An elaborate scheme for cheating at law exams hit the media last week. A few years ago, in Spain, a law student apparently etched (!!) a number of Bic biros with crib notes. Newsweek reported: “The pens were confiscated from a student ‘a few years ago’ during an exam on ‘criminal procedural law’ and they only resurfaced while a law professor was recently tidying up her office.”

The professor gave the journal a little more insight: “He wore a shirt with a pocket and hid the pens in it. Each pen was marked with the lesson number so he only had to take out the precise pen for each topic.”

The academic also remembers being stunned at the sheer scope and detail of what was written on the pens. “All the content of a very wide subject was written on them”, she said.

Newsweek notes that “the student was ultimately forced to repeat the entire year of the course due to his attempted deception, though [the professor] still reckons the culprit is ‘probably a lawyer today’.”