This year's exams fall on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

"Anyone or any institution that publicizes papers' contents before each subject's finishing time will be investigated by police and may be charged with a crime," a press release issued by the Beijing municipal education department said on Wednesday.

In the past, the content of exam papers could be released immediately after each exam started.

The contents of the college entrance exam papers are defined as "top secrets of the State", and the crime of divulging State secrets is punishable with a jail term of up to seven years.

Officials said to prevent exam cheats using modern technologies is still be on top of the agenda at this year's exams.

Last year, just an hour after the tests began, part of the contents from more than 10 provinces and municipalities appeared online.

On Monday, the ministries of education, public security, and industry and information issued a circular to jointly deal with exam cheating using information technology.

For the first time, wireless signal monitoring will be carried out at venues in Beijing, according to Gao Fuqin, director of the Beijing municipal college entrance exam office.

All signals in and out of the venues will be monitored, and their origin will be traced.

In recent years, cell phones, earphones, specially made glasses and pens have all been used by exam cheats, according to the Beijing Education and Examination Institute.

Blocking devices have been frequently used in many national exams to cope with exam cheating by cell phones.

To date, police departments have carried out inspections of 3,920 classrooms and their surroundings at 148 test venues.

The test papers are under 24-hour watch.

Meanwhile, 87 participants in the self-taught college entrance exams held in April and May have been punished for cheating.

Among them, 78 people were suspended from reapplying for the test for a year, and the others were forbidden to take the exam for as long as two or three years.

Statistics show that the number of violations has dropped this year compared with previous years thanks to the improvement of anti-cheating efforts.