The short answer
Is it possible to cheat on a proctored exam? People certainly try. No proctoring product catches every attempt, and a vendor that says it does is overselling. Still, most attempts leave a trace on the camera, the microphone, the screen or the computer, and a well-run proctored exam makes sure those traces reach a person who looks at them.
For candidates, the honest answer is that attempts get noticed far more often than search results suggest, and on Proctorly a person reviews every flag before your institution decides anything. For institutions, the honest answer is that a proctored exam gets its strength from layered checks and review. No single check carries it.
What a proctored exam actually watches
Depending on the assurance level your institution sets, a proctored exam on Proctorly can watch several things at the same time.
- Identity. Proctorly matches the candidate’s face at the start and keeps matching it through the exam, and it rejects photo or video replays. Photo ID capture and active liveness can be set for each exam.
- Webcam and audio. The session is recorded. Unusual audio and movement go to a person as signals to review in context, and they are never treated as findings.
- Screen and browser. The exam runs in a locked browser session that detects tab and window events, extra monitors and screen recording.
- Known threats. Proctorly detects known AI tools, phones and other devices in view, remote-assistance tools, overlays, AI browsers, virtual machines and browser extensions.
- The computer itself. When an exam calls for it, a Windows desktop agent checks running apps, overlays, displays, USB and Bluetooth devices, VPNs, browser windows and tabs.
Candidates learn what is captured before the exam starts, and none of the monitoring is hidden.
Common attempts on webcam tests, and what catches them
These attempts are what lie behind searches such as “how to cheat in online webcam test” and “how to cheat on online test with camera”. We describe each one only in terms of what it is.
Notes or a helper just out of view
What it is: notes, a book or another person placed just outside the camera’s frame.
What catches it: the camera may miss the notes, but it can see the candidate. Repeated glances to one spot, a second voice or whispering all produce audio and behavior signals, and the reviewer watches the clip in context. Reading a question aloud isn’t misconduct, and neither is a family member walking past. The reviewer records which is which.
A phone below the camera line
What it is: a phone kept just below or beside the frame and used to search, send messages or run an AI app.
What catches it: Proctorly flags phones and other devices that appear in the camera’s view. To be honest about the limit, a camera only sees what’s in front of it. This is where exam design helps. Randomized questions from item pools, section timers and question types that need working all make a quick search much less useful. Our guide on can proctored exams detect phones goes into detail.
Someone else in the seat
What it is: another person sits the exam, or takes over partway through.
What catches it: face verification keeps running through the session instead of happening once at login, so the checks that follow will pick up a change of person. A failed match goes to a person and never causes an automatic fail, since poor lighting or a low-quality camera can also produce a mismatch. Read more in identity verification for online exams.
A faked or blocked camera feed
What it is: covering the camera, or sending it a recording or still image in place of the live candidate.
What catches it: replay rejection stops photo and video replays at the face check. A blocked or dark camera shows up in the recording, and the reviewer can see exactly when it happened. We plan to add detection of virtual cameras (software that pretends to be a webcam). For now, on Windows, the desktop agent’s checks on running apps give you a second layer.
A second screen or another window
What it is: looking up answers on another monitor or in another application while the exam stays open.
What catches it: the locked browser session, tab and window events and extra-monitor detection. On Windows, the desktop agent also looks for extra or mirrored displays and extra browser windows.
Searches that name a proctoring brand
Plenty of searches name a particular provider, for example “proctortrack cheating”, “how to cheat on examity” or “how to cheat on proctor u”. Proctortrack, Examity and ProctorU are remote proctoring providers that many institutions use. We don’t go into how their products work here, because each vendor’s features and settings change over time. If your institution uses one, check that vendor’s current documentation for what it monitors.
What we can offer is general and holds for every serious provider. Remote proctoring brings together identity checks, recording and some kind of review. Whatever brand appears in the search, the methods candidates look for belong to the same few families described above. And an institution’s questions don’t change either: what does the setup observe, what can’t it observe, and who decides what a flag means?
What happens after a flag
On Proctorly, a flag opens a review. It doesn’t trigger a penalty.
- A trained reviewer opens the case at the flagged moment. They see webcam, screen and events on one timeline and record a decision along with a required reason.
- At the Every flag reviewed level, this happens before the case reaches you. Proctorly reviewers work 24×7 during exams, in English, with one reviewer per 40 candidates. They review 95 of every 100 flags within 5 minutes, and the remainder are still reviewed, only later.
- Confirmed incidents go to your committee. The malpractice workflow ends with a recorded committee decision, and no penalty is applied before it.
- The record travels with the case. Clips, the timeline, the reviewer’s reasoning and a tamper-evident audit trail export together as one evidence pack for an appeal.
An automated flag never fails a candidate or imposes a sanction. That principle sits behind human review proctoring.
Why cheating on a proctored exam is a bad bet
If you’re a student reading this, here’s the plain version. Proctoring is built to notice exactly the attempts described above. When one gets flagged, a person watches the clip with the timeline in front of them, and a committee sees the evidence.
A confirmed case can follow you long after one exam. If an exam is worrying you, ask your institution about support, extra time or accommodations before the day. If something goes wrong technically, like a dropped connection, contact support straight away using the help link on your exam screen. Support is available 24×7 during exams.
For exam offices: matching the setup to the stakes
Your best defense against cheating on proctored exams is giving each exam the right level of assurance. In Proctorly, you set it exam by exam:
| Level | What happens | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded | Identity check, recording and automated flags, with your staff reviewing cases | Quizzes and internal assessments |
| Every flag reviewed | A Proctorly reviewer checks every automated flag first | End-semester and entrance exams |
| Live pop-in | A proctor watching a group steps in by chat or audio when a signal fires | Higher-stakes sittings |
| Live dedicated | A proctor watches a small group the whole time, with a live check-in | Certification and licensing |
All four levels are available now. Our online proctoring page compares them, and what we can and cannot see sets out the honest limits of each setup.
Frequently asked questions
Is it possible to cheat on a proctored exam?
People do try, and no proctoring product catches every attempt. Most attempts, though, leave a trace on the camera, microphone, screen or computer. On Proctorly, identity is checked for the whole session, known threats are monitored and a trained person reviews every flag. A candidate who tries is taking a real risk, and the institution has a fair record to base its decision on.
Can a webcam exam tell if I look away?
A webcam exam can record a candidate looking away repeatedly, and Proctorly can raise that as a behavior signal. A signal isn’t a finding, though. People look away to think, to rest their eyes or because of a disability. A trained reviewer watches the clip in context and records whether it was an incident, and the outcome is decided only by the institution.
What happens if a candidate is flagged on a proctored exam?
A trained reviewer opens the case at the flagged moment, sees webcam, screen and events on one timeline and records a decision with a reason. Most flags turn out to have ordinary causes. Confirmed incidents go to the institution’s committee through a malpractice workflow, and there’s no penalty before the committee decides. After that, the candidate can use the institution’s appeal process.
Do proctored exams record your screen?
They can, depending on the rules the institution sets for the exam. Proctorly may record the candidate’s face, audio and screen, and candidates are told what’s captured before they begin. Screen events such as new windows, tabs and extra monitors are recorded too, which lets a reviewer see the context around any flag.
Which assurance level should we use for high-stakes exams?
Most institutions start end-semester and entrance exams on Every flag reviewed, where a Proctorly reviewer checks each flag before it reaches you. When the stakes are higher, Live pop-in adds a proctor who can step in during the sitting. Certification and licensing exams can use Live dedicated, which adds a proctor watching a small group throughout, with a live check-in.