There are lots of ways to cheat on a test, with one of the most well-known being the use of hidden notes. Said notes might contain stolen test answers, cheat sheets, or information from the study material itself. Said notes typically take the form of someone hiding pieces of paper under their clothes. Other examples might include people writing notes on their body and hiding them with their clothes as well as using smartphones to look up their answers.
Naturally, since Cheaters Never Prosper in fiction, characters who try this will inevitably be caught. Some common ways for being caught can include papers falling out of their clothes, being caught using the notes in class, or being searched before they can take the test.
See also Altering the Grades, Cheating by Copying, Homework Slave, Plagiarism in Fiction, and Stolen Test Answers for other examples of academic dishonesty. Overlaps with Human Notepad if someone has notes written on their own body.
Not to be confused by notes written to and from someone cheating on a partner, which goes under Affair Letters.
Because of how common this form of academic dishonesty is, No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Monster (1994): A flashback shows that Tenma once cheated on a test by hiding notes under his sleeve.
- Naruto: The point of the first Chunin Exam was cheating (read: gathering information), so some of the information spread to the teammates were done via hidden notes. Notably, Kankuro cheated by disguising his Karasu marionette as one of the proctors, which then gave him all the information at the bathroom. Even though the supervisor caught on the trick, Kankuro still gave all of his information to Temari in form of a tiny, multifolded paper.
- School Rumble: Subverted. Harima fears that he's going to flunk due to seeing an apparition of a late teacher known through the school as the "flunk-out phantom". His cousin and teacher, Itoko, tells him to ward off the spirit by writing vocabulary words over his body. When his homeroom teacher, Tani-sensei, sees the writing, he tells Harima to wipe it off or he'll flunk him. But while Harima is taking the test he realizes that Itoko's real goal was to have him memorize the vocabulary words, and he does well on the exam.
- Soul Eater: Before the "Ultimate Written Exam", Soul actually tries to study for the exam but Blair keeps pestering him, which causes him to lose study time. After Blair goes away, Soul decides to simply create a bunch of notes and hides them in his clothes. Unfortunately, Sid catches him and strips him of everything but his underwear, and Soul flunks the exam.
Comic Books
- Disney Ducks Comic Universe: One story has Donald act as supervisor at his nephews' school during a test, and he catches kids with notes written on their arms, on the wrapping paper for their candy, and on the inside of their glasses. He fails to catch the note with all the answers that his nephews attached to the back of his jacket though.
Fan Works
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines: In the side story Oak's Summer Camp Gaiden, Professor Oak catches Joshua cheating on his final exam by looking up answers on the internet via his smartphone. As a result, Oak expels him from his summer camp and bars him from getting a Pokémon Trainer License from his lab.
Films — Animation
- In Mulan, the titular protagonist paints notes on her wrist to help her pass her Matchmaker exam. Her mother Fa Li notices this while giving her a bath but doesn't think to lecture her about cheating. Mulan uses the notes to pass the spoken part of the exam but they later get smudged when the matchmaker grabs Mulan by the arm and she unknowingly smears the ink all over her face. This signals the start of the Disaster Dominoes that lead to Mulan failing the exam. It is implied that many young women write notes on their High-Class Fan, as the matchmaker immediately grabs and inspects it.
Films — Live-Action
- Avalon High: Exploited in the film version by Mr. Moore, who plants a cheat sheet for the Medieval History exam on the bottom of Will's shoe. Mr. Moore then catches the cheat sheet in the middle of the exam, threatening Will's chances to be in the big football game. Moore lets him off with a warning due to his spotless record, but the accusation and special treatment briefly tanks Will's reputation with his team, causing infighting.
- In the 2000 film Cheaters, several high school students and their teacher are involved in a widespread cheating conspiracy to win a coveted academic decathlon. Students end up writing their answers on their shoes, their calculators, and a stick of gum, which the student then has to consume to keep her cover, thus rendering her note moot.
