ABSTRACT
One of the less enjoyable tasks that must be undertaken by university teachers involves the marking of written examination scripts. In amongst the cramped and illegible handwriting and excruciating grammar and spelling lurks the occasional gem of well-written prose and lucid exposition. Unfortunately, some of these gems lose much of their sparkle on closer inspection as they reveal themselves to be answers to questions that were not actually set. Sometimes the student has misread or misinterpreted the question and set off on a different tack than that intended by the examiner. In other cases, faced with an obviously obtuse examiner who has unhelpfully set the ‘wrong’ question (i.e. one the student did not expect or has not prepared for), the student has simply ignored the actual question and produced the prepared answer. In either case, the answer, whatever its other merits, fails to answer the question set and inevitably results in a poor mark.
