Student says 'F--- off!' on test, gets better grade

"F--- off" is an acceptable answer that earned one student two points on his English exam for accurate spelling and properly conveying meaning.

Students are receiving credit for foul language on the British General Certificate of Secondary Education English examinations, the London Times reported. In some cases, the foul answers have little to do with the question.

The boy's test was graded by chief examiner Peter Buckroyd who teaches other examiners to grade using the same standard. Buckroyd gave graders strict instructions to adhere to his scoring guidelines, even giving credit to students who wrote only foul words on their tests.

According to the report, Buckroyd said he awarded two points, out of a possible 27, to the boy who scribbled the F-word into a test blank in response to the statement, "Describe the room you're sitting in."

To receive a minimum grade on the test, a student must show "some simple sequencing of ideas" and "some words in appropriate order." Buckroyd claimed the boy had attained the stated goal.

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

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Buckroyd, chief examiner of English for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance examination board, oversees test standards for 780,000 candidates and training for an additional 3,000 graders. He said he uses the F-bomb example to illustrate detailed grading techniques to new examiners.

"It elucidates some useful points – it shows some nominal skills but no relevance to the task," he said.

While Buckroyd believed the response to be unsuitable, he compared it to using the construction "different to" and said it would be equally inappropriate.

The chief examiner said the profane statement would have received more points if the student had provided punctuation.

"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," he said, "We are trying to give higher marks to the students who show more skills."

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