GCSE marking and handwriting

[Emochild]

Dd has been told that because gcse papers are scanned, her style of writing won't be recognised and she needs to change it

She has beautiful cursive writing but her teachers are now telling her that she needs to stop looping her letters (mainly y and g) as the computer won't be able to read it

Seems like something minor but it's really slowing her writing down and she's worried about exams

Are her teachers correct?
I thought they just got scanned and the people marking the papers see the handwritten answers -which in dd's case, any human would be able to read easily

[Wolfiefan]

What year is she in? Y11? Too short notice to suddenly demand she changes how she writes. She will be worried about that rather than focusing on answering a question!
What subjects? I taught English many moons ago and markers got the physical scripts.
Perhaps speak to the exam officer for advice? Exams are hard enough without this kind of pressure.

[noblegiraffe]

Papers are scanned but not converted to text as far as I'm aware, otherwise loads of kids with terrible writing will be scoring zero.

[Amalfimamma]

AFAIK the written Exmouth are now scanned and corrected electronically so she would need to write in a way which could leave no room for doubt or error.

I am an ESOL examiner and assessor and I do tell candidates to write in capital block letters so that there is little room for misunderstanding and a J can't be mistaken for a Y.

[leccybill]

I think telling Y11 to write in block capitals would go against everything they have been taught, and slow them down considerably.
Cursive is quick and neat, usually.
Can you read her writing, op?

[WyfOfBathe]

Papers are scanned in, but not converted into text. The marker sees a "photo" of the exam paper on the screen. So, the computer doesn't read the paper.

The only problem with handwriting would be if it was so bad that the (human) marker couldn't read it, but cursive is definitely fine.

[Emochild]

She's year 10

Her handwriting is really easy to read -its regular sized, well presented, joins are consistent etc etc

[Rumtopf]

I've just scribed a load of mock exams for some year 11 pupils. At no point was I told that my cursive handwriting was unacceptable.

[catslife]

You are correct. The papers get scanned into the system and the examiner effectively sees the candidate's written answer for each question.
In some ways the computer system can make it easier to read some scripts as it's possible to enlarge writing when needed for example.
Your dds writing should be fine.
I think some multiple choice - type questions, where the answer is a letter e.g. A, B C etc. may be read electronically and computer marked, for some papers (I think this may be what Amalfimama means) but for long and short written answers, your understanding is correct.

[Rosieposy4]

Her writing sounds fine. Papers are scanned in and as an examiner you see the scanned text directly. Please do not tell her to write in block capitals, incorrect for most subjects, difficult to read and slow to write.
The only kids that have problems are those with very illegible handwriting who probably should have had access arrangements for a scribe.
( i mark several different papers for a very popular exam board, i know the arrangements to be the same for several other exam boards )