Kolkata: A West Bengal secondary board exam (Madhyamik) candidate recently took Artificial Intelligence (AI) to yet another level, but the ingenious boy ended up paying a heavy price.
The student, appearing for his class X board exams in Kolkata, uploaded an AI app on his mobile phone and managed to sneak the device into the examination hall. Unfortunately, he was caught by the invigilator while trying to solve a mathematics problem using AI.
The boy will lose a year, as he was barred from appearing for the 2025 Madhyamik exams.
The cheating incident took place on February 15, and the Board exams ended on February 22.
According to an official of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE), the boy was caught an hour after the exam started and asked to leave the centre.
“He would have been barred anyway for carrying a mobile phone into the examination hall. However, this is the first time that we have come across someone using such an App to solve problems. Normally, students who manage to sneak mobile phones into the centre click photographs of the question papers and send those to their tutors who solve the questions and send the images back to the examinees, who then copy them on the answer sheets. But this was different,” the official said.
Nearly 9.85 lakh students enrolled for the 2025 Madhyamik exams in West Bengal. Thorough checking becomes difficult for such a huge volume of students, especially because the WBBSE doesn’t want to use metal detectors or other devices on candidates, which could have an adverse effect on their minds.
“This is unfortunate. From this year onwards, we have made candidates take a 14-point pledge before the exams regarding good conduct. Yet, 20 candidates had to be barred for adopting unfair practices. Some more may have got away with it unchecked,” the official lamented.
