Students who took an English exam last week say cheating was a trip to the toilet and a phone call away and want a retake, but the exam authority refuses to budge until it has proof students were looking up the answers in secret.
Last Thursday, about 79,000 students sat the English syllabus B paper two, which tests understanding of ideas, facts and opinions presented in various types of written passages.
At the bottom of each page of the exam, the authority listed a web address supplying the answers to some of the 'fill in the blanks' or multiple-choice questions.
Students claim some test-takers used their mobile phones or PDAs during bathroom breaks to look up the answers online.
So far, 98 have complained, and an online petition is urging the authority to either order a retake or ignore those questions where web links were provided.
But a spokesman for the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority said including web links was standard for all other papers as well.
'It is a general practice for the examinations to quote the author's passage. We have to cite or put the sources of the articles, whether it comes from books, magazines, newspapers or the internet,' he said.