Frude was from Vietnam (or not): How to avoid annoying examiners!

As we approach exam time and tackle all the revision necessary take a moment to think about sorting out all the potential niggles that will annoy the examiner marking the papers.How many students actually struggle to spell Psychology? Do a quick test in class. Just see who can’t. You may be surprised (or maybe you won’t). I have to emphasise how important it is to ensure they know how to spell the subject they are studying. It doesn’t look great on an exam script. There’s an easy solution to it too (other than learning it). Look on the exam paper! It’s written in large font in bold. Problem sorted.

Remembering psychologist’s names is a pet hate of students too. That’s understandable…just think about Van ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988). I wonder how many examiners can spell that one? It is not always necessary to be able to recite the name, but it is important to know the research. That said, if a name can be used it cuts down on the time needed to describe the research. There are key names that should be spelt correctly and often aren’t. How many times have you encountered Frude or Fraud (yes really) and his Vietnamese case studies?

This all seems trivial, and yes, it’s not going to make a world of difference to grades, but just picture the examiner in front of the screen marking the scripts. They have the decision to make which mark band to grade the essay at, then they read ‘Fraud, the psycologist said…’ The decision is made!

Have you encountered any classic misspellings?