From the You-Can’t-Make-This-Stuff-Up file ...

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: June 30, 2008

Imagine for a moment that you’re a high school student sitting down for an English test.

Say you’re having a bad day.

You’re not really in the mood to take a test.

So you decide, you’re not only going to not take the test; you’re going to get your money’s worth by telling off the teacher.

Let’s say you decide to write, as your answer on the test, a two-word expletive that begins with F and ends with “off.“

Now, what do you expect that response would earn you?

How does two points out of 27—or 7 percent—grab you?

Yes, it happened, in Britain. The young man wrote the profane statement and earned two points because, according to the test examiner, “it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling.“

Some meaning?

Perhaps that kid needs to be schooled in the meaning of “expulsion.“

The examiner continued, “It would be wicked to give it zero ...“

“Wicked?“ What about the wickedness of that kid’s action?

“It’s better than someone that doesn’t write anything at all,“ the examiner said.

Better than what, exactly?

But, as they say, that’s not all.

The examiner said the student actually missed an opportunity with his answer.

The student could have earned more points, he said, by punctuating the statement.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Read the story here.