Performance on China’s college entrance exam is key to future prospects of students, and more than 9 million students this year are fighting for placement at China’s top universities. Photo by hxdbzxy/Shutterstock

BEIJING, June 9 (UPI) -- China is deploying drones in a different kind of battle zone: the testing centers where university entrance exams are being conducted.

The drones are used to pick up radio signals transmitted to cheaters, TIME magazine reported Tuesday.


Performance on China's college entrance exam is key to future prospects of students. Dubbed the "exam of destiny," the test has been likened to "the stampede of 10,000 horses trying to cross a single log bridge."

More than 9 million students this year are fighting for placement at China's top universities, The Washington Post reported.

Drones were first put in use in the central Chinese city Luoyang, where aerial vehicles the size of a gas pump, with six propellers attached, flew over two testing centers. The drone is capable of flying as high as 1,600 feet, and each piece cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The test score Chinese students receive on the exam, or gaokao, is often the only factor in determining university admission. That placement has a long-running impact on career opportunities in China.

The technology cheaters take to the exam centers consists of a pen that takes pictures of test questions, which are transmitted to a helper who sends answers back to the test-taker through an ear phone, according to Chinese media.

China's Education Ministry has arrested 23 students since May for premeditated cheating.

Charges of cheating have serious consequences that ban students from taking the test for up to three years and negatively affect future opportunities.