Can you cheat on an eye exam?

Yes, “cheating” on an eye exam is possible. People may do this by memorizing vision charts or skewing their answers during their exam. But this is not a recommended practice for several reasons: It can result in visual discomfort, an incorrect prescription, road dangers and even legal trouble.

Why would someone cheat on an eye exam?

Here are a few reasons a person might try to cheat on, or throw the results of, their eye exam:

To avoid getting glasses

Someone may try to cheat on an eye exam because they don’t want to wear glasses or contact lenses. Eye doctors typically prescribe corrective lenses to treat refractive errors such as myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism. 

Myopia is a common vision problem among children and adults that causes faraway objects to appear blurry. Hyperopia makes it hard to see close-up objects clearly. Most cases can be corrected with eyeglasses or contacts. 

But some people don’t like the way they look in glasses or how glasses feel on their face. They may also be nervous about wearing contacts. So, they are dishonest about their eyesight to avoid having to wear any corrective lenses at all.

SEE RELATED: How do I know if I need glasses? 

To “trick” or bypass certain legal requirements

Others may try to skew the results of an eye exam in order to bypass the vision requirements for a driver’s license. For example, if a person doesn’t want to wear glasses while they drive, they may lie about whether they need glasses to see clearly on the road. This can lead to dangerous driving and serious road hazards, though, and should be avoided.

Another serious circumstance of cheating on an eye exam? Someone doing so in an attempt to get low vision or disability benefits for the blind from the government. Not only is this dishonest, but it can also lead to serious legal trouble.