A BRITISH high school student was awarded marks for writing nothing but a two-word obscenity on an exam paper because the phrase expressed meaning and was spelt correctly.

The student, who wrote 'f*** off' after being asked in an English exam to 'describe the room you are sitting in', got two marks out of 27 and would have scored higher if he had added some punctuation, chief examiner Peter Buckroyd told The Times.

'It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling,' Mr Buckroyd was quoted as saying.

'It's better than someone who doesn't write anything at all.'

Mr Buckroyd is a senior examiner for the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, one of several bodies that grade British high school exams, and the incident took place in 2006.

The alliance confirmed the newspaper's story but said Mr Buckroyd's decision to award the student marks was not official policy. It said obscenities on exam papers 'should either be disregarded, or action taken against the candidate, depending on the seriousness of the case'.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS