A Chinese college teacher published an article online with a hand-drawn picture to explain how teachers can go about catching students cheating in exams, Nhaidu.com, a newspaper website in southeast China's Fujian Province, reported on Wednesday, July 17.

The hand-drawn picture published by a Chinese college teacher surnamed Zhai shows the different degrees of risk in cheating at examination while sitting at different parts of the classroom. [Photo/Nhaidu.com]

In his article "How to Catch 80 Rats with 2 Cats", the teacher surnamed Zhai, divided the seats in a large classroom into four categories, showing the different degrees of risk that students run if they contemplate cheating during an examination.

Among the categories, the front two rows are referred to as "suicide seats". Students in these seats are easily discovered by teachers when cheating because they are nearest to the teacher's desk.

The seats in the last row and near the passages are termed "risky seats", since the teacher will walk around the classroom during exams. Designated "safe seats" include seats in the middle and on the two sides of the classroom, which are far from the teacher's desk with many seats in between to shelter them from the teacher's eyes. The rest of the seats in the classroom are categorized as "ordinary seats".

Zhai himself carried out an experiment to test his hypothesis, by asking students to freely select their seats during a specific exam. Zhai then asked them not to sit in "safe seats" during a second exam.

The teacher found that almost no students cheated in the second exam since it was much easier for the teacher to supervise them.

The article has sparked heated debate online. Many netizens agree that the risk of cheating in exams increases if teachers arrange the seats according to the picture.

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