Why are Times readers such prudes? I don't think the answer deserved marks, because it is too short to have significant merits, and is irrelevant to the question. However, in a creative writing task on an exam it may be perfectly appropriate to use expletives, and that should not be punished.

Meera, Dusseldorf,

It's the Buckroyds of this world who guarantee that comprehensives continue to be bled of the children of parents who want an EDUCATION for them. I guess he's one of the 1000s of 1960s/70s graduates who still subscribe to this nonsense which makes British education the laughing stock of the world

Chris Thomas, Oxford, England

Likewise, leaving a blank is to commit no error. Should that be awarded marks too?

Arti Wizoras, Singapore, Singapore

I despair of this country.

Because an irrelevantly low mark was awarded to a pupil for spelling an obscenity right on an exam paper? No. Because many people responding can't see the humour in Peter Buckroyd using this as an extreme example for marking.

Get off your high horses.

C Robinson, London,

We are told that the words were given in answer to the question “Describe the room you’re sitting in”. Should not the questioner have phrased the question " . . . in which you are sitting" or does that qualify as Churchill's "nonsense up with which I will not put" ?

Alan, Sutton, England

Why is AQA is the biggest exam board? Under the leadership of people like Chairman Buckroyd, it allows to pass candidates who should not have been allowed near an exam hall. Anyone who gives marks for obscenities is too dim or too unprincipled to see that the candidate is sending up the system.

Jan Thomas, Nottingham, England

This is pathetic! Marking has always been a disaster. I have always felt messed around but this has really crossed the limits! How can writing inappropriate words be better than not writing anything? This has set a precedent for students which shouts out "NO RESPECT and BAD MANNERS".

Serenity, Birmingham, UK

"It’s better than someone THAT doesn’t write anything at all."

How many points for that sentence? If the examiner himself makes fundamental mistakes, can we really be surprised that he gives points for expletives?

Alice Taylor, Stockholm,

I once took a higher education course to upgrade my qualifications. Among many mistakes, the word 'lose' was continually spelled 'loose' throughout the course material, and the word 'source' was replaced by 'sauce' each time. And this was the teaching material from which I was supposed to learn!

jenny, edinburgh,

I met Peter Buckroyd many times at AEB A-Level Literature moderation meetings when he was chief examiner and my impression was that he was a sensible chap with a sense of humour.

He must have had his tongue firmly in his cheek.

GARY, MEIZHOU, CHINA

You're all missing the point. 2 marks = 'FAIL'. This is just effective use of a funny example to reinforce an important point for trainee examiners, namely that they should always follow the marking scheme (thereby ensuring as much objectivity as possible in a subjective context).

Bob, London,

"Markers award students for writing obscenities on GCSE papers"

That headline is simply a lie. As explained in the article, marks for spelling are for spelling, marks for punctuation, for punctuation, etc. That's all.

Peter Buckroyd has simply got it right. Well done, Peter Buckroyd.

Simon, Brentwood, UK

Who remembers the oxford entrance examination where the student wrote nothing on his paper and gained full marks for his brilliant statement?

Ian Davis, Belfast, UK

Scoring Method: Using the F word only qualifies the student to study Anglo-Saxon, adding the exclamation mark indicates irony and is modernist, while a blank page would be profoundly post-modernist. Eating the page indicates a budding genius. Using it as toilet paper signifies the end of New Labour

Paul Freeman, London, England

I'm pretty sure 2 marks is worth a B these days.

Carl, London,

Liberalism!!!

Terry, London, UK

The pathetic nature of the question itself explains why at my school they dismiss AQA as the easy exam board.. how can a question like "describe the room around you" test kids on their manipulation of a language that is supposed to be their mother tongue...

Robert, Madrid,

The silly child earned two measly marks which weren't sufficient to even earn a grade and John Taylor and all his cronies have the silly idea that the country has fallen into pieces.
If they shown the same type of flawed analysis in an exam, I'd give 7.5% to them.

Leroy, Worcestershire,

The question asked candidates to describe the room they were sitting in.Am I missing something here in thinking that "f*** off" on its own is not answering the set question and should be awarded nul points accordingly?

francois, Nottingham,

"if it got an exclamation mark it would have got a bit more...."

