For civil-service, graduate-school, driving-license, and professional-qualification exams: do not take a test for someone else, do not hire a proxy, do not buy or sell answers, and do not help organize cheating

Hiring a proxy or taking a test for someone else is a crime; it can bring criminal detention and a fine, and those who became civil servants through a proxy exam were dismissed from public office. Organizing cheating or selling answers brings up to 7 years. Driving-license exams count too; a driving-school boss who organized trainee cheating was sentenced. Short of a crime, scores are voided and you may be barred from testing or unable to retest for a year.

Cost

No money. Do not trust “guaranteed pass” classes, “VIP channels,” or answer-selling groups. Do not take phones, earphones, or other devices that can send or receive information into the exam room. If you fail, prepare for another try. The hard part is when a few points would get you through and someone offers a guaranteed pass for a price.

Benefit

Criminal Law Article 284-1 covers four acts, on the premise of a “state examination prescribed by law.” Organizing cheating: up to 3 years or criminal detention, with a fine imposed together with or instead of imprisonment. When circumstances are serious: 3 to 7 years. Providing cheating gear or other help to organizers is sentenced in the same band. Selling or giving answers for cheating is also sentenced in the same band. Taking a test for someone else, or hiring someone to take it for you, is the crime of substituting in an examination: criminal detention or public surveillance, with a fine imposed together with or instead of imprisonment. Which exams count follows a 2019 two-high judicial interpretation. The gaokao, graduate entrance exam, self-taught higher education exams, and adult gaokao count; central and local civil-service exams count. Qualification exams such as the legal professional qualification, teacher qualification, CPA, physician, and constructor also count. The Supreme People’s Court wrote in 2024 that driving-license exams also belong to this class. Organizing cheating in the gaokao, graduate entrance exam, or civil-service exam is treated as “serious circumstances” directly. Organizing 30 person-times or more, or illegal gains of 300000 yuan (30万) or more, also counts. Being caught before the exam starts but already having obtained question answers still counts as a completed crime. Incomplete or partly wrong answers sold do not block conviction. Lighter proxy-exam circumstances may get a suspended sentence; minor ones may not be prosecuted. Supreme People’s Court statistics: from November 2015 to April 2024, these three crimes sentenced 11146 people. Short of a crime, each exam’s own rules apply. In national education exams, using devices to receive answers or hiring a proxy voids the score and can bar you from testing for 1 to 3 years. In civil-service exams, proxy exams or taking part in organized cheating cancel exam eligibility, go into the integrity file as a long-term record. Those already hired are dismissed or expelled when found. Driving-license exam cheating: cancel exam eligibility, void subjects already passed, fine up to 2000 yuan, and no new license application for a year. Taking a driving test for someone else: your own license is cancelled, and you cannot reapply for 3 years. Official case 1: Zhang’s gang used composite photos and fake IDs to have “gunners” take civil-service and other state exams for candidates 89 times. Three principals got 5 years to 5 years 6 months. Eighteen candidates who hired gunners were sentenced for substituting in an examination to 2 to 4 months of criminal detention and fined 30000 to 100000 yuan (3万 to 10万). Those who became civil servants through a proxy exam were dismissed from public office. Official case 2: A driving-school boss from 2017 to 2023 organized trainees to cheat in driving tests. Methods included altering exam-system data, having coaches take the test, and giving trainees earphones for remote prompts. The boss, together with bribery, got 6 years 6 months; the other 23 got from 6 months to 1 year 10 months (nationwide)

Notes

The beneficiary is you. Simply peeking yourself or wearing earphones to take answers is not listed as a crime in the statute; it is handled under the exam rules above. But passing bought answers to a classmate becomes illegally providing exam questions or answers. In a Class II constructor leak case, answers were resold layer by layer among candidates; someone posted them into a QQ group of over 1700 people. Students who take a proxy exam or hire one are reported by the exam body to the school, which may expel them. Employer hiring tests and school end-of-term exams are not “state exams,” but using eavesdropping or covert-photography gear, or building groups to send cheating information, can still be sentenced under other crimes. In official case 1, the person who made fake IDs for gunners got 3 years for forging identity documents. Document issues are in item 16 of this section (do not lend your ID). Paying an agency to get a professional title assessed is in Section 23, item 22 (do not use an agency for title assessment).

Sources · 6

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