Exam swearing can earn marks






ITN - Monday, June 30 01:26 pm


Students who write obscenities in their GCSE English exams can still be awarded marks, a chief examiner has said.


One pupil, who wrote "f* off" on an examination paper, was given two points for spelling it correctly, and conveying a meaning.

It was marked by Peter Buckroyd, a chief examiner for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) examination board.

He told The Times newspaper: "It would be wicked to give it zero, because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for - like conveying some meaning and some spelling.

"It's better than someone that doesn't write anything at all. It shows more skills than somebody who leaves the page blank."

Mr Buckroyd, who acknowledged the language was inappropriate, gave the pupil two marks out of a possible 27.

He told the newspaper he used the example to teach other examiners about the finer points of marking.

Mr Buckroyd is said to have recently told trainee examiners they should stick to the marking scheme, and should award points to pupils who only write obscenities on their papers.

The expletive was given in answer to the question: "Describe the room you're sitting in," part of a 2006 GCSE exam.

But the student missed out on marks because the phrase was not punctuated.

Mr Buckroyd said: "If it had got an exclamation mark it would have got a little bit more, because it would have been showing a little bit of skill."

The AQA said it does not condone the use of obscenities in papers and that examiners are instructed to contact the board's offices for advice if a script contains obscenities.

An AQA spokeswoman said: "The example cited was unique in the experience of the senior examiner concerned and was used in a pre-training session to emphasise the importance of adhering to the mark scheme: ie if a candidate makes any sort of response to a question then it must be at least given consideration to be awarded a mark."

She added: "In the light of this incident we will be reviewing our instructions to examiners which will include re-iterating the procedure to be followed when encountering obscenities in scripts."






LOL!


Haha haven't times changed since the days you could get beaten @ school for not doing homework etc. or anything much really I remember getting caned for being in an "out of bounds" area once...and the principal enjoyed it altogether too much, twisted bastard that he was

Oh christ.

welcome to england.
part of so-called "great britain"
but ain't a fuckin' ting great about the way be livin'.

There is no way I am having kids in this country.

There is no way I am having countrys in this kid.

seriously though; wee bits of controversy like this that are brought out seemingly every month now are just making england such a collective pile of shite.


edit4stan; brentwood on?

Unless I do some serious science involving portals I really don't think it's happening.

£3 in my wallet with two buses to get. No way to get any more money. Stanley fails.

I want to skate that ledge and the bank in the park

and a fucking warehouse.

I can spell fuck, give me an A.

Fuck off is hardly difficult to spell, how long before marks are awarded for getting your name right?

England's becoming more and more ridiculous. THey now want sharia law to be allowed

To be honest i don't see how it's that ridiculous. No-one gives a shit about swearing these days unless they're old people. It's as much a part of language now as any other words.

People do give a shit about swearing in my family, i won't swear in the presence of adults and my mum won't swear in front of me. And the ridiculous part is he got given a mark

at the risk of sounding controversal, i have no problem with this.

silly controversial cunt

if it was relevant, then why not?

To be fair, he did get 2 marks out of 27.

It's not like because he was awarded these marks he can now get into Cambridge or something. Incidentally, i was told earlier that if you go to Oxbridge, you get chucked out if you get a part time job... What the fuck? They charge ridiculous fees then don't let you pay them back... There are also bits of grass at Cambridge where the students can't stand on, but the teachers can.

To be honest, i don't see why they bothered giving marks purely because the person who wrote it obviously really couldn't care less if they got any marks or not. I really doubt the person who wrote it expected to get marked for it anyway, and as Greg said 2 marks is hardly going to make a difference and well, he did spell it right.

...Or EAC.

Oxbridge are the most pathetic universities ever. Some people from our college went on a trip there and I couldn't stand it. The sheer pompousness of everyone there was enough to induce bile. Not to mention their disregard for subjects that have real relevance in society over fluffy stuff like English Lit, which is more or less the easiest A Level in the world. It's education for fucktards without any imagination.

well if you put your name down it goes from a X to a U


They charge the same for oxford as any other uni. All unis (apart from 8) in the country do. Only difference would be off campus accomodation. But yes they are arrogant wankers

Who are, "They"?



I reckon you might get 3 or even 4 marks for that paragraph.





No they don't.

i was one mark off getting a C in english at gcse. i was gutted.

What?? Get chucked out IF you get a job?? Don't LET you pay them back?? wtf?


How can you afford to go to uni if you DON'T have @ least one part time job (unless your parents are loaded...then you can get into uni with LESS MARKS than someone who can't afford to pay the whole 100 grand upfront - woohoo!)


And here you have a % of your wages forcibly taken by the Govt to pay them back when you finally get a job...things are very different in Aust it seems...