科舉考試競爭激烈，士子們除了日夜苦讀，也難免動歪腦筋。冒名冒籍、賄賂考官等屢見不鮮，而最常見的作弊手法，當屬夾帶小抄。現存所見的小抄多為絹本與袖珍本兩種：前者便於折疊夾藏，後者體積精巧，易於隱匿。

 

展出的兩種小抄，絹本為手寫，內容選自四書五經中常見命題範圍，抄錄應試範文；袖珍本則為印刷製品，所錄為《孟子》部分篇章中的應答範例。字體極小巧，約0.5厘米見方，幾近一門巧藝。

The imperial examinations were highly competitive, prompting some candidates to resort to various cheating methods, including aliases, bribery, and the most common method—smuggling in cheat sheets. These cheat sheets often came in silk or miniature book forms. Silk could be easily folded and hidden, while miniature books were easy to conceal.

Among the surviving examples, the Cheating Note(Silk Scroll) was typically handwritten, containing model essays based on frequently tested topics from the Four Books and Five Classics. The Cheating Note (Small Booklet) was printed and featured sample question-and-answer passages from the Mencius. Each character on these sheets measures approximately 0.5 cm square—remarkably tiny and precise—almost an art form in itself.