Surely, it is unfair to mark them less is they intentionally decided to not put an exclamation mark in their sentence? It may be a case that they didn't want to communicate that in their sentence.

My point is the system is flawed

ian, manchester, uk

Having just read the Zimbabwe thread and now this, I believe there's no hope for the world.

Kate, Vienna,

This is too sad. As a parent of two very bright teenagers who are doing their best in a poor quality school where teachers don't turn up for lessons or let the kids run riot when they do appear, this is yet another example of pandering to the common denominator.

Samantha, Preston,

Two marks correctly awarded.

Well done Mr Buckroyd.

Ed, Aberdeen, Scotland

Did the student get any points for no erasures?

David Adams, Philadelphia, USA

Before Times readers get their collective knickers in a twist, two marks in the GCSE English exam doesn't even constitute a pass mark.
Jacky Shaw, Skipton, North Yorks

You are missing the point. The student is rewarded for incompetence - insane. Failure rightly gets zero. Strive and improve.

John B., Reading, UK

A clinically depressed, dysfunctional society in terminal meltdown. Pcness and dumbing down has turned education in Britain into a joke. Soon a fake degree certificate will have as much validity as one from a UK seat of learning. Namely, not worth the paper it's printed on.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

Quite right too - the student deserves a couple of marks if only for giving the examiner a bit of a laugh. It's bad enough having to sit the exams (I should know, I've just finished ALevels - not 'easy', for the record), but I can only imagine how soul-destroying it must be to have to mark them all

sam, Farnham, uk

What does english test? its test your use and understanding of the english language. Swearword or not, relevant or not, it meets the criteria, so give them 7.5%. If someone cant be bothered to respond in an examination in an appropriate manner, they won't go far in life..

Oliver, Bradford, West Yorkshire

Ah dear Readers, consider this, the charming young man may just have had a moment of precience regarding your thoughts on what Mr Buckroyde should do next.
Come on Mr Buckroyde don't let us down again!

Mike, Qawra, Malta

Or maybe something fundamentally right?

Boris, London,

I sat my GCSEs some time ago, and I think if I had been given a question like "describe the room you are in" I might have reacted in the same way. Whether I would have wriiten my reaction down is another matter. A blank page would probably be more representative of the average exam room.

Adrian, San Diego, USA

The 2 marks should have been '0' -'Nothing written' needs to be changed to 'Nothing written except a few expletives or doodles' to reflect those students who are NOT responding to the task and just being a rebel - let them achieve what they REALLY deserve! Even 2 marks devalues the exam!

Marianne, Newcastle, England

I that a extra 7.5% ? If so I might write it in my law exams!

kate, Plymouth, devon

And we wonder why youths are going round stabbing everyone.

Liz, Oxford, UK

Ridiculous.

"it does show some very basic skills we are looking for"

Is that so? Well, I suggest that you have undermined the credibility of not only this exam, but of the entire General Collapse of Secondary Education assessments.

W Smith, Manchester,

It would still only get 2. It's not a pass. How is this even newsworthy?! You've taken the comment out of context and the mark out of context. 2 is a notional 'U'. It's not like it would get an A*!!!

If this comment was made about a 2006 paper, surely this 'news' is 2 years old!

Emma, Bolton, Lancs

The Revolution cannot be far away. And it will be far more violent for our bureaucrats and politicians than anything we feared in the 1960's.

You could not make this up. This is the sort of thing that could light a fuse.

Ian Campbell, Truro, Cornwall

To John Taylor, 'Am I the only one who thinks that there is something fundamentally wrong with Britain and no one sees it?'
Everyone with a brain sees it but due to our flawed democracy is unable to do anything about it.

rob, ashbourne, uk

Whats the problem - 7.5% is an A+ Pass is it not ?

David Sutherland, Thurso, U.K.

Does this mean that if a student wrote "hell bloody" instead of "bloody hell" they wouldn't get any marks because the words are in the wrong order?

Katie, Manchester, UK

You couldn't make this stuff up!!! What a country.......

Chris, Dorset, Bridport,

Before Times readers get their collective knickers in a twist, two marks in the GCSE English exam doesn't even constitute a pass mark.

