Not for proctored exams that are designed around you studying in the lead up to the exam, not looking stuff up during the exam. If it was an open-book exam the

Not for proctored exams that are designed around you studying in the lead up to the exam, not looking stuff up during the exam. If it was an open-book exam then arguments could be made that looking stuff up online is an extension of looking it up in the official textbooks (unless you are _only_ allowed the official textbooks... but you get my drift). Every school and uni exam (for the most part) will have past papers you can test yourself with. The exam doesn't deviate a whole lot (in my experience) from the past papers with the changes usually revolving around the made-up scenario, e.g. "a boat with a speed of 34kph..." vs "a plane travelling at a speed of..." They could have studied the past papers and done well but they wanted the easier route. So, no, they cheated. They deserved their punishment.