pilotmike,
I'm not at all sure about your generalisations. I've become far BETTER at taking criticism as I've got older. As a child and teenager, I had no confidence whatsoever. Therefore I just HAD to be right. Any criticism of anything I did felt like a criticism of me as a human being, and I'd fight it like mad. Now...well, basically I don't give a damn. If I make a mistake, so be it, and I'll learn from it. I'm old enough to be happy in my own skin, so criticism is no big deal.
I'm not an examiner, but as an instructor I find that you need to find ways of pointing things out to students without criticising. And it's not just the words you use; you have to stop your own attitude being critical, or people will pick up on that. And it's the less confident ones who have the hardest time with this sort of thing...as I used to.
I realise this must be a lot harder for an examiner....not sure how I'd go about that.
