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I was told by the administrator that no information was to be given to the pupils, and that I had to leave the locale.

Although there are times (such as this) when it seems harsh, the rule that invigilators must not give information about questions is a good one.

In a major test there may be dozens of sittings and dozens of invigilators; if they were each to give advice based on their own interpretation of a question, there can be no doubt that the information will not be consistent. Unless an amendment to a paper has been advised to invigilators and examination centres in advance, no information should be given to candidates. The standard City and Guilds rule (and I instruct all my invigilators to abide by it) is that no advice can be given about questions and that candidates who believe that a question is wrong or unclear should annotate their answer books accordingly so that assessor can take their comments into consideration.

Normally I'd agree. However with the standards of the papers we have received if we applied this rule rigourously we would have a guaranteed 100% failure rate.

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Normally I'd agree. However with the standards of the papers we have received if we applied this rule rigourously we would have a guaranteed 100% failure rate.

If you have evidence of this then I think a letter to Chris Humphries is called for. There is no reason whatsoever why test papers cannot be produced to the same standards of accuracy as any other publication - apart from idleness and incompetence, of course.

I'll pass your suggestion on to my line manager. I do know that when I queried the papers to him this time he said that after last year a detailed list of all the problems was provided but that nothing has been done. Now whether or not that's accurate and who the list was addressed to I couldn't say. I do recall making the same complaints to my manager last year though. I will also put them in writing, again to my manager - it's his place to go to the board - and see what happens.

We recently had an interesting situation. The testing company has a rule that the college entrance exams (ACT) must be administered at 9:00 sharp, in order to be counted. In our area the results of 627 exams were thrown out because the schools didn't start the exam until 9:50 or so. The tests must be taken at the same time so that everyone takes the exam under the same conditions. Many of the kids were very disappointed that the colleges wouldn't see these results. These are very important tests. Wouldn't you think the schools could at least start the exams on time?

Question for our British posters: I first saw Arnie talking about "maths," and I figured it was a typo. Then Di talked about her "maths." We say "math." It is similar to our saying the sports page, and your saying the sport page. You'd think we at least be consistent with our s's.

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I'll pass your suggestion on to my line manager. I do know that when I queried the papers to him this time he said that after last year a detailed list of all the problems was provided but that nothing has been done.

I have found that the C & G "quality control" department has little to do with control and nothing at all to do with quality. The man who runs it (and I won't mention his name here) is about as much use as a chocolate teapot and doesn't even answer letters. He is a fine example of the way that useless people can hide in big organisations throughout their working lives, simply by keeping quiet most of the time and sucking up when they see the need to.

In my experience it's only by writing directly to the Director General that you get past the layers of obfuscators and get something done. C & G's present DG is Chris Humphries CBE, and you can find him at 1 Giltspur Street, London, EC1A 9DD.

Incidentally, I'd not pass it to my line manager if I were in your position; I'd write the letter myself and wave it in front of my line manager to get his approval. The only danger of this apporoach is that you might find that you are approached by C & G to sit on the moderating committee - they are always short of good people. Mind you, they do pay your expenses and a small fee, so it's worthwhile, especially if you are receiving a salary from your employer at the same time!

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Question for our British posters: I first saw Arnie talking about "maths," and I figured it was a typo. Then Di talked about her "maths." We say "math." It is similar to our saying the sports page, and your saying the sport page. You'd think we at least be consistent with our s's

Yes. We abbreviate "mathematics" to "maths". Which means that, for two reasons, the initial couplet in Tom Lehrer's wonderful song "My home town" which goes:

"The guy who taught us math
And never took a bath
Aquired a certain measure of renown.
For after school he sold the most amazing pictures
In my home town".

doesn't work well for us

Well, most of us were so lazy at school virtually everything was abbreviated- "chem" for chemistry, "geog" for geography, even sociology became "soce". Bone idle, the lot of us- typical teenagers I suppose to use a single short word- grunting is their normal speech after all.

grunting is their normal speech after all

I don't think I've posted about the various cutesy names linguists use to categorize the various linguistic hypothoses of language origin: ding-dong, bow-wow, pooh-pooh, ta-ta, uh-oh, yo-he-ho, et al. It is funny to hear a grown man or woman giving an academic lecture dropping these terms, though, to be honest, they are mostly used disparagingly.

