Spell check on exams

The Oregon Department of Education is going to allow test takers to use spell check on state exams.  This is a dumb idea.1

I remember when I had to take a big exam after grad school – I handwrote the exam because I didn’t want to be one of those victims of a sudden power outage.  There were times when I would have liked to have used a longer more high-falutin’ word, but I am a profoundly terrible speller.  If you can’t spell a word, don’t use it.  It’s a simple as that.  Yes, I suppose your students won’t have to concentrate on spelling so they can theoretically focus on content.

Grr.

  1. I’m hoping to increase their SEO mojo for the keywords “dumb ideas” []

One thought on “Spell check on exams

  1. I had a boss who couldn’t spell – so he started using a spellchecker with hilarious results.

    There were so many errors I couldn’t possibly recall them all, but my favorite… to cancel a contract, he wrote “I wish to resend this contract.”

    “Computers: helping us make bigger and better mistakes for decades”

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