe. If you are going to leave such test materials at school, be sure to lock them in a file cabinet and keep the key with you at all times. Be sure to change your test content from year to year. This will stop siblings and friends in different grades from passing on last year's answers. Tell the students that there will be several versions given out and then give the different versions to alternating students. This will prevent students from assuming that they can cheat off their neighbor's test. Be sure that you keep track of what test version each student has. This can be done by numbering the version and having the students write the number they have on their tests. Do not distinguish different versions in a way that can be seen from a distance, for example, by color. Otherwise, students can look around for other students with the same version. One way to prevent cheating is to allow students to bring information with them into class on the day of a test. This forces them to study the material before the test and to figure out what they need to bring. The students don't necessarily need to memorize all the information they will be tested on, but they will need to know the content overall. Eventually your students will learn that having the material at the their fingertips is of no use unless they have already spent time studying the material. If you don't want to have an open book or open note test, but you want your students to focus their studying, consider giving them the test questions before the test. You can give them a list of more questions than you plan on giving them, and tell them that you will choose your test questions out of this list. That way, they will be forced to review more information than you are actually going to test them on but they will be prepared for the test. If your class is so big that you don't know everyone enrolled in it, then a common way of cheating for students is to have someone else take the test for them. To stop this, require the students to show you their IDs when they enter and check this against your class roster. This can be done either when entering the exam room or when collecting the exam. Tell students ahead of time that you will not permit entry into the exam room or not grade an exam if the student does not appear on your roster, the student does not have an ID with them, or the student has a false ID. If you are worried about students bringing answers into the test, then supply all items they will need for the test. That way, you can make sure that the students are taking an exam with a clean sheet of paper, for example. If leaning over to copy is a problem in your class, you may consider investing in dividers that you pass out at test time to keep students from looking over at one another's papers. Letting students know you will be doing this beforehand will prevent some students from trying to cheat in the first place. However, it may drive some students towards other more elaborate ways of cheating. Do not allow students to have cell phones, notebooks, lunchboxes, or books out on their desks during tests. This will eliminate older ways of cheating, such as writing answers on the desk, and many newer methods of cheating, such as putting answers in their phones. If you are especially worried about cheating, do not even allow students to have labeled water bottles on their desk. It is a common trick to write answers on the inside of the label and re-glue it to the bottle. You may also require that backpacks be placed in the front of the room (or some other open space) rather than underneath desks for the duration of the exam. Walking over to your students' desks to answer questions during an exam puts your attention on one student, giving others the chance to cheat. Instead, have students walk up to your desk if they have questions. This allows you to help them while still keeping the rest of the class in view. If you allow a student to leave the classroom during an exam, make sure they are not taking any test materials with them. In general, you should only allow students to leave the room if they absolutely need to. In cases where you do decide that it is okay for a student to leave the room, such as if they need to use the restroom, you need to make sure that they do not take any notes or electronics with them. Allow only one student to leave the room at a time. This will allow you to keep track of who leaves and how long they are gone. If someone is taking frequent bathroom breaks, there is a chance that they have stashed answers in the bathroom. You may tell a student that they must show you where their phone is, and require that it stay in the room. You can create a seating chart or you can require students to write down the names of those sitting directly next to them on their test. If an allegation of "I saw someone looking at my test" arises, it can make it easier to figure out who to talk to. It also allows you to compare answers of those sitting close to each other during grading. This would be especially useful in very large university courses, where students may not know the names of those sitting next to them during the exam. You can also create a seating chart documenting who sat where, if you have a small class. This way you can create a chart that keeps friends from sitting right next to one another. If you have a large class, number the seats and have students write their seat number on their test. If you believe a student's eyes are wandering too much, reseat them. First, reassure the student that you are not accusing the student of cheating, and that you simply want to ensure that they are showing their own work. If they choose to comply, take no action. If they are unwilling to comply, you can assume that they were cheating or had the intention of cheating. If you need to reseat a student, try to put them somewhere where they are away from other students. Being a seat away from other students may make it easier for that student to focus on their own test. With short answer exams, you can draw a tight box around the response or draw a line across any blank space while grading. This prevents students from trying to add to their answer before requesting a regrade. For scantron exams, draw lines connecting the filled in answer choices before returning the scantron sheets to students. This will prevent students from changing their answer and claiming that the machine made a mistake. There are some websites that allow you to return exams electronically. After all exams have been collected, you can scan them, match the submissions to students, grade the exams, and then release the grades online. Students will login to see their scores and a scan of their exam.
Don't allow access to test materials. Create several versions of your test. Give open book or open note tests. Give access to test questions before the test if it's closed-book. Require students to show a student ID to take a test. Allow students to use only items that you provide. Have students take all items off their desks. Request that students walk up to your desk to ask questions. Be cautious about students leaving the room. Keep track of where students are sitting. Move students you suspect are cheating. Limit a student's ability to change their answers.