In message , Richard J.
writes

Paul Terry wrote:

At A level, marks are allocated for SPG (Spelling, Punctuation and
Grammar) in all papers involving prose answers, whatever the
subject. This has been the case for many years.

That directly contradicts a report I saw recently in The Times

On the contrary, the Times is correct - but because it has told you only
part of the story, you have drawn the wrong conclusion.

which quoted an A-level examiner as saying he was under strict
instructions *not* to penalise even gross errors of spelling such as
"he would of" instead of "he would have".

Quite apart from the fact that that is not a spelling error, even the
word "penalise" is a gross misunderstanding of how exams are marked. You
get marks for what you show you can do. If you can't spell, you don't
get the marks - simple as that. Exams are not marked by starting with
100% and then deducting penalties for what hasn't been achieved!

For instance, in AL History spelling and syntax must be "generally
secure" to get any mark other than zero. In other subjects, a small
number of specific marks are awarded for quality of communication. For
instance, in order to get full marks for this category in an ICT paper,
the work must display "excellent spelling, punctuation and grammar".

So, the Times is right - examiners don't penalise individual spelling
errors (or anything else for that matter), but they do award marks for
good spelling, punctuation and grammar - and in every subject in which
prose answers are required. This, incidentally, is a government
requirement of exam boards, and is policed by QCA. Markschemes are
published on the WWW so it is not hard to verify this sort of thing.

This is way off topic for this newsgroup, so follow-ups to poster (who
was, BTW, an A-level Chief Examiner for many years) please.
--
Paul Terry