Blocking the internet, if done well, makes it very difficult to get mass distribution quickly. If it's only a few people that manage to get communications working, cheating becomes a minor issue instead of a major issue. I don't agree with the tradeoffs chosen, but it sort of makes sense.

Without being there to see the exact shape of the blocking, it's hard to know if you could get mass distribution through a phone tree system, but if you could, you'd likely leave a huge trail through telco billing.

Sure, most of us here can, but is that also true of the average cheater in a baccalaureate exam?

Before answering, consider this survey result: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/

That was a fascinating read that terrified me.

You can, but most students can't. It still doesn't excuse the stupidity of a nationwide ban though.

But you wont have access to wikipedia without more work, and definitely wont have google.

It does not stop it, but certainly reduces it.

What are the dozen ways?

Not the OP, but here's half a dozen off the top of my head:

* WiFi mesh

* Cellular/LTE

* Satellite internet

* LoRa

* Bluetooth

* Ham radio sending data packets

* Walkie-talky voice communication with a few friends outside the school (probably not what the OP meant by "wireless network" but I think it's technically correct ;)

> Walkie-talky voice communication

In Brazil there's been a fairly sophisticated scheme based on that. It proceeded more or less as follows:

1) the "service provider" hired some highly specialized "candidates" who would enroll for the exam and take it

2) these fake-candidates would then quickly solve the questions, focusing only the few subject matters they were specialized in. One is usually not allowed to leave the exam room carrying the printed materials, unless they accept to wait for a specified amount of time (1 hour before the final time or so, IIRC). But these guys were able to memorize the answers and, then, simply left.

3) after leaving the room, the fake-candidates would meet a team in a car nearby. They had a radio transmitter there, and started to broadcast the answers.

4) the cheaters who hired the "service" would carry a radio receiver with a tiny earpiece implanted under their skins. They would then listen to the answers and write them down

I don't remember how did they find that out. I believe it happened when an exam proctor suspected about a candidate answering the questions too quickly.

they're probably all some version of a mesh network