New Zealand To Allow 'Text-Speak' On Exams

ScentCone writes "New Zealand's Qualification Authority (which sets testing standards for the public schools) is confident that those grading papers will understand the meaning of students' responses, even if they use phone/IM-style text-speak. From the article: 'credit will be given if the answer "clearly shows the required understanding," even if it contains text-speak.' Many teachers are not amused, and critics say that the move will devalue NZ's equivalent of a high school diploma." Not to mention that graders will need to be restrained so they don't gouge their own eyes out. While in the medium of text messages, some shorthand might be in order, but I didn't realize that world paper, pencil, and ink shortages were so severe so that text-speak is necessary everywhere.

Comments

appropriate

[Digitus1337]

omfg

In some ways, it is not that new

[happyrabit]

We could use abbreviated words on our exams before mobiles sms where common, it where the kind of abbreviations we used to note quickly what the professor told us in class, but it was probably less worse than actual text-speech of the younger generations :) Our abbreviated words where mostly the first and last letter with a line drawn uppon it, and those where allowed by the professors.
I want give any concrete examples as it was not in English, but in more mathematical courses we could write // instead of parallelism.
So it is not that new, but there are surely more 'abbreviated' words now.
But then again, I do not think it is that good for the students, and it want do them any good in their later professional life where communication skills are very important.