surprisingly some schools or rather programs in schools are now teaching such forms of philosophy, like I know at my school’s IB program you have to take TOK [ theory of knowledge ] ; then again, its said you can take a horse to the watering hole but cannot force it to drink.

I think the biggest problem right now, is that many people believe that such a philosophy belongs only to the practical (or more “hands-on”) type of activity. This is not the case. The same principles that one learns in say, a leadership course, also applies to just about every other area (that I have encountered) in life. The basis of leadership, is that you cannot tell someone to do something, unless you have done it yourself. This gives you the knowledge of how something is done, what can be expected of someone, and what is required to be done in the first place.

This basically translates into: practice.
Think of me as your teacher. I could give you a sheet with the fifty-some trig identities you are required to learn in Grade 12 University math, have you memorize them, and then give you a quiz on it the next day. This does you no good. Rather, it’s much better to show you how to get these identities, give you the resources to practice, and test you on your ability later. (This is also closely related to teaching philosophy, which is also extremely important, but fit for another time)

In the end, instead of cramming at the last minute, as a student, you are much better off taking 15 – 30 minutes each night reviewing from that day the notes/examples etc. After reviewing them, cover up the final answer, and do the question again, once. Check your answer, be it right or wrong, do not correct it. The next night, go over that question again (along with your new notes), and I think you’d find you’ll have gotten it correct this time.

NOTE: This is a very personal thing, these methods are just something I find help a very large majority of students that I have talked to. Nothing is a perfect, “one size fits all” method. Find what works for you.

The the decision to… supplement one’s test writing abilities relies on the benefit outweighing the cost * chance. That is, extra marks that would not be “earned” otherwise vs. chance of getting 0% on the test (assuming high school, where cheating policy is surprisingly lax. Universities assign negative grades, among other penalties, up to expulsion.)

Since taped notes offer very low data density and are not particularly difficult to spot, it’s only reasonable to conclude that the “cost” was also low.

Again, knowing the material is being able to apply it. Which I suppose the student has done, since “it was a cryptography class”.

That about says it all. Clever scheme, but not brilliant. Brilliant would be knowing the stuff.