Markers award students for writing obscenities on GCSE papers

[snopes]

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.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle4237491.ece

[Tarquin Farquart]

I don't imagine they get enough points to pass the exam.

[Auntie Witch]

If the graders are given any sort of guide like the one I used on writing assessments in my last school, I can see where this would happen. Grading writing is so arbitrary that it's very difficult to come up with a grading system that you could hand to two different graders and have the same result on the same test. Often, there would be a huge checklist of things from "write to prompt", and "develop theme" to "spelling" and "convey a meaning", as the OP indicates. The thing is, there are so many different areas to be addressed that getting a few points for writing "NFBSK off" correctly won't get a score anywhere near passing, as Tarquin pointed out.

[Missie]

I wonder how many points writing a decent-length, well-thought out, grammatically correct paragraph on why they should f*** off would get.

[BlueStar]

I do remember being told at my school that someone had written on his English Lit paper nothing but

"I hate NFBSKing Of Mice and Men because it's boring as NFBSK and I hate Mr Brown because he's a NFBSK"

And got one mark for referencing the text, one for presenting an opinion on the text and and one for giving a reason for that opinion.

[Amigone201]

Originally Posted by BlueStar

I do remember being told at my school that someone had written on his English Lit paper nothing but

"I hate NFBSKing Of Mice and Men because it's boring as NFBSK and I hate Mr Brown because he's a NFBSK"

And got one mark for referencing the text, one for presenting an opinion on the text and and one for giving a reason for that opinion.

All right, I'll say it: Cite please?

[DemonWolf]

Originally Posted by BlueStar

"I hate NFBSKing Of Mice and Men because it's boring as NFBSK and I hate Mr Brown because he's a NFBSK".

I hated NFBSKing Of Mice and Men because NFBSKing books gives me paper cuts.

[Auntie Witch]

Originally Posted by Missie

I wonder how many points writing a decent-length, well-thought out, grammatically correct paragraph on why they should f*** off would get.

If the grading scale is made correctly, they'd get a fair amount, but not enough to pass. A lot of the standardized tests like this will have a set number of requirements as far as content, as well. So much so, that it's aggravating for graders who can understand that the kid knew what they were wanting to say, but don't meet the exact requirements of the scoring guide. For example if a kid said, "He like, totally was like, Whoa, and thought it sucked" but didn't use the word "flabbergasted" when they're asked, "How did Dick feel when he saw Jane trying to flay Spot?" if that's what the scoring guide insists upon.

Yes, some scoring guides get that specific. I got to where I taught my lower-performing students to find a key word in the question, and then scan the text for that word, and copy the sentence they found it in. I won't have access to those test scores this year (moved to a new district), but I would bet a fair amount of money that the kids who did that will score significantly higher than some of the other kids will.

[Embra]

A friend is a maths teacher who often marks GCSE papers over the summer. She reports screeds of writing from desperate students, not able to do the maths but not too proud to plead with whoever is marking this that they need to pass, their dog's sick, they won't get to university and their life will be ruined if they don't pass etc. etc. Really quite long essays, some of them!

[Dactyl]

Originally Posted by DemonWolf

I hated NFBSKing Of Mice and Men because NFBSKing books gives me paper cuts.

I hated Of Mice and Men because it was dull and couldn't empathise with any of the lead characters.

[JessBoo]

Originally Posted by Dactyl

I hated Of Mice and Men because it was dull and couldn't empathise with any of the lead characters.

A lot of my class hated To Kill A Mockingbird for the same reasons, so my teacher played us a tape of Strange Fruit. It didn't have the desired effect. Someone summed it up with 'miss, racism's bad. We know. But the book's still boring!'

People who got points in my year: Someone who wrote je suis un poisson over and over in his French exam, and someone who coloured in the maps in the geography exam, then walked out. And, although I doubt this one actually happened, there was the story of an art exam with the theme 'what is bravery?'. A girl wrote 'this is' on a piece of paper and got a high mark for it.

[Tarquin Farquart]

Originally Posted by Dactyl

I hated Of Mice and Men because it was dull and couldn't empathise with any of the lead characters.

I saw it as a play once and it was good. Every time I think of the book, I remember the person who sat next to me in English and giggled everytime "Weed" was mentioned.

Originally Posted by JessBoo

And, although I doubt this one actually happened, there was the story of an art exam with the theme 'what is bravery?'. A girl wrote 'this is' on a piece of paper and got a high mark for it.

When I was in high school, art was a compulsory subject. Only for one semester, fortunately, because I sucked at it. The art teacher was a strange old lady, and one of the questions on the exam paper was: Who paints trains?
I wrote “the Department of Transport” and was marked wrong. I never saw justice done, and have no idea what the “correct” answer was.

[Dactyl]

Originally Posted by JessBoo

A lot of my class hated To Kill A Mockingbird for the same reasons, so my teacher played us a tape of Strange Fruit. It didn't have the desired effect. Someone summed it up with 'miss, racism's bad. We know. But the book's still boring!'

I actually liked To Kill a Mockingbird, although it would probably have made more sense had I realised that Jem was a boy and Scout was a girl before about halfway though.

Originally Posted by Dactyl

I hated Of Mice and Men because it was dull and couldn't empathise with any of the lead characters.

Um, Dactyl, according to the syntax and grammar you used in that sentence, it is the book Of Mice and Men that couldn't empathize with any of the lead characters.

I did go to the original link in order to read the article. I surmised that the student who wrote that brief answer received only 2 points out of 27, which wouldn't have allowed him or her to pass at any rate.