Jacky Shaw, Skipton, North Yorks

Can they really write still?

Geordie Kidston, London , U.K.

Asked to contrast the industries of Sweden and Switzerland in 1968, a friend wrote "Switzerland has some industry, while Sweden has none." He was thinking of the cuckoo clock, and got two marks for that . The more things change, the more they stay the same!

Andrew Heenan, London, England

To put this in perspective. We're saying that - if this was representative of the whole paper - the student was awarded an NG - No Grade - the worst possible result that says their work was so poor as to be worthless.

Is it worth complaining that we think his NG is too GOOD an NG? Seriously?!

Peter, Dublin, Ireland

My brother once labelled the two ends of an earthworm head and arse in a test at school. He wasn't trying to be funny, but he still got told off. Nowadays he'd probably get good marks.

john, London, England

The root of the problem is that the examination system has been stretched to accomodate weak candidates in an all-shall-have-prizes and none-shall-fail fraud. Consequently, Employers and Universities are no longer able to use exam results for assessing candidates so what use are they?

John , London, England

Writing "f*** off" is not a problem. If they had written the word in full and not censored it with asterisks from the examiners that would have bad.

Garry Gibbon, Bristol,

"Not so long ago the paper would have been torn up if such obscenities were written."

Not so long ago the best and brightest would've been rejected if they didn't possess impeccable grammar, syntax and RP, irrespective of how intelligent they were or how good their ideas. Let's not forget that.

Andrew, Abu Dhabi,

"It shows more skills than somebody who leaves the page blank.” Funny, that. I was always taught that if you have nothing to say, don't say it.

Anyway - while "go forth and multiply" does indeed exhibit sequencing of ideas, I'd say that "F*** off" doesn't....

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

I assume that the expletive "sex with travel" would be too hard to spell and/or explain and would fail the "originality test". Anyone THAT spells correctly is doomed to the dustbin because, where I come from using THAT implies a lot more than WHO without explanation.
Patrick Bagot in Istanbu

Patrick Bagot, Istanbul, TURKEY

This explains the dire levels of knowledge and inflated exam grades that the majority of undergraduates bring with them to university! University lecturers are increasingly picking up the pieces - teaching grammar, sentence structure, and even common sense - to allegedly A grade students. Abysmal.

Sophie, Birmingham,

It would appear that Mr Buckroyd has not been following his employer's instructions and the Joint Council for Qualification guidelines. Presumably he will be disciplined? Doubtful. And we now have a number of examiners who have been told that this is the correct way to mark english papers.

Chris D, Edinburgh, Scotland

Still the government and exam boards insist there is no 'dumbing down' of standards - it makes me weep!
I became a teacher to help people maximize their potential whatever their background. It's bad enough that students lack any personal motivation but for an exam board to reward rudeness - madness!

Jill, Norfolk, UK

"Different to" would not have been inappropriate, just plain wrong. Our friends across the water not withstanding. As for no marks for saying nothing - how about 15% for modesty?

Brian Jordan, Huddersfield,

I've heard from companies I do business with that some of their new recruits have problems spelling words like "fifteen".

This Buckroyd person should be sacked. He's let us all down.

Lets also remember that many young people are marvellous, and not cretins like the child in this example.

Ross, Ripon, UK

To say that writing "f**k off" is better than nothing at all is absurd.
I know of many occasions in life when knowing when to say (or write) nothing at all is the correct thing to do.

Scott McCarthy, Cambridge, UK

Not so long ago the paper would have been torn up if such obscenities were written.

Now they are rewarded. It just goes to show how desperate the examiners are to get pass rates up.

Try doing that on a job application to me thogh and the little scrote will get the bums rush off our premises

Geoff Miller, Birmingham, England

What a sad state this country is in.
It is one thing to write this on an exam paper but totally another to reward it.
This is not a good example to the young.
We reap what we sow

Steve Byrne, Christchurch, UK

An odd question to set as it guarantees a hundred identical descriptions of the same silent exam hall. Wading through those the examiner may have felt a flash of sympathy with an answer that articulated his innermost thoughts. Not St Vincent's style certainly, but a bit of the Nelson Touch perhaps?

