Keeping It Real

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When a college professor in the Philippines challenged her students to create cheat-proof headgear for their mechanical engineering test last month, she had little idea how far they would take it, the Washington Post reported.

One student at the Bicol University College of Engineering walled himself off with egg cartons, while another took the term “tunnel vision” literally and put tubes over his eyes. Others dressed up with wigs as Japanese cartoon characters, while one student wore a simple motorcycle helmet.

Their professor, Mary Joy Mandane Ortiz, had previously seen such “anti-cheating hats” at a school in Thailand, where students sat through exams with sheets of paper hanging off the sides of their heads like dog ears.

Although she didn’t have a cheating problem, she urged her students to wear similar headgear “just for fun.”

“I was surprised because I simply requested (they make) a very simple one but they made very creative ones,” said the professor.

Mandane Ortiz noted that the students wanted a memorable test because they were excited to return for their first in-person exam after being confined to their homes during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m very happy because they’re very talented students,” she added. “It’s supposed to be that the exam is stressful and fearful, but they made it more funny and wonderful.”