AQA's response

In the light of newspaper and online reports yesterday and my previous blog "Gaining marks for obscenities" I am posting AQA's response, in it's entirety as verified by them is appropriate and welcome.

"If a candidate’s script contains obscenities, examiners are instructed to contact AQA’s offices who will advise them in accordance with JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) guidelines. As a result, an obscenity should either be disregarded, or action will be taken against the candidate, depending on the seriousness of the case.
"The example cited was unique in the experience of the senior examiner concerned and was used in a pre-training session to emphasise the importance of adhering to the mark scheme: i.e. if a candidate makes any sort of response to a question then it must be at least given consideration to be awarded a mark.
"We do not condone the use of obscenities in scripts: in the light of this incident we will be reviewing our instructions to examiners which will include re-iterating the procedure to be followed when encountering obscenities in scripts."


Whilst this response clearly clarifies the situation, it is still fortunate that this situation has come to the notice of the public and AQA themselves. AQA can not tell me as yet, if any action is to be taken against the examiner concerned or whether his suggestions have been implemented in the marking of any other papers. We will wait and see.

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