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Comment by toephu2 | Hacker News Reader

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toephu2·

Have a phones-free classroom. Problem solved.

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I can't imagine why you would be so stupid to allow phones to exams.

Is this normal in the US?

Usually the rule is you can't have a phone out of your pocket or backpack during a test. Students still have phones on them. If they disallowed that too, how would that work, an airport security style check going in?

Yes, that kind of thing can and is done, if the stakes are high enough.

They do it for big standardized tests like the MCAT. If I went to school and saw this for every exam, I'd think wow I'm in a bad school, not that there's anything wrong with it per se but it's not commonly done.

If NYC schools can do it at scale (1,600 schools this year banned cell phones), Princeton could certainly do it.

Students either leave phones at home, or the school provides pouches/mini lockers for each student.

They can't do it at scale, they can only mandate it at scale

When I had exams in the 90s we'd have to hand phones in at the start. If the phone was seen during the exam, your test would be forfeited. If the rules were that strict then, I can't imagine how they could be less strict now given how much more powerful phones are today.

Most colleges today will consider phone use during a test cheating, then it depends on the school but at least a 0 on the test is likely. I've had some professors say upfront that they'll go further and wreck cheaters as much as they possibly can.

They probably don't ask for phones upfront, but I don't see how that'd do anything. The only way to make this stricter would be to search students like they do for big standardized tests.

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