The College Board has moved preemptively: starting in spring 2026, students will not be allowed to wear smart glasses while taking the SAT. The policy is straightforward and blunt — "Smart glasses are prohibited during testing. Students with prescription smart glasses will need to remove them or test another day with standard glasses." — and it extends the exam body's long-running ban on wearable electronics to a new class of devices that have quietly become capable computers.
Why test-makers see smart glasses as a special risk
Phones, smartwatches and earbuds have been banned from testing rooms for years. Smart glasses are different in two ways: they're both discreet and increasingly powerful. Modern connected frames can include microdisplays, cameras, microphones and always-listening voice assistants. They can overlay data in the wearer's field of view, snap photos of test pages, or — in some models — pass audio back with bone-conduction or tiny open-ear speakers. Tie that hardware to large language models or search agents and you have a tool that could feed answers to a test-taker in near real time.
College Board officials and academic observers worry less about a student deliberately holding up a phone and more about a headset-shaped device that looks like ordinary eyewear. Some smart-glass designs hide their electronics in frames that, to an untrained eye, look like normal spectacles. That stealth is precisely what makes them attractive for misuse — and what motivated the new rule.
There are already real-world episodes that drove alarm bells. In one documented case a student in Tokyo used camera-equipped glasses to post exam questions on social media, receiving answers back from others. That kind of coordinated, fast-feedback cheating is far easier when cameras and networks are tucked into accessories students wear by habit.
How the College Board plans to enforce the rule
The ban is not limited to devices switched off. College Board guidance makes clear: frames that contain cameras, microphones, displays or radios are not permitted in the testing space. If a student depends on prescription smart glasses to see, they must remove them and either use ordinary prescription frames or reschedule.
Proctors will be trained to spot connected eyewear; officials say many mainstream models have distinctive design cues — thicker rims, visible camera housings, or an indicator light when in use. That light is one of the easier visual cues to spot, but not every model announces itself. As smart-glass hardware gets sleeker, visual checks will become more challenging, and proctors may rely on pre-test instructions, signage, and spot inspections.
The policy dovetails with the College Board's broader security posture around the digital SAT and the locked-down Bluebook testing environment. The exam is delivered on managed devices, so the chief risk is unapproved gear at the desk — and smart glasses join the long list of banned personal tech.
Beyond cheating: privacy and academic freedom concerns
Faculty worry that the risks go beyond test integrity. Secret recording of lectures, surreptitious livestreaming and the potential for doctored or deepfake audio and video are real concerns for instructors. The tech doesn't only enable cheating; it also makes it easier to capture classroom moments without consent and redistribute them.
Those debates echo broader privacy questions that have followed camera-equipped eyewear since the technology returned to mainstream attention. As device makers iterate on firmware and features, the line between helpful augmentation and intrusive surveillance keeps shifting — a tension highlighted by recent firmware and ecosystem changes in camera-glass products like Meta's Ray-Bans and related updates in the AR/eyewear space. For one angle on privacy and platform tweaks, see how recent firmware changes shaped the Ray‑Ban ecosystem. And for context about how assistant-style AI integrations are maturing, consider reporting on Gemini's expanding research features.
What students should do now
If you own connected glasses, don't assume a powered-off state is acceptable. Swap to non-connected frames or contacts for test day, and double-check your accommodations if you rely on assistive tech. The College Board says students who need prescription smart frames should plan to retake on a different day with standard glasses if they can't remove the smart pair.
Preparing under test-like conditions remains the safest route to a good score: rely on permitted tools, practice with official digital materials, and treat the testing room like the one place to leave opportunistic gadgets at home.
For institutions and proctors, the ban is a reminder that security policies will have to keep evolving as consumer tech shrinks and hides powerful computing into everyday objects. For students, it's a reminder that temptation and convenience rarely substitute for learning — and that rules often move faster than gadget designers.