Exam swearing can earn marks

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."

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