A teacher who was fed up with students using their phones to cheat on university exams devised a cunning plan to catch them out – and failed the students who fell for it.

Students who assumed their ‘older’ teacher wouldn’t know about the current cheating techniques were caught red-handed when he created a great approach to catch them out.

When they all went down to take their final exam, almost half of the class exited the room to use the restroom during the test, which was significantly more than typical, according to a student in the engineering class.

The student claimed that the vast majority of their classmates were checking up answers on their phones, which upset them, but they remained focused and finished the assignment.

After exiting the test room, the student remembered that there was one question that wasn’t linked to what they had all been taught in class, and that it was divided into two sections.

Part A was ‘pretty simple,’ but they had no idea how to complete part B, so they just left it blank because it was only worth 5 points out of 100.

After all of the tests had been graded, their teacher wrote an email to all of the university students explaining his devious scheme to catch individuals who had used outside help.

Many of the students turned to the internet for help with exam and homework questions.

After becoming frustrated with pupils using the bathroom as an excuse to look up answers on their phones, their teacher decided to turn it against them.

The student wrote on Reddit: “He purposely made part B impossible to solve, and about a month before the final he got a teaching assistant to ask the exact question [online], which was distinctly worded to be unique.

“He then created his own account and answered the question with a bulls*** solution that seems right at first glance but is actually fundamentally flawed and very unlikely that someone would make the same assumptions and mistakes independently.”

14 out of the 99 students who took the exam fell for the ruse and provided the precise answer their teacher had placed online.

All were given a zero overall grade and were reported to the university for breaking their academic honor promise.

Their identities were also shared with all of the department’s other teachers as known cheaters, and all of the other students who hadn’t cheated were granted full marks for the false question.

Others were amazed by the clever strategy, with one responding: “This is Amazing! I’ve seen some stories like this and it always makes me glad I don’t use [the internet] for tests.

“Honestly if you’re cheating on a proctored test you deserve to get caught. Study like everyone else.”

A second wrote: “Honey pot the cheating site. Genius!”

Image credit: Getty

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