Posted on December 9th, 2008 by Barry Collins
Exam board defines “short graphic file” and defies logic
The exam board Edexcel isn’t covering itself in glory this week. Yesterday we reported how the board failed hundreds of teenage students because their work was submitted in the wrong format. Now, a teacher’s been in touch to reveal an alarming lack of know-how from the board’s so-called IT “Experts”.
Puzzled by an Edexcel paper that demanded his pupils produce a document containing ”a short graphic file from the internet”, our man sent a letter to the board’s experts to find out exactly what they meant.
Here’s the Expert’s reply:
I think it means small graphic file and the intention was probably purely practical to avoid learners bringing in very large files that then gave difficulties in managing or storing the final document. I don’t think that it is a critical verb and that learners should not be failed because they brought in slightly taller (ie larger) files.
It’s nice to know our kids are in such expert hands, isn’t it?
3 Responses to “ Exam board defines “short graphic file” and defies logic ”
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December 9th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
what? a verb as in:
I short
You short
He shorts
I didn’t know you could short-sell “graphic” files :-~
December 10th, 2008 at 12:07 am
I took GCSE IT 10 years ago and I remember it being a farce back then. It seems as though things haven’t changed.
I remember one question asked for three advantages of using a floppy disk over a CD. One of the answers they did NOT accept was that the floppy was less liable to damage by scratching. By mate offered to conduct a test by using the sharp end of his compass on both and seeing which was better off afterwards. They had a point that floppy disks are pretty vulnerable but still, poor quality questions were rife.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Perhaps Edexcel means vector graphics? So a vertical line would do. A submission of a line 1 pixel long should get full marks for being about as short as you can go.
Much more worrying is that the real magazine article also expands that the student must “use commercial software”. Commercial relates to buying and selling and as such would preclude any submissions using open source. What a nonsense.
Hopefully the Edexcel markers can use discretion.