Arre yaar thoda cheating toh chalta hai! :P
Having said that, I've never cheated in a final exam. I'd be surprised if cheating was said to be common during A Levels as the invigilators actually have metal detectors to check whether you have a phone on you and there are so many invigilators that you'd have to be pretty sly to cheat and get away with it! Plus it's quite difficult to read someone else's paper in a big assembly hall.
University system is a bit different though. We have a system where the person sitting next to you has the same paper but the questions are in a completely different order so the first question on your paper could be the last on theirs.
As they say, if you cheat and manage to do well, then you're only really cheating yourself. I guess most people will realise that sooner or later.