Anyone out there worried about upcoming exams?

We know how you feel here at hecklerspray. We've got something of a test coming up ourselves. Well, it's actually more of a 'court case', to be honest, but we can assure you that those nervous jitters are completely the same. Hell – if we fail that all-important 'why exactly where you stood on a box looking inside Hilary Duff's dressing room' segment, we don't know what we're going to do.

Seriously, though, kids: exams are important. Study hard and stay in school. Yeah, yeah, we know it may be more tempting to sniff loads of glue and try to hoist up Tracy Ashman's skirt behind the bike shed than to sit down and ponder over equations. But no-one ever said life was going to be fun. You hear us? No-one.

Besides. You could always take consolation in one small thing. Apparently you can now use Wikipedia as a valuable research tool.

Wikipedia – the online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone – has long come under criticism for being notoriously unreliable. Even site founder Jimmy Wales admitted this, claiming that the site shouldn't be used for academic purposes at all. Unless, of course, you wanted to find out about that time Hitler invaded Bibble-Bobble-Land on a scooter made of bumhairs.

Wales has since changed his tune, however, revealing to the Online Information Conference in London that:

''It's a bad educator that bans their students from reading Wikipedia."

Wales went on to insist that fact-checking standards had improved immeasurably, and that the modern-day Wikipedia was a shining beacon of factual accuracy. Bizarrely, he also seemed to imply that Wikipedia was some form of teenage rebellion, citing in comparison that:

"You can ban kids from listening to rock 'n' roll music, but they're going to do it anyway.''

Man oh man – who knows what's going to happen? One minute those crazy kids could be checking up on their online facts, the next they could be sharing milkshakes and racing Chevys around Dead Man's Gorge. Society is going to hell in a handcart, let us tell you.

It was all Encarta around here in our day …

Read More:

Students should use Wikipedia: founder – Yahoo