Students will not be allowed to wear these devices, even if they are prescription glasses.
Photo illustration: Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Education | Izusek and Spiderplay/E+/Getty Images
Starting in March 2026, the College Board will ban students from wearing smart glasses (wearable, internet-connected computers that allow users to see a computer display through the lenses) while taking the SAT.
Priscilla Rodriguez, senior vice president for college readiness assessment at the College Board, said the organization has long banned any wearable electronics, such as Apple AirPods and Apple Watch. Such devices, as well as students’ cellphones, will be confiscated by proctors before exams begin; the ban on smart glasses is simply an extension of existing policies.
Although the first smart glasses appeared in the early 2010s, the technology has gained increasing prominence in recent years, especially with companies like Meta and Google launching artificial intelligence versions of the product. As they become more common, professors are sounding the alarm about whether they can be used for cheating. They worry students will use them to scan test papers and get answers in real time through artificial intelligence without detection.
There is at least one documented example of a student using smart glasses to cheat; a student in Tokyo was caught wearing the glasses while posting a college entrance exam question on social media site X and receiving answers from other social media users.
An op-ed by a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada also warned that the threat of smart glasses in the classroom goes beyond cheating. They also discussed the threat they pose to academic freedom; professors said the glasses could allow students to record videos of their professors without them knowing they were being filmed, allowing them to leak lectures and even create deepfakes.
Outside higher education, they have been criticized for invading people’s privacy, as it becomes increasingly common for social media content creators to secretly record conversations with strangers through smart glasses and post those videos online.
SAT proctors are now trained to spot a student’s smart glasses and remove them if they are spotted. Although the glasses look similar to regular glasses, Rodriguez said most mainstream smart glasses brands have a unique look, with thick black frames and a camera on the front that lights up when in use.
“It’s a visible light, so if someone takes a video, a photo, someone talks to them through the glasses, etc., the light will flicker, which is kind of a dead giveaway,” she said.
She noted that students are not allowed to wear the devices, even with prescription glasses. If a student is unable to take the exam without smart glasses, they will be asked to return on another day and take the exam wearing regular glasses.
Rodriguez said that so far she has heard of no cases of students using smart glasses to cheat on the SAT, but the move to ban the devices is preemptive.
“We at College Board have a very strong test security team, plus an industry-leading technology team. So, in between, they’re always looking at ‘What’s next? If you want to have an advantage on this test, what’s the next frontier?'” she said. “They’ve been following pre-launch announcements for these types of glasses and devices before they hit the market, so we’re ready.”