- Spies Like Us: During an entrance exam for Department of Defense/ State Department field operatives, Emmett Fitz-Hume hides notes in his (fake) eye patch and arm sling, and what appears to be a stick of chewing gum.
Literature
- In Carrie, Billy Nolan is said to have done this to pass his exams.
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Downplayed. Harry gets a used potions textbook that includes notes from the original owner, the Half-Blood Prince, improving the standard recipes. Harry uses this to ace his in-class assignments throughout much of Sixth Year which, while not used for a formal exam, gains him unearned favor with Professor Slughorn and earns him the Felix Felicis luck potion as a prize. Snape suspects Harry has been cheating due to his sudden improvement and the fact that the notes were his and calls him out on it, but Harry never gets formally caught for cheating. He instead gets in trouble for using the old textbook in a different way, by using an unknown spell on Draco that ends up severely injuring him.
- Red Dwarf: Similar to the TV version, Rimmer tries to cheat on his Officer's Exam by copying notes onto his body. By the time he takes the exam, he's so covered in Overly Nervous Flop Sweat that the ink has dissolved. Now out of his mind with desperation, he presses his hand onto the paper in hopes that the writing will somehow reassemble itself, and instead gets a print of his hand that looks like he's Flipping the Bird at whoever looks at the exam. Resigned, he signs it, turns it in, and wakes up on a stretcher.
Live-Action TV
- El Chavo del ocho: One of the school episodes involves the students taking and exam and trying to cheat in multiple ways. La Popis does it by having a small piece paper with answers under the skirt of her doll Serafina, which Professor Jirafales quickly catches on. But the crowner comes when she begins to spank Serafina to blame her for this, as Professor Jirafales has this little bomb to drop on her:
"You should probably spank her harder, because out of these four answers, three are incorrect."
- Community: In Advanced Criminal Law, Señor Chang discovers a crib sheet discarded by one of his studentsspoiler after use for his exam. He theatrically squints at the tiny piece of paper before sentencing the class to collective failure unless the culprit comes forward.
- CSI: NY: The victim-of-the-week in "Do or Die" is a popular high school girl who was being tutored by the smartest guy in her class, who hacked into the school's testing software to see the upcoming exams. For their Advanced American History class, he copied a water bottle label but replaced the nutrition section with answers to the multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank sections, so she could refer to it while sipping water during the test.
- In one episode of Growing Pains, Mike Seaver plans to cheat with notes on the soles of his shoes. But in writing down all the notes, he discovers that he has learned the material. His notes are exposed when he puts his feet up on his desk after the teacher hands back the test and he discovers that he passed. After proving himself, he takes the test again — in his underwear — to prove to the teacher that he studied.
- Hannah Montana: In one episode, Jackson tries to cheat on a history test by paying another student for the answers, but his plan is foiled when Miley flushes them down the toilet. After Jackson gets another copy of the test answers, he decides to write them on his body, but Miley and Lilly manage to smudge them. Fortunately for Jackson, he managed to memorize the answers enough to pass the test fairly.
- iCarly:
- In the episode "iHave a Lovesick Teacher", after Spencer tries to break up with Miss Ackerman (Carly's history teacher) over her obsessive behavior, Carly and her friends anticipate that she'll give them a pop quiz. Sam takes Freddie's textbook and leaves to go write notes on her arms, during which Miss Ackerman claims to Carly and Freddie that she and Spencer just had an argument and there's no pop quiz. When Sam returns, she is informed of this and complains "So I did this for nothing?" while lifting her shirt to reveal she also wrote notes on her stomach.
- In "iQ", Carly panics when the boy she is dating, Kyle, does not want to date anyone who isn't as smart as he is; when she struggles to cram as much information before her next date with him, Sam has her write cheat notes on her arm so she can remember. The date goes well until she unintentionally flips her plate and her pork chop falls onto the table, which Kyle notices and eventually discovers the cheat notes, realizing she was dishonest with him and promptly breaks up with her.
