Smart glasses banned in SATs over cheating concerns

For as long as technology has existed, people have been using it to cheat. I’m as guilty as anyone, loading a text-only copy of Wikipedia onto my old Dell Axim X30 to cheat at bar trivia back in the days before smartphones. As tech becomes more and more capable, that only opens up new avenues for cheating — and as we just saw at CES this year, smart glasses have become very, very good. And that’s probably exactly why they’re being banned for use during the SATs.

Like everything else, cheating on tests has evolved alongside the tech used to facilitate it. From the early days of hiding cheat programs in your TI graphing calculator, to the surreptitious use of smartphones and smartwatches,  if there was a new way to sneak information into a testing environment, students would find it.

Well, what better way to secretly access crib notes during a test than a screen that’s so private, only you can see it?

High-res screens and advanced waveguide optics have brought smart glasses to a place where it’s increasingly trivial for students to use them to look up answers without attracting attention. And clearly this is a concern that’s been on the mind of the College Board, as it shares some of the changes it’s making to SAT test-taking rules for 2026:

Smart glasses are prohibited during testing. Students with prescription smart glasses will need to remove them or test another day with standard glasses.

That prescription note is one especially worth paying attention to — you can’t just promise to keep your smart glasses turned off, even if you need those prescription lenses to see.

Honestly, none of this is surprising to learn, as the College Board has always tried to keep up with tech, and already bans smartphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers, and earbuds. But if you were hoping it might be a little slow on the draw and not get around to recognizing the cheating potential of smart glasses for another few years — well, sorry, kid. We like how creative you’re thinking, but it sounds like you’re just going to have to redirect that enthusiasm towards your study habits.