Refuse to remove your glasses and you could lose your spot on next year's college entrance exam

Students caught wearing AI smart glasses during the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test will have their scores voided and be barred from sitting the exam the following year.

Even simply bringing smart glasses into an exam hall — without wearing them — is enough to void a student's results, and refusing a proctor's request to remove the glasses constitutes a serious act of cheating. Education authorities tightened the rules after a string of AI smart glasses cheating incidents at university essay entrance exams, but critics say the actual task of identifying the devices and determining whether cheating has occurred still falls entirely on proctors at the scene.

According to education circles Friday, the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation posted the "2027 CSAT Candidate Guidelines" along with an explanatory video on its website Thursday. The guidelines spell out specific penalties not only for wearing smart glasses but also for possessing them and for refusing a proctor's inspection request.

The institute stated that wearing wireless devices — including smart glasses and smartwatches — during the exam without surrendering them before the first session constitutes "cheating offense No. 3" under Article 19 of the CSAT management regulation, a Ministry of Education directive. Students found in violation will have their scores for that year's exam invalidated and their eligibility suspended through the following year. Even if a student did not actually use the smart glasses, being found in possession of them inside the exam hall triggers "cheating offense No. 9," voiding the results for that session.

Refusing a proctor's inspection request can also result in sanctions. The institute said that if a student declines to comply with a request to check their glasses, authorities may, following a review, impose measures equivalent to those for a serious cheating offense. Proctors may request an inspection during identity verification or at other designated times, and students are required to remove their glasses, place them on their desk and cooperate with the check.

The Ministry of Education also distributed guidance materials to four-year universities nationwide Thursday, covering how to identify smart glasses and conduct inspections. The move came after cheating incidents involving AI smart glasses were detected at essay entrance exams at Yonsei University and the University of Seoul.

At Yonsei University, a student was caught Saturday switching from ordinary glasses to smart glasses mid-exam during the natural sciences and integrated mathematics essay test. The university had provided proctors with roughly an hour of training on identifying smart glasses, but the cheating still went undetected. The University of Seoul, where a similar case was caught Oct. 3, was found to have purchased an actual pair of smart glasses to train its proctors in advance.

Unlike the CSAT, however, university-administered entrance exams have no unified penalty standards. The CSAT applies the same rules to all test-takers nationwide under the Ministry of Education's cheating regulations, but essay and interview exams run by individual universities are handled according to each institution's own rules and admissions guidelines. The University of Seoul disqualified the student caught cheating and banned them from applying for three years, while Yonsei University has yet to decide whether to impose any additional eligibility restrictions beyond disqualification. Even with the ministry providing guidance on inspection procedures, the structure makes it difficult to impose uniform penalties across universities.

The added scrutiny has also created a new problem: a heavier workload for teachers serving as proctors. Smart glasses closely resemble ordinary eyewear, making them difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. Radio-frequency detectors are also not feasible for this year's CSAT due to the risk of detection errors caused by varying conditions at different exam venues. That leaves proctors with no choice but to inspect glasses directly — a process that could itself spark disputes, including complaints or outright refusals from test-takers.

The National Secondary School Teachers' Union launched a nationwide petition drive Thursday calling for better working conditions for CSAT proctors and greater state accountability. The union said authorities must secure adequate time and support staff for AI device checks and clearly define the scope of proctors' authority and liability when suspected cheating is involved.

The Seoul Education Organizations Council was equally blunt. "Asking proctors to identify a device that is nearly indistinguishable from ordinary glasses by sight alone — with no detection equipment and no objective criteria — is not supervision, it's gambling," the council said, urging the government to codify cheating determination standards and appeal procedures, and to establish legal protections for proctors who face lawsuits while carrying out their duties in accordance with official guidelines.

The Ministry of Education said it would preserve the autonomy of university-administered exams while stepping up proctor training to prevent smart glasses cheating. "Disciplinary decisions for cheating at university entrance exams are made by each university's admissions committee," a ministry official said. "We have issued proctor guidelines to raise awareness about cheating involving smart glasses."