[Corrected misspelling of cutesy.]

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Sorry, but what does the word "cutsie" mean?

Sorry, but what does the word "cutsie" mean?

It was my idiosyncratic spelling of cutesy.

Cutsie? Isn't that German for "I cut you?"

Speaking of German, how did a guy named Messerschmitt end up building airplanes!?!? He shoulda been Chris Strolin's supplier instead!

So what does Messerschmitt actually mean? You know I've been interested in aviation since I was young and I've never ever thought about that before. I assume the 'schmitt' bit means 'smith', but what sort of smith?

Messer, as Asa indicates above is "knife" but whether there is any meaning, beyond it being just a name, to Messerschmitt, I couldn't say. Froeschlein's your man for this question.

(I did check my dictionary which gives cutler as Messerschmied).

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Originally posted by BobHale:
Messer, as Asa indicates above is "knife" but whether there is any meaning, beyond it being just a name, to Messerschmitt, I couldn't say. Froeschlein's your man for this question.

(I did check my dictionary which gives cutler as Messerschmied).

bh, you're right on the money, it does indeed mean cutler (and thanks for the word: I knew there had to be something in English besides 'knifesmith' ).

According to the Deutsches Namenlexikon: Schmied > Schmidt > Schmitt

Fröschlein

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Originally posted by Erik Johansen:
So what does Messerschmitt actually mean? I've been interested in aviation since I was young and I've never ever thought about that before.

Oh, a fellow aviation nut! PM me and tell me more.

The Telegraph on American writers trying to write British English, and British authors trying the reverse.

You talkin' to me?

Interesting, Arnie! I thought this comment was a bit...well...insulting: "And, of course, some allowance should probably be made for the gap between the tastes of the American media elite, often Anglophile in tendency if not actually English by birth, and the mass of Americans." The "mass of Americans"?

Also, I didn't get the [sic] here: "Membership [sic] has its privileges."

But surely we Americans do equate "smashing" with being British. Also "cheerio" and "pip pip" and "daft."

I equate "daft" with ME!

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The "mass of Americans"?

Yes, that could be taken as slightly insulting, but I'm sure it wasn't meant to be. I'd bet the author could have used a more insulting word if he really wanted to. "Lumpenproletariat", perhaps?

I think the [sic] refers to Sir Leigh Teabing's mention of his knighthood and membership. As a knight, he's not necessarily a member of anything.

I was waiting for the train today, and a Winston Churchill admirer was telling me why he thought Churchill was the most important person in the 20th Century. Then he said that the British keep it a secret, but...that Churchill's mother was American. I hadn't known that! The gentleman, being Jewish, said that to Jews that means that Churchill was really American.

I don't think we ever kept it a secret. Churchill's mother was Jenny Jerome, daughter of Leonard Jerome, from Brooklyn, NY.

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Originally posted by arnie:
I don't think we ever kept it a secret. Churchill's mother was Jenny Jerome, daughter of Leonard Jerome, from Brooklyn, NY.

We not only didn't keep it secret, we actually made a TV series about her !

Alright.

I have invited a speaker from Scotland, and our conversations have been interesting. I asked her to send me her credentials, which I need to include on the flyer. She had no idea what I meant and asked if I wanted a list of qualifications (I don't know what the heck that is!), a CV (that's customary here, but usually goes on for lots of pages), or a mini-biography (again...not clue; biography?). So we laughed a bit about our misunderstandings, and she mentioned her family in the states talking about "diapers," which to them is "nappies" and "thumb tacks," which to them are "drawing pins." Actually, we sometimes refer to "thumb tacks" as "push pins," but not "drawing pins."

I think I am going to like her, and maybe I will get her to post a little with us.

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