My Experience Trying to Buy a Cambridge Paper Online

This summer has been a nightmare for students across Pakistan and a PR disaster for the Cambridge Examinations Board. The math’s exam was leaked hours before the nationwide April 29 exam date, which hundreds of thousands of young people were due to sit. The meme was scathing: “Next time, print out the leaked PDF and when the examiner hands you the exam, say, ‘No problem, I have my own exam.’”

In reality, however, no one was laughing. “The mood was quite gloomy,” said Hamza Nasir*, a student from Lahore, describing the atmosphere outside the auditorium after his AS Level P1 math’s exam. Some students, unaware of the leak, felt anxious, while others felt betrayed, emphasizing how leaks threaten students’ well-being and future.

It is the third time that leaked exam results have disrupted the exam season. Every year, in May/June and November, Pakistani students take Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) exams in subjects ranging from English to Islamic studies. Students in grades 10 and 11 prepare for the Ordinary Levels (O-Levels), while those in grades 12 and 13 sit the Advanced Subsidiary Levels (AS-Levels) and Advanced Levels. The results are released in August and are relevant for university admissions.

CAIE has reported the incidents to the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) under the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2016. This underscores the ongoing efforts to address exam leaks and protect exam integrity, underscoring the importance of law enforcement involvement.

The first complaint was lodged on May 7 and concerned a breach of the mathematics (Part 12) Examination Regulations. The second complaint followed on May 14 and concerned a wider disinformation campaign. Misinformation about other exams, particularly the AS Level Economics exam, spread rapidly. The Inter-Board of Coordination Commission subsequently announced that it would request a report from the CAIE.

The NCCIA has sent evidence to the platforms where the leaks were circulating and expects responses from some by May 27, Director General Syed Khurram Ali told Dawn. The agency has also asked Cambridge to investigate whether this was an inside operation.

As misinformation spread, parents bombarded the examiners with screenshots, complaints, and questions, particularly about the May 5 business administration exam. “After a thorough investigation, it was determined that the material was taken from previous years’ exams,” CAIE told Dawn newspaper. The fake and manipulated images and material were apparently created using artificial intelligence and other editing software.

Cambridge receives thousands of reports of alleged exam leaks each year, but most are fake. This widespread issue not only wastes students’ money but also risks invalidating their grades and eroding trust in the exam system, underscoring the broader consequences of security breaches.

CAIE Country Director Uzma Yousuf confirmed the tense situation. “When you are a student with exams just around the corner, this kind of uncertainty is the last thing you need,” she said in a statement to Dawn. “We understand you. We see that you may need to prepare extra. We see the uncertainty you are living with. And we want to assure you that all our measures are aimed at protecting you and your future.” She expressed her sympathy for parents concerned about fair exams and assured schools that they would be informed well in advance of any postponed exams.

What was most alarming was the relentless cycle of leaks, with exam questions openly offered for sale online for $100 to $400 each, always just before the exam dates. This pattern highlights the persistent threat to exam security and the need for greater vigilance, helping readers grasp the severity of the problem.

STEP 1: Join the Discord server

Anant Nanda*, a high school student from Lahore, shared three invite links with me for the “most popular leak servers.” These were Discord links that were circulating in WhatsApp groups for high school students.

Discord is a free group chat platform originally developed in 2015 for gamers to chat while playing online. During the pandemic, it was used by thousands of groups and evolved into a general-purpose platform.

It took me less than five minutes to download Discord to my phone and create a profile. I joined all three servers shared by Nanda, choosing the one with the most members (7,839).

STEP 2: Answer the questions

Discord users are organized into virtual communities called “servers “. These servers are organized into channels by topic. There are servers for practically every interest imaginable, from gaming and music to study groups and exam prep. These communities can often be found quite easily by googling “[topic] Discord server”.

Discord’s appeal lies in its level of anonymity. You don’t have to register with your real name. Servers are often invite-only, and many aren’t visible through Discord’s own search system, making them more privacy-friendly than other social media platforms. It was the case with the Cambridge Leaks (CL) server I joined, for example.

When I logged into CL, a window popped up asking if I was an O, AS, A-level, or IGCSE student. I selected the AS level. A second question then popped up with a subject selection menu. After selecting my subjects, I was able to use the server.

Five categories were displayed.

STEP 3: Visit the website

I was greeted with a friendly message: “Welcome to Cambridge Leaks! The best site to buy leaked exam questions for the 2026 Cambridge exam.” To bolster the site’s credibility, some statistics were provided. 32 products had been sold to 17 customers, nine of whom had rated their purchases with an average of 4.89.

At the top of the website, there is a small shopping cart icon, or under the logo, a button labeled “$USD!” Below the welcome message, there is a purple “View Products” box and a gray search bar.

STEP 4: Select the exam you want to purchase

On the product page, I found a color-coded menu with the subjects Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. The price range was listed below in purple, in the left corner of each title card.

I scrolled down to the blue title card “Mathematics” and pressed “Show Details.” It led me to four additional title cards labeled “Mathematics|9709,” “Advanced Mathematics|9231,” “Mathematics|0580,” and “Additional Mathematics|0606,” all of which cost $100 each and were in stock.

I selected Math 9709. According to the drop-down menu, both versions of all six math exams were available. When I reviewed the payment methods, the following message appeared: “Someone from [United Arab Emirates flag] purchased Math 9709 four days ago.”

STEP 5: Pay for your exam materials

I decided to buy Math Test 1. I added it to my cart along with Statistics Test 5 and proceeded to checkout. My concerns were confirmed on the payment page. I had neither a discount code nor any Bitcoin, Solana, or Ethereum to pay with. As a journalist in Pakistan, I don’t usually have $200 to spare for an article, let alone cryptocurrency. I thought the experiment was over, and I should cancel my subscription, but I was wrong.