James Mulraine, Brighton, UK

Cyndi - do you think that these 'uneducated yobs' are aware of the fact that they're been awarded 7.5% for their expletives? I sincerely doubt that they are, unless, of course, they're reading The Times online.

Lou, London,

I'm with you, John Taylor. This is just further evidence that the powers that be seem to be aiming for a nation of sub Mc-job morons. The standard of education in this country is appalling and getting worse every year. Don't get me started on everything else that's wrong in this benighted country...

Simon Webb, Swansea, UK

Is it any wonder the British youth of today are turning into a bunch of uneducated yobs when they are encouraged to use foul language and even get rewarded?

cyndi, Bexley, UK

Ah well I can see his point but its a little ridiculous....as long as no one passes these exams on the basis of getting these marks....if they are on the brink of passing, they should not gain their extra points here...its the opposite of people who have studied hard to pass.

Madeline, Nottingham,

How on earth has this man Buckroyd been given this job? It is precisely his sort of politically correct pandering to the badly-behaved that leads to lack of any respect for civilised behaviour.
Clearly the comment of JC is important. Watch which examining board it was before you employ anyone!

godfrey, monaco,

I wonder how many marks Mr. Buckroyd would have given to yourselves for one your own headlines today:-
Record set for Lego Star Wars figures
Lego employee helps break a record for the largest assembly of Lego Star Wars figures for the companies 50th anniversary

Peter, Genova, Italy

The man should be sacked. No wonder we're churning out such thick imbeciles into our workplace - with the consequence of mistakes, dreadful attitudes to customers and gross stupidity there too - when we have such an imbecile giving marks for FAILURE, IGNORANCE, RUDENESS and IRRELEVANCE.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

30 years ago a guy I knew went into the english O grade exam and in a display of 'I cant be bothered', wrote out the lyrics to 'Whole lotta Rosie' by AC/DC.
He failed.
Under the new rules it appears he would have passed displaying a good memory and sequencing of ideas ... God help this country!

Geo, Glasgow, UK

I am an employer in the city at a major investment bank. Next time I interview someone, I shall be sure to ask for a detailed breakdown of which examination board their qualifications orginate from. As we all knew anyway, some exam boards standards are very low.

JC, London, UK

The General Certificate for Senseless Exams!

Patsy, Bexhill, UK

How on earth can it show more skill and understanding than the use of 'different to'? All too often the latter is used by the media, so becoming an acceptable usage.The expletive, WITHOUT the exclamation mark, is discontinuous and devoid of what little meaning it might have in a 'real world' context

Bill Q, Derby,

Please God, get rid of the wierdo beardo sandle wearing, mealy mouthed PC crowd that Herr Broon has drafted in to destroy the UK. I have never in my life felt so angry about a government and it's policies. Everything that I believed in as a young man has been taken away or is being chipped away.

Mark Chisholm, Dereham, UK

John - I agree. I am a teacher. Every year I warn students about writing foul language on exams. This year I found a student using an ipod and a mobile in his exam. He told me and a colleague to f--- off. He was not awared marks - i am pleased to say he was disqualified! Do i get a mark for my ! ?

Dizz, Chichester,

Reap what you sow. without sound child husbandry, don't be surprised if later you are mugged by a foul mouthed moron. Lord St Vincent (note for teachers, look him up him a history book) Is reputed to have said "Nothing is achieved without discipline." Narrow box ticking examiners set the tone.

Alexander, Victoria, Seychelles

When I was at school any such comments would have resulted in some punishment, not by being awarded marks. As a manager of staff I have supervised a procession of young people who are unable to construct a sentence, who write reports in phone text language. I can see why now if so little is expected

John Moore, Paphos, Cyprus

No, John Taylor, you're not the only one.

Tina, Dusseldorf, Germany

"It’s better than someone that doesn’t write anything at all. It shows more skills than somebody who leaves the page blank.”

I'm not quite sure how...... but perhaps that explains why I did not do so well in my O Levels

James, London,

Marks for writing expletives in GCSEs. I thought the examinations tested people on their knowledge in relevant subjects. What subject does an expletive laden answer paper fall under ? Am I the only one who thinks that there is something fundamentally wrong with Britain and no one sees it ?

John Taylor, London,