A proctor at the University of Seoul flagged an applicant's thick, oddly shaped frames during an Oct. 3 essay exam for early admission. They were smart glasses.
The student was removed from the exam room, failed the test and was barred from applying to the university for three years.
At Yonsei University, an applicant passed a pre-exam eyewear check wearing ordinary glasses on Oct. 10, then apparently swapped them for a smart pair after the math essay papers were handed out.
A proctor spotted the glasses mid-exam and removed the student, who later admitted using them.
Some 551,864 people have registered to sit it, according to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.
How worried should proctors be about AI glasses?
He scored 96 out of 100, missing only a question the camera failed to scan.
All that brainpower needs room. A camera, microphones, speakers and a battery have to fit into the frames. At Yonsei, the battery and camera made the swapped pair look different from ordinary glasses.
"We are now entering an era where AI accompanies us at eye level," said Kim Jin-ah, Meta Korea's country director, when Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses went on sale in Korea in May, starting at 690,000 won ($511.7).
Korean proctors are now watching at the same level.
One Chinese model sells for about 130,000 won on Taobao, less than a fifth of Meta's starting price. Some budget models conceal the camera in a pinhole or omit the recording indicator light built into Meta's glasses.
Education authorities are taking no chances. Guidelines released Thursday by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation explicitly list smart glasses among items prohibited in examination rooms.
Candidates who fail to surrender them before the first session and wear them during the test will have their results invalidated and be barred from the following year’s Suneung — even without evidence that they used the devices to obtain answers.
Simply possessing the glasses in violation of exam rules will invalidate the current year’s test.
Refusing a proctor’s request to inspect eyewear could also be classified as serious misconduct following a review, carrying the same penalties as wearing the devices during the exam.
Candidates asked to undergo a check must remove their glasses, place them on their desks and cooperate with the inspection. Proctors may check eyewear while verifying identities and watches, or during the exam itself.
Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin called smart glasses "a new threat" at a parliamentary audit on Oct. 7. He said the government plans to disqualify anyone caught cheating with them from that year's Suneung and the following year's exam.
Proctors are being given a handbook, a brochure on identifying the glasses and a training video.
"Smart glasses have been explicitly designated as prohibited items in examination rooms, establishing a basis for taking disciplinary action against their use as a form of cheating," Seoul Education Superintendent Jeon Geun-sik said at a parliamentary audit Wednesday.
Portable units are due at the agency's own certification test sites by year-end, with full deployment planned from early 2027. The Suneung is not included in that rollout.
The extra policing duties are drawing objections from teachers.
A secondary school teachers’ union launched a nationwide petition Thursday, arguing that the exam system already places too much responsibility on individual teachers.
“Teachers already carry out a range of duties, including cleaning and preparing examination rooms, checking broadcasting equipment and facilities, attending advance training and supervising exams for long hours,” the union said.
It called for additional time and support staff to check AI devices, along with clear procedures for assessing suspected violations and determining who bears responsibility.
Samsung Electronics, which plans to launch its own AI glasses next month, has promoted ultra-thin injection molding for the frames.
Until the hardware slims down, the surest sign of artificial genius in a Korean exam hall may be the thickness of a student's glasses.
AJP Takeaways
- Proctors caught applicants wearing AI smart glasses during early-admission essay exams at the University of Seoul on Oct. 3, 2026, and at Yonsei University on Oct. 10, 2026.
- A YouTuber wearing AI glasses scored 96 out of 100 on a 30-question suneung math mock test in 18 minutes in June 2026.
- Ray-Ban Meta glasses start at 690,000 won in South Korea, and one Chinese model sells for about 130,000 won on Taobao.
- Smart glasses are banned from exam rooms for the Nov. 19, 2026 suneung, and Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin said violators would lose eligibility for that year's exam and the next.
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