The ticket method

You can also purchase a leaked magazine by creating a support request. That’s how I got in direct contact with the staff and manager at CL. I just had to go to the “Buy” channel and press the green “Buy Now” button. Then an order form opened, where I had to enter the magazine code, my payment method (cryptocurrency or credit card), and my region.

Once I entered the information, a case number was generated. A separate chatbot popped up to discuss payment with the CL team. I pretended to be a confused, nervous student looking to purchase an exam for the first time. I don’t have expertise in payments, exam reliability, or digital security.

One of the CL employees I chatted with on “ thecambridgeplug [PING FOR HELP]” assured me that the documents were genuine because his “boss” had connections to schools and testing centers in his country. He paid them a considerable sum to get the documents opened early. He then scanned them and sent them to his employees, who sold them online for him. “This is not just anyone,” he said. “When I say he has connections to the schools and testing centers, I mean he knows the heads of those schools and testing centers personally. ”

Within half a day, CL had already sold the math course 9702/42 to ten people, and the clerk was expecting more applicants, since most only signed up the day before the exam. Although no official records are kept, my ticket number 1611 indicated that at least 1610 people had been in line.

I discovered that Binance is not the only acceptable payment method for purchasing leaked samples. Card payments via Rewarble and gift cards, such as Valorant cards, are also accepted. None of these methods is traceable and does not guarantee the anonymity of both buyers and sellers.

An open market

Reddit, similar to Discord, and the encrypted messenger app Telegram are two major marketplaces for the exams, which are sometimes offered there at even lower prices. When Nanda came across a leaked computer science exam (9618/12) circulating in WhatsApp groups, he and his friends tried to investigate. The distinctive @satboard watermark on the exam helped him find a private Telegram channel called SATBoard.

The channel was created on May 8 with 765 subscribers and was selling each document for $300. However, the number of subscribers quickly rose to 3,000 after the leaked, watermarked CS document went viral in the students’ WhatsApp groups. Shortly after the authorities became aware of the case, all posts on the Telegram channel were deleted. The seller created a new group, accessible only to selected buyers. Anand was not among them.

the pressure to give in

WhatsApp groups, Reddit threads, and Discord channels are full of real and fake exam questions that are presented as authentic. The leaked computer science question was genuine, as were the math, economics, and chemistry questions that were leaked at 5 am on the day of the exam. So it’s not just legitimate exam questions that are circulating. Instead of preparing calmly, students feel pressured to sift through a mountain of leaked questions to find the right one.

Humair Nasir*, another student from Lahore, is writing six combined A-level exams this year. He received the leaked Maths (P1) paper around 3 am on the day of the exam, but ignored it at first. But when the invigilator handed out the papers in the hall, a muffled laugh proved him wrong. The Maths (S1) paper was no exception. Nasir, however, decided not to look at it. His mother disagreed. She insisted that he look at the leaked papers immediately after he received them, as he could use them. Since he didn’t, she now fears his grades will suffer and that his chances of getting into the National University of Science and Technology will be jeopardized. Naturally, she doesn’t want to pay for her son’s exams again.

The psychological effects

The scandal over the past three years has severely damaged CAIE’s reputation, caused great suffering for students, and, most importantly, has implications for their future. Ayesha Waqar*, who studied with her maths tutor until midnight every day, was particularly hard hit by the first leak in June 2024. She had to retake the exam in November 2024 while completing her second year of A-levels.

In 2025, she was relieved to be leaving the system soon. But when she woke up to find countless screenshots of leaked exam questions, just as she had a year earlier, she was incredibly nervous. “It was so unusual that so many people showed up 10 to 15 minutes after the exam had started,” she said. “It’s normal to show up early for CAIE exams. But I never considered a leaked exam question.” Now she understood. Back then, she had worried that a leak could affect her grade, no matter how well she had prepared.

That year, Cambridge decided to give an average grade based on the remaining exam questions. However, Waqar refuses to believe that only part of the exam was leaked. She could have retaken the exam, but ultimately chose to accept the grade she received. She turned down a scholarship from a Turkish university and decided to stay in Pakistan in the hope of finding a university that would accept her based on her grades. “The same thing happened this year. I’m just glad I didn’t wait another year and turn my back on this unfair system,” she said.

Families with multiple children in the school system are upset about the cost and stress. “Such situations inhibit competition, which in turn reduces motivation to learn and, of course, undermines the purpose of education,” says Nawal Vaswani, whose eldest and now his youngest son have struggled with leaked exam questions. He questions the value of the CAIE exams if they are so disruptive to children.

Teachers like Ahmed Saya, who has taught math in Karachi for over 20 years, remember dismissing news of a potential leak in 2024 as a joke. Such a thing was practically unthinkable at the time. Everyone knew that the tests arrived sealed at the test centers and were not opened until the start of the exam. “And if it leaks now, what is Cambridge doing to prevent it?” he asked. This time, the full, elaborated math exam for Grade 1 was already available on YouTube the day before the exam. “It almost seems like they [Cambridge] have completely lost control of the math exams.”

Cambridge had assured teachers and institutions last year that no further documents would be released following the investigation, Saya added. However, following this year’s events, he demanded that Cambridge identify the perpetrator and make the investigation’s findings transparent. Dawn tried unsuccessfully to contact Nadeem Ghani, dean of Nixor College, and Professor Imran Merchant, the owner of the tutoring center.