Drone used as weapon against cheating

Associated Press

BEIJING

The latest weapon in the fight against cheating on China’s all-important college entrance exam is a six-propeller drone.

The contraption flew over two testing centers in Luoyang city in central China’s Henan province to scan for any unusual signals being sent to devices smuggled by students taking the annual test. No such signals were detected Sunday, the first day of the exam, a Henan province news website said.

The drone cost hundreds of thousands of yuan (tens of thousands of dollars) and is as big as a gas station pump when extended, said Lan Zhigang, from Luoyang’s Radio Supervision and Regulation Bureau.

Almost all Chinese high- school graduates must take the test – more than 9 million students started it Sunday – and the scores are the key criterion for which tier of university they can enter.