THAT CHRONICLES EXAM QUESTION PART 2
A past posting was about an English GCSE exam paper set this year (apparently by the OCR exam board as part of their 'English Paper 1: Media, Non-Fiction and Information'), which included a "comprehension" question based on a passage from Chronicles Volume One.
Now I note that in the current Private Eye they have a feature titled 'The Examiners Examined' in which they name and shame particular exam boards in categories like 'Most predictable questions'. The article cites the OCR board's use of Dylan under 'Most pathetic attempt to be hip' and then - itself somewhat predictably - offers under 'Most impossible question' the fact that "In the same [exam] paper pupils were asked to "explain concisely" Dylan's thoughts.'
An old friend, the writer Nigel Fountain, would not have been lost for an answer. In the mid-1960s, with only minutes left in a politics exam, and still needing to answer one more entire essay question, he tackled the one that demanded " 'We shall overcome'. Overcome what?" His very concise offering was "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind."
Now I note that in the current Private Eye they have a feature titled 'The Examiners Examined' in which they name and shame particular exam boards in categories like 'Most predictable questions'. The article cites the OCR board's use of Dylan under 'Most pathetic attempt to be hip' and then - itself somewhat predictably - offers under 'Most impossible question' the fact that "In the same [exam] paper pupils were asked to "explain concisely" Dylan's thoughts.'
An old friend, the writer Nigel Fountain, would not have been lost for an answer. In the mid-1960s, with only minutes left in a politics exam, and still needing to answer one more entire essay question, he tackled the one that demanded " 'We shall overcome'. Overcome what?" His very concise offering was "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind."
posted by Michael Gray | 1:56 pm
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