- Incredible Crew: Parodied with the "Cheat Sheet Tacos" skit. The titular taco has the test answers written on it, but it's played like an advantage over a regular cheat sheet since the student is able to Eat the Evidence and fool the teacher into thinking he's just eating a regular taco and not cheating on a test.
- M*A*S*H: In one episode, to boost morale, the Army decides to reward a unit's "Soldier of the Month", for which duties performed, presentation of uniform, and knowledge for a test all factor in. Hopeful to get the prize, a pass to Tokyo, Klinger writes the answers on his body. Hawkeye and BJ, who are administering the test, however, catch wise fairly early.
Hawkeye: Klinger, who was the first president of the United States and what city was he sworn in?? Please answer using seven or less of the basic ballet movements.
- Power Rangers Ninja Steel: In "Live and Learn" Brody tries to cheat on a quiz by using a Datacom, which answers any type of question, to instantly get the answers. His teacher eventually catches him and tells him not to use it again.
- Red Dwarf: In "The End", Rimmer scribbles notes all over his body so that he can pass his Officer's Exam. Unfortunately, at the actual test, he stumbles upon the fact that he doesn't actually understand what the notes mean and that he has sweated so much that the notes have become smudged and incomprehensible.
- Scrubs: Played with in "My Way Home", a Wizard of Oz homage episode. Elliot, after going to a single conference on endocrinology, frames herself as an expert on the subject in front of the interns but is actually using notes hidden around the hospital to answer their questions. Dr. Cox catches her cheating and volunteers her to give a talk on the subject with real endocrinology specialists to humiliate her. However, JD helps her realize that her obsessive studying of her cheat sheets helped her learn the material for real, telling her, "You had the brains all along."
- In Young Sheldon, Georgie Cooper eventually admits to his brother Sheldon that this (the hidden note method) is how he passed his math test at school. Sheldon, who thought it was down to his tutoring, is disillusioned. Even more so when his father, the School's PE Teacher, is disinclined to do anything about it, as this resolves the problem: without a good passing grade in math, Georgie would be unable to turn out for the school's football team.
Manhua
- An Old Master Q strip depicts the titular character taking an exam, and suspiciously shuffling something under his desk. The invigilator stops him and tells him to hand over his cheat-sheet, but then Master Q brings out a half-eaten burger and claims it's his breakfast because he didn't have time to eat. The invigilator gives Master Q a stern warning that eating in an exam hall, even if in a rush, is forbidden; but when the investigator's gone Master Q lifts the burger's top and continues copying notes off his tiny cheat-sheet. (Do NOT attempt this in real life; chances are an actual invigilator would be at least smart enough to inspect your food and you will be caught)
Visual Novels
- Being a ΔΙΚ: Derek offers the MC "cheats" to make completing class assignments easier that are implied to be notes he passes during class: paying for these cheats gives the MC DIK points. Escalated significantly during the midterms in "Crossroads": when the MC goes to the bathroom during the exam, he finds a complete answer key for the exam behind the flush tank, and has the option to either flush it down (reducing DIK score significantly), keeping it back, or memorizing the answers (increasing DIK score significantly). He later chastises Derek for trying to cheat so brazenly, and Derek insists that he didn't place it there and had no idea about it, implying a larger-scale cheating operation at B&R. Notably, if you choose to memorize the answers, "Calm Before the Snow" has Isabella realize that the MC has cheated.
Web Video
- In one episode, Smosh's Let's Do This series, the cast has to come up with creative ways to cheat on a test, and most of them do some (very impractical) version of this. Shayne temporarily tattoos the answers onto his body, Chanse puts on a fake arm and a comically fake-looking mask so he can use his phone inside his hoodie, Angela wears the answers as pins and patches on her jacket, and Ian hides a cheat sheet under another guy's wig.
