Istikhara, and a question we will not answer

Two related things students ask about, and we are not the right address for either ruling.

Istikhara is often used as a way of choosing a course or a module, and then treated as a substitute for finding out about the options. In the classical framing it follows investigation rather than replacing it. Anything beyond that sentence is a scholar's question.

The other is what is and is not permissible in an examination. Students under pressure ask this and they deserve a real answer from a real scholar, not from a platform. What can be said plainly is that deception is treated as a serious matter in the tradition. The specifics are not ours to rule on.