Marks given for ‘f**k off’

A pupil gained 7.5% in his English GCSE exam for answering ‘f**k off’, it has been reported.

The question asked students to describe the room they were sitting in, but the expletive itself gained two marks out of a possible 27 for accurate spelling and effective communication, according to The Times.

Chief examiner Peter Buckroyd told the paper the student would have got more marks if he’d added some punctuation.

"It would be wicked to give it zero, because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for -- like conveying some meaning and some spelling," said Buckroyd, who works for the AQA examinations board.

"It shows some nominal skills but no relevance to the task."

"If it had had an exclamation mark it would have got a little bit more because it would have been showing a little bit of skill."

To gain minimum marks in an English GCSE exam, students must demonstrate ’some simple sequencing of ideas' and 'some words in appropriate order'.