"Ph as in Phony" is a mystery short story by American writer Isaac Asimov.
When it was republished in Tales of the Black Widowers in 1974, the original title was restored.
It is the second published story about the Black Widowers, a gentlemen's club that solves mysteries based loosely upon the Trap Door Spiders, a stag-club of which Asimov was a member.
He received a 96 on a course known to be the most difficult in the school, and the professor backed him when he used it as a reason to apply for his Ph.D.
In other words, Faron wrote the examination paper himself and bribed his professor to use it.