The Answer Key and the 'than I / than me' Dispute
Class 8 has 38 students preparing for a half-yearly examination set on the state board's formal written English syllabus. In the last unit test, item 12 asked students to fill in the blank: 'Rohan is taller than ____ (I/me).' The examination committee's key accepts only 'I'. Fourteen students wrote 'me', including two fluent speakers who argue that 'than me' appears in newspapers and sounds natural. The item carries two marks, and the pass mark is 33 per cent; the difference decides whether six students move from 32 to 34. School policy says the key is final unless a factual error is established. The teacher has one revision period before the paper is shown to parents and must decide whether to award the marks, how to explain the decision, and what to change in the next lesson. The textbook chapter on comparisons gives 'than I' in examples but never discusses register or informal usage.
1. Should the teacher award the two marks to the students who wrote 'me'? Give a reasoned decision, not just a verdict.
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Separate three questions: what the item actually tests, whether the key is factually wrong, and what is fair to these 38 students.
- Grammar: 'Than' can be treated as a conjunction with an elliptical clause ('than I am tall') or as a preposition ('than me'). Formal written English prescribes 'than I'; informal standard English widely accepts 'than me'. The key is therefore defensible for formal usage, but the item never signals register.
- Item quality: The instruction is only 'fill in the blank'. A student choosing natural informal usage has not made a factual error; the item is under-specified. School policy does not force the teacher to defend an under-specified key.
- Fairness: Fourteen of 38 students, including strong speakers, read the item differently. Giving them zero would mostly measure test-wiseness about register, not their grasp of comparison.
Decision: Award the two marks for both 'I' and 'me' on this test, or void the item and give all students the marks. Record the reason in the item-analysis sheet and tell students that formal written examinations usually expect 'than I'. Do not silently change the key without documentation. If the board syllabus explicitly prescribes 'than I' and the class was taught that rule, the teacher may retain the key, but must still explain the register point and accept that the item is testing a convention.
2. How should the teacher use the revision period so that students learn the underlying grammar rather than just hearing the verdict?
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Use a short contrast-and-test sequence rather than a rule lecture.
- Show both forms in full clauses: 'Rohan is taller than I am' and 'Rohan is taller than me.' Ask students what word is missing in the first version. This makes the elliptical clause visible.
- Teach the register distinction: Formal written English tends to keep the subject form after 'than'; informal speech and journalism often use the object form. Neither is a spelling error, but examinations reward the formal pattern.
- Give a quick substitution test: Expand the clause: 'She sings better than he (does)' versus 'She sings better than him.' Students decide which sentence sounds formal and which sounds conversational.
- Check understanding with four new items in different contexts, including one where 'than' is clearly a preposition ('He is taller than me by two inches'). Do not reuse the test item.
Close by stating the examination rule plainly: 'In this paper, use the formal written form; in speech, both occur.' This preserves accuracy without telling fluent speakers that their natural English is wrong.
3. What follow-up action should the teacher take so that this dispute improves future test items?
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Treat the incident as an item-writing problem, not only a marking problem.
- Rewrite the item with context: 'In a formal letter, write: Rohan is taller than ____.' Adding register makes the intended answer defensible.
- Check the item bank: Look for other items that test prescriptive conventions without signalling register, such as 'between you and I/me' or 'who/whom'. Flag them for review.
- Record item statistics: Note that 14 of 38 chose the non-key answer. A distractor chosen by more than one-third of the class usually signals ambiguity, a teaching gap, or both.
- Discuss with the examination committee: Ask for a standing rule on disputed items: accept both defensible answers, void the item, or retain the key with a written rationale.
- Follow up in writing: Give a five-item diagnostic later. If most students can now choose the formal form in a formal context, the reteaching worked; if not, reteach with more examples rather than simply re-testing the same point.