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Not a Parody!

1:16 PM, Jun 30, 2008 • By JAIME SNEIDER
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Using grown-up words on standardized tests in Britain get kids extra-credit, not detention.

Peter Buckroyd, chief examiner of English for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), an examination board, said swear words should gain positive marks if the spelling and punctuation is correct.

In one case a pupil who wrote a two-word obscenity in answer to the question "Describe the room you're sitting in", on a 2006 GCSE paper was given two marks out a possible 27 for the expletive, 7.5 per cent, by Mr Buckroyd.

Had he punctuated it with an exclamation mark this would have risen to 11 per cent.

And if he had used three exclamation points, one imagines the AQA would have awarded the boy a passing mark. On math tests, do graders give partial credit to students, asked to find x, who circle it in the equation and write, "there it is"? How many points for YGTBFKM?

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