WTF | June 30, 2008 | 44 comments

Students get higher marks for writing 'F*ck off' on exams

source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article4237491.ece

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abbym0308
Write ‘f*ck off’ on a GCSE paper and you’ll get 7.5%. Add an exclamation mark and it’ll go up to 11%.

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

His paper was marked by Peter Buckroyd, a chief examiner who has instructed fellow examiners to mark in the same way. He told trainee examiners recently to adhere strictly to the mark scheme, to the extent that pupils who wrote only expletives on their papers should be awarded points.

Hey, if you know how to spell 'f*ck off' and use it correctly in a sentence, you might as well use it to your advantage, right?
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44 comments // Students get higher marks for writing 'F*ck off' on exams

  • observer2121
  • cibalin
    • 0
      cibalin  

    • There are a place and a time to us this word and is so appropiate. What gets me is the use of this wrd to descibe everything in sight. F...king this and f...king that. You want to jump in and remind them of the other thousand words in the english language to use. It's like they got stuck in their boyhood, when boys would belt out cuss words and they giggled til they dropped.

    • 3 years ago
  • CicatrizJCP
  • ThatGirlBrittni
  • dearmat23
  • big_bad_wolf
  • barkway
  • mookster_07
  • jay_ct
  • Elligirl
    • 0
      Elligirl  

    • That sucks so much. I feel for the teachers, but come on. There are students who bled sweat to study for those tests! And you're going to give partial points for being a slacker?

    • 3 years ago
  • AutifK
    • 0
      AutifK  

    • I'm having trouble seeing why someone received a score for using the words 'Fuck off'. The vulgarity of the words is not an issue to me, but rather it is how using these words reflects someone's skill in English. Actually, you can teach a foreigner to say 'Fuck off', they may not know what it means till someone gets angry with them and informs them. The reason why I am not concerned with the vulgarity is because you can convey the same meaning by merely saying 'Go away'. 'Fuck off' is just a flashy way to say it.

    • 3 years ago
  • dearmat23
  • currentkid
  • Audiogeek
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  

    • I've never used that word and never shall. I refuse to lower my English standards for that word and be like everyone else. I wouldn't care if it would give me an A on the paper. Wouldn't do it.

    • 3 years ago
  • Dmitri_Molotov
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  
    • J_Jammer:

      I don't need four letter words to be ruthless, noticeable, self centered or the like. I have got along quite well with the amount of thesaurus like words I know to gather the right amount of attention. Let alone the fact that I have the darkest sense of humor I know. But I do tend to look down on people who can't seem to say more than the F word upon being angry.

    • 3 years ago
  • Dmitri_Molotov
    • 0
      Dmitri_Molotov  
    • J_Jammer:

      That's got to be the most egotistical post I've ever read.
      Look: Seeing as how you assert your lack of care for anyone else in every single bloody post you make and yet expect everyone to pay massive amounts of attention to you and you alone, why don't you run for office?
      That is, if you're not a high school kid like me.

    • 3 years ago
  • J_Jammer
  • Varex_Sythe
  • dearmat23
  • J_Jammer
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  
    • J_Jammer:

      What makes it correct? The word is just a collection of letters or sounds, depending upon whether spoken or written, that is associated with a particular meaning. Rather than fuck, I could say fornicate, or reproduce, or have sex. Of coarse that is applying merely to the literal meaning of the word. The word can also be used to convey many different things, most of them are associated with negative meanings. Now I do think that the word is overused, as are many other words that are considered swear words. However, by removing it from your vocabulary you are not doing yourself any favors. You might jest about this, but removing this word and others from your vocabulary will limit your ability to finely express yourself. Now I'm not saying that you should swear all day long and incorporate these words into every other sentence. What I am saying is that the word suits certain purposes for communicating ideas. If you stub your toe really badly then gnashing out a swear word is getter at communicating your pain then yelling "Fudge!" If you are in a car accident and your car is totaled, then it is quite healthy to blow off some steam through the use of colorful metaphors. The point being, using swear words all of the time is silly and fruitless; however, everything has a time and place to be used, and swear words are no exception to this rule.

    • 3 years ago
  • Captain_Beefheart
  • torybart
    • 0
      torybart  

    • hilarious and at the same time it only makes sense. these students are showing an understanding of spelling and grammer so they have proved that they learned exactly what the school is trying to teach them.

    • 3 years ago
  • saverio
    • 0
      saverio  

    • At uni I got told off for writing "fuck!" in a translation. And I'm still convinced it was the best possible option to convey the original writer's message.

    • 3 years ago
  • pstuart
  • PoisonTheMonkey
  • sunkisthappy
  • PatrioticAstronaut
  • drumguy08
  • bluestranger
    • 0
      bluestranger  

    • I grew up on a ranch, worked on the docks, joined the Navy, then went to work for a correctional facility. This is not an excuse for using the language that offends others. When your with your buddies and having a couple of beers, it's not that bad. Make sure there aren't any ladies or children around though. A very wise women (grand mother) once told me " Cuss words are what ignorant people use in place of the correct ones". Is this the best our educational system has to offer. We are in trouble.

    • 3 years ago
  • mpdab8
    • 0
      mpdab8  

    • to kewal 91: GCSE is the general certificate of secondary education. Its like one big final exam in the UK. hope that answered your question:)

    • 3 years ago
  • Joe_Leo
    • 0
      Joe_Leo  

    • why is fuck different to any other word in the english language? oh yeh, someone said they didnt like it :S

      and how the hell does the asterix make it less offensive? fair play, people confuse the shit out of me.

      Fuck is just the same as any other noun/verb/proverb/adjective etc etc

    • 3 years ago
  • Nyx
    • 0
      Nyx  

    • Ever since high school, I always wanted to write "fuck it, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about and you probably aren't paying attention anymore" in the middle of an essay just to see what would happen. But, I was never bold enough to do it. I have a year and a half of college to wade through. Maybe I'll get around to it and get bonus points for being creative.

    • 3 years ago
  • kewal91
  • abbym0308
  • kewal91
  • JLAZ
  • AutifK
    • 0
      AutifK  
    • JLAZ:

      Err... That's true for most (if not all) words, isn't it? I say this because I don't know why you would like bad words in particular if all other words can be used in the same way.

    • 3 years ago
  • abbym0308
    • 0
      abbym0308  

    • I wish I wasn't such a nerd an actually wrote stuff like this on my papers. I would love to go back and do this again. I couldn't imagine marking these exams. Just think, we each tear our hair out having to write our own, but the markers have to read ALL of them.

    • 3 years ago
  • joshuaheller
    • 0
      joshuaheller  

    • In high school my teacher, graded the national Advanced Placement exams. He said that the grading process was very rigid, 8 hour shifts, you couldn't talk, and you had a quota of papers to grade in an hour, like five minutes per test. He always liked when kids wrote stuff like "this sucks." He would use those papers as as a mini-break because he knew they would receive zeros.

    • 3 years ago
  • Scott_Bromley
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