Word: grader
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Carswell's winning entry, "Beating the System," appeared on the editorial page of the CRIMSON on June 14 of last year. It contained detailed instructions on how the academically unprepared student could fool the grader on his exams. His thesis was outlined under three headings, "The Vague Generality," "The Artful Equivocation," and "The Overpowering Assumption...
...with a couble of sentences which though in English are in an obviously foreign word order. It is wise to use a language which vaguely corresponds with the surname of the writer. At the sight of this peculiarly phrased sentence, the following train of thought inevitably goes through the grader's mind: "Gee this guy is obviously a foreigner; must have come all the way from Bulgaria just to go to Harvard. Anybody who would travel that far to go to school must have something on the ball." That's all there is to it. Once the grader has decided...
...whether they are understood or not, gets a passing grade. To take advantage of this, the man who knows little or nothing and therefore has lots of spare time during the exam, embroiders his margins with a host of irrelegant facts. There then exists the outside chance that the grader will mark it like a Radcliffe paper, on the sheer weight of the facts included...
...rare occasion where he knows the name of a book, then all is fine. He just states the reference thusly "As Professor Banana says on page 207 of his work, 'The Dynamics of Idiocy.'" It really doesn't make any difference whether the page number is right--the grader certainly won't look it up. As a matter of fact, it is often wise to pick a couple of one line quotes out of books and memorize them--it adds authenticity to your fiction...
...text Fairfield discusses such problems as the vague generality which will enable the student to impress the course grader. Fairfield cites a number of statements which he then explains can be used in any examination in that particular field...