Western Animation
- Action League NOW!: In "The Naked and the Dumb", The Flesh fails the test to renew his Action Hero license and has to retake it and pass in order to stay in the Action League. As Thundergirl, Stinky Diver, and Meltman's attempts to tutor him all resulted in them suffering a series of Amusing Injuries, they decide to write the answers on The Flesh's body to help him pass. Unfortunately, Bill finds out and wipes them off, as League regulations forbid the use of them. Stinky argues that he used cheat notes, then realizing that might get him kicked out of the League, tells them he didn't. Fortunately, The Flesh still passes his test.
- The Amazing World of Gumball:
- In "The Lesson", Gumball and Darwin procrastinate on studying for a math test and decide to cheat. The scene then cuts to the principal's office, where Principal Brown yells at them for cheating and it's revealed that Gumball wrote equations all over Darwin.
- In "The Grades", Miss Simian convinces Gumball to cheat on the exam that will get him back into 8th grade and save her job, telling him that she cheated when she was his age by painting the answers on a cave wall. Gumball writes notes on various parts of his body (such as his tongue and the inside of his eyelids), which he can't read, and Miss Simian's attempts to supply him notes fail, so he ends up finishing the test without cheating and manages to pass.
- Big City Greens: In "Study Abroad", Remy panics that he didn't learn anything on the day he is to report weekly to his parents on what he learned; when he forges a story that he learned to build a fence, Remy is worried about what he should say to his parents, so Cricket writes some cheat notes on his arm so they don't notice. Unfortunately, Remy starts sweating out of nervousness seconds after the call begins, ruining the chest notes, so the Greens had to use charades to help him.
- Fanboy and Chum Chum: The plot of "Crib Notes" kicks off with Kyle casting a spell to produce the titular trope, to help him pass his Milkweed Admittance Test to get readmitted to his Wizarding School. The spell ends up turning him into a baby and the notes will only appear when he goes to sleep, and the twist is the notes aren't written on paper or his skin, he starts saying the test answers out loud through random gibberish. In a Twist Ending, while he does get every answer correct, all of the answers are rendered null and void afterward...because he didn't use a No. 2 wand.
- Franklin: In "Franklin's Test", Mr. Owl gives his students a spelling test based on the words they've learned the past few weeks, giving those who spell every word correctly a colored pen. When he studies, Franklin gets most of the words right, but has trouble with the last one, "Pencil". Worried about misspelling it, Franklin writes "Pencil" on a note and hides it in his hat. Franklin looks at the note during the test without anyone knowing and spells every word correctly, getting a pen. When Bear reveals to Franklin that he only missed one word on his test, "Pencil", Franklin begins to feel guilty about cheating. Bear soon discovers the note and finds it unfair that Franklin cheated to get his pen, as it made him, who tried his best without cheating, look bad. The next day, Franklin confesses that he cheated to Mr. Owl and returns the pen, promising to win it fair and square next time.
- The Simpsons: In the episode "Crystal Blue-Haired Persuasion", after children's healthcare is dropped from the nuclear plant's healthcare plan, Marge has to replace Bart's ADHD meds with an alternative medicine, crystals. Bart's test scores improve, but that's only because Milhouse has been writing cheat sheets into the classroom's new posters, and they're only visible when magnified through a crystal.
- South Park: In a send-up of Stand and Deliver, Cartman is serving as a substitute teacher for a bunch of kids in a remedial class, most of them Hispanic. He teaches them the "White People Method" for studying, which involves printing the answers as labels on water bottles and if caught, saying things like, "I misinterpreted the rules."
- Tiny Toon Adventures: In "Plucky's Dastardly Deed" (part of "Son of Looniversity Daze"), Plucky forgets to study for a test, so he hides a bunch of crib notes with the answers on them in his tank top. Foghorn Leghorn becomes aware of Plucky's plan and makes him take the test the honest way, getting the main plot of Plucky switching his test with that of Egghead Jr. and later feeling emotional guilt about it underway.
