Gemini scored 82.78% on distorted SAT images in smart-glasses study

At the 17th International Conference on Computer Supported Education, CSEDU 2025, researchers presented results showing that commercial models maintained high accuracy on exam questions even when image quality was poor.[1] On the distorted SAT images, Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro-002 scored 82.78% overall, compared with 75.69% for OpenAI's GPT-4o.[1] Gemini answered 87.96% of math questions and 78.54% of reading-comprehension questions correctly; GPT-4o answered 74.69% of math questions and 76.52% of reading questions correctly.[1] The researchers warned that smart glasses could pass exam questions to AI without students needing to collaborate with one another.[1]

For the simulated distant view, researchers applied 75-degree perspective distortion, a three-pixel blur and 5% noise to the exam images.[2] On clean, undistorted images, GPT-4o scored 87.22% and Gemini scored 84.58%, reversing the ranking seen in the distorted-image test.[1] The findings therefore show different relative performance under the two image conditions; they do not establish that either model would achieve those scores through glasses in an exam hall.[1] The researchers explicitly said the experiment had not been validated using actual functioning smart glasses during an exam.[1]

Researchers processed the material so that only one question appeared on each page, unlike a typical page containing multiple questions.[1] They said this setup did not fully capture the challenge of locating which question to solve on a real exam page.[1] The researchers also noted that smart glasses without displays can be virtually indistinguishable from ordinary eyeglasses to people unfamiliar with them.[1] In South Korea, five cases of smart-glasses cheating were confirmed in national qualification exams during the year reported, and test-takers were caught switching glasses after passing pre-exam checks.[1][4] The Ministry of Education planned one dedicated staff member per CSAT test site to detect smart glasses.[1]

South Korea's rules make a test invalid if a candidate wears smart glasses and suspend that candidate's eligibility to take the CSAT the following year.[1] The rules also invalidate an exam if a candidate merely possesses smart glasses during the test.[1] The Ministry of Education decided to pursue complaints or investigations seeking criminal punishment for smart-glasses cheating.[1] It was also pushing to extend the CSAT eligibility suspension for cheaters from one year to three years.[1] These measures describe South Korea's response; the researchers' image benchmark itself did not test a live proctoring or enforcement process.[1][2]