You may not often see identical twins together, but you have probably encountered a pair somewhere. Identical twins have the same sex and look alike, making them difficult to distinguish by appearance alone.
If a pair looks so similar that other people cannot tell them apart, could one take an exam for the other?
How exam supervisors check identity
Before Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test, or CSAT, begins, supervisors check each candidate’s identity. They compare the person in front of them with the photograph on a resident registration card, driver’s license or other identification. The chance of distinguishing identical twins this way seems very small. Is there some special procedure for telling them apart?
The Ministry of Education’s response and the handwriting check
To find out, we contacted the Ministry of Education. Its lengthy reply did not appear to describe a special check for twins during the exam. One point stood out, however: handwriting can be used to establish a candidate’s identity if a problem arises.
To prevent proxy test-taking, candidates are generally required to submit their CSAT applications at the high school from which they graduated.
At registration, staff verify identity using an identification document and a passport-standard photograph taken within the previous six months. Identity is also checked during every session on exam day.
As a precaution, candidates must write an identity-verification sentence in their own handwriting on the answer sheet during every session. After university admission, identity is checked again with the cooperation of the university.
Ministry of Education, University Admissions Policy Division
Handwriting means the distinctive way a person writes. The optical mark recognition (OMR) answer sheet, on which candidates mark answers with a special pen, includes a handwriting-check field. Candidates copy the sentence provided there.
If a question arises later, this sample can help determine whether someone else took the exam. Numerous studies report that twins do not have identical handwriting. In other words, even when two people look alike, there is a way to distinguish them.
But this is a measure used when circumstances raise suspicion of proxy test-taking, rather than during the initial identity check. If nobody raises a concern, the matter could pass unnoticed. It therefore seems quite possible for an identical twin to take an exam for the other.
Online, there are stories claiming that someone’s identical-twin acquaintance or relative obtained a good result this way. Their truth cannot be verified, but they do raise suspicions.
Why it would still be uncommon
In practice, however, identical twins taking exams for each other would be unlikely. Twins are the same age, so one would have to be retaking the entrance exam or have graduated early.
According to Statistics Korea’s 2017 birth statistics, about 3.9% of births were twins or other multiple births. Identical twins with the same sex and appearance are only a small subset of that group, making the number very small.
| Category | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of births | ||||||||||||
| Total births | 494,410 | 463,743 | 443,045 | 468,150 | 471,023 | 484,229 | 436,209 | 435,193 | 438,154 | 405,985 | 357,529 | -48,456 |
| Singletons | 480,880 | 450,953 | 430,983 | 455,309 | 457,171 | 468,608 | 421,837 | 420,013 | 421,988 | 390,251 | 343,607 | -46,644 |
| Multiple births | 13,530 | 12,790 | 12,062 | 12,841 | 13,852 | 15,621 | 14,372 | 15,180 | 16,166 | 15,734 | 13,922 | -1,812 |
| Twins | 13,354 | 12,653 | 11,905 | 12,633 | 13,583 | 15,321 | 14,115 | 14,898 | 15,774 | 15,284 | 13,620 | -1,664 |
| Triplets or more | 176 | 137 | 157 | 208 | 269 | 300 | 257 | 282 | 392 | 450 | 302 | -148 |
| Share (%) · Change in percentage points | ||||||||||||
| All births | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | — |
| Singletons | 97.3 | 97.2 | 97.3 | 97.3 | 97.1 | 96.8 | 96.7 | 96.5 | 96.3 | 96.1 | 96.1 | 0.0 |
| Multiple births | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 0.0 |
| Twins | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 0.0 |
| Triplets or more | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
For that small group, taking such a gamble could become a serious obstacle in life. Unless they had almost no contact with others, a result that differed greatly from their usual grades would likely make somebody around them suspicious. That makes it risky.
Cases in which proxy test-takers were caught
Some people have nevertheless tried. In the early 2000s, identical twins were caught taking an exam for each other. Twin brothers were also caught doing the same thing in a written driver’s license test.
People who are not twins have also been caught taking tests for others. We could not find later reports of such twin cases being detected in Korea when preparing the original article. Either it did not happen, or it happened without being discovered. Has that answered your question?
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