AIBU to ask current or former GCSE examiners what happens with illegible handwriting?

I’m an examiner in an essay subject and don’t think that’s illegible. As others have said, you’re not reading a completely novel piece of writing; you’ve read many other responses to the same question so you’re attuned to the vocabulary used again and again. I marked a thousand essay responses last year and only passed one on because I couldn’t read it, and that was because it was at the end of the day and I was really tired which made it harder.

DS18’s writing is not much better, and he got 9s & 8s, including 9 in English Lit.

I’m an HE humanities lecturer so I’ve marked a lot of written work over thirty years. A lot can be worked out from the context, but he should be advised to space it out better. There’s no reason why he should be squeezing two lines on to a single line on the answer booklet. I do some invigilation at a nearby school and was asked last week to remind one pupil at the start of the exam not to do this.

Nope, the teachers decide usually by year 10. As I said, it was flagged in year 9 for my DS basically by two teachers who had taught him since year 7 and said it had taken them that long to get used to his handwriting! They raised concerns but said they’d see if it improved by year 10, which it did so he’s not using a laptop.

I can definitely read it more now than before. It’s partly because it’s cursive which I think looks messier regardless. He’s also a leftie so has more ink smudges than righties and his brain goes too fast for his hands to be frank so he writes really quickly.

Sorry to jump on the thread but does anyone know if a formal diagnosis is needed to be given adjustments in exams, for example dysgraphia? Also is poor handwriting likely to be flagged by school if it’s a cause for concern?

I can't say for sure but 20 years ago when I was a student I had an Alevel paper marked as a U. A complete anomoly from every other paper where I got high grades. I can only think it was my awful handwriting meaning they wouldn't mark it. I didn't contest it as my grades were good enough to go to university anyway, but it would certainly suggest illegible handwriting can be an issue depending on your examiner.

Oh and also if they marked his mocks fine I wouldn’t worry about it, they mustn’t be concerned.

His writing isnt bad at all to me.

Teachers pick up on this early- from year 9 and if there’s no marked improvement, they advise the student sits it on a laptop. I know because my DS was told he might have to sit exams on a laptop in yr 9 but it has improved a little so he doesn’t have to. He’s a leftie so ink smudges have been an issue. I think cursive writing is hideous and they should stop forcing children to do it. It looks much messier than print.

My DC is taking GCSEs at the moment and this is exactly how’s it happened for them. They were put onto a laptop about 4 months ago. The school should have been on top of this.

Has he seen an ed psych, is he SEN? If his handwriting is poor due to SEN he may be entitled to extra time and the use of a computer in exams.

In the middle of exams there is no way to get a laptop or scribe now.

I do think teachers get their eye in. My son types but a couple of his teachers wondered why because they never had any trouble deciphering his handwriting. I literally don't understand this, he has so many missing letters I don't see how they managed it.

I think it probably helps that they often know what key words they are looking for.

Take him pen shopping too - finding a comfortable, fine-nibbed, non-smudgy pen really helped. (buy 10 when you find one that does the trick!)

It is their job to decipher it. They will do so.

Also I have seen worse than your son’s and the examiners deciphered those.

I’m an examiner and can read most of it. But as a previous poster said - tell him to write between the lines (not on the line). Thinner pen might help. His teachers should have flagged it ages ago if his writing was unintelligible.

Exam markers work in teams so in the first instance if one marker can't decipher a paper it will be passed to other members of the team to look at, and then on to the team leader if necessary. If they're still struggling then the exam board may pass the paper back to the school so that teachers who are familiar with the child's work can have a go at de-coding it - this usually works well. If a paper is illegible they go to very great lengths to mark it - it won't just be cast aside. (My closest friend is an Eng Lit marker for WJEC so I asked her about this last year when I was worried about one of my kids doing GCSEs with dreadful handwriting).

This should have been flagged by the school for appropriate help to be put in place.

My son from year 9 was a full time laptop user as they couldn’t read his writing.

I currently mark for two exam boards and if we can't read it they don't get the marks. There's no passing it on anywhere for anyone else to look at. You just mark whatever you can decipher. I mark a Science subject so I can't say if it's any different for essay subjects. If his handwriting is a problem due to anything diagnosable (e.g. hyper mobility or dyspraxia) then school really ought to have looked at