Basic Trope: A character cheats on a test by using hidden notes.
- Straight:
- Bob cheats on his history test by hiding notes in his clothes.
- Alice cheats on her math test by writing formulas on her skin and hiding them with her clothes.
- Exaggerated:
- Every student in the school hides notes when taking tests.
- Alice wears heavy and concealing clothes so that she can cover every single inch of her skin in notes.
- Downplayed: While Bob's test does allow the use of notes, Bob hides the fact that he's using them in order to make himself look smarter than he is.
- Justified:
- Bob wants to pass the class so badly that he's resorted to cheating.
- Since the school won't strip search Alice, she figures she could get away with writing notes on her skin.
- Inverted:
- The test Bob is taking allows notes, but he's so confident that he'll ace it that he doesn't bring any.
- Alice writes math formulas on her skin as a study method, and when it's time for the test, she washes them off.
- Subverted:
- The test Bob is taking allows notes, and he simply put them in his clothes because he didn't have enough room in his bag.
- While taking a test, a piece of paper falls out of Bob's sleeve; said paper is actually his grocery list.
- The math test allows notes containing formulas, but Alice writes them on her skin to save paper.
- Mr. Strictfeller thinks he sees a hidden note sticking out of Bob's sleeve… only to end up pulling out the string of scarfs intended for Bob's Show-and-Tell on stage magic.
- Double-Subverted:
- The test only allows a certain number of notes, and Bob is secretly hiding extra notes in his clothes.
- Some of Bob's notes have answers to the test hidden among them.
- Bob has notes written under his clothes rather than on pieces of paper.
- Parodied:
- Bob hides so many notes in his clothes that he can hardly move.
- Bob rips out pages of the textbook and hides them in his clothes.
- Bob lives in a nudist colony, and he cheats on tests by hiding notes up his butt. Alice also hides notes in her vagina.
- Alice has X-Ray Vision, and she cheats on her test by writing notes on her internal organs. She gets caught by a teacher who also has X-Ray Vision.
- Exploited: Bob's bully Alice gets Bob in trouble by slipping notes into his clothes and telling the teachers.
- Averted: No one cheats by hiding notes.
- Defied:
- Bob decides that hiding notes is too risky because the teachers might catch him.
- The teachers force the students to change into special clothes so that they can't possibly prepare notes.
- The teachers search the students before every test so that they can catch anyone who tries to hide notes.
- The school forces students to take a shower so that any student who writes notes on their skin won't be able to use them.
- Implied:
- Bob is seen hiding papers in his clothes before school.
- Alice is shown writing notes on her body before school.
- Alice is seen in detention with math formulas written on her body.
- Played for Laughs:
- After Bob gets caught by the teacher, he's forced to take the test in his underwear as punishment.
- Bob is taking a history test, but he's so stupid that he takes math notes instead.
- Alice wears a skimpy outfit with her notes being written on the few parts of her skin that are actually covered. Said notes are written in very tiny letters.
- Alice is so stupid that she writes the formulas on the parts of her skin that aren't covered, and gets caught.
- Alice has her friend write math formulas on parts of her body that she can't see (e.g. such as her back, tongue, or inside her nose). Unsurprisingly, she fails.
- Played for Drama:
- Bob is failing and uses hidden notes on an exam that will significantly bump up his grade. He's caught by the teacher and has to repeat the year.
- Archie the Sadist Teacher, who has dealt more than once with students sneaking notes into his tests, finally hits his Rage Breaking Point and decides to screw (even his very basic) niceties and searches Alice thoroughly and forcefully for notes. He is proven right when he finds some, but he now has a sexual harassment lawsuit on his hands and Alice has the trauma to deal with.
Back to Cheating via Hidden Notes
