Student Gets Two Points For Writing "F*** Off* on Exam

The Times:  Markers Award Students for Writing Obscenities on GCSE Papers:  Write ‘f*** Off’ on a GCSE Paper and You’ll Get 7.5%. Add an Exclamation Mark and It’ll Go Up to 11%, by Joanna Sugden:

Pupils are being rewarded for writing obscenities in their GCSE English examinations even when it has nothing to do with the question.

One pupil who wrote “f*** off” was given marks for accurate spelling and conveying a meaning successfully. ...

Peter Buckroyd, ...  , chief examiner of English for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), an examination board, said that he had given the pupil two marks, out of a possible 27, for the expletive. To gain minimum marks in English, students must demonstrate “some simple sequencing of ideas” and “some words in appropriate order”. The phrase had achieved this, according to Mr Buckroyd. ...

“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 says that he uses the example to teach examiners the finer points of marking. “It elucidates some useful points – it shows some nominal skills but no relevance to the task.” ...

The choice phrase, given in answer to the question “Describe the room you’re sitting in”, on a 2006 GCSE paper, was not punctuated. “If it had had an exclamation mark it would have got a little bit more because it would have been showing a little bit of skill,” Mr Buckroyd said, “We are trying to give higher marks to the students who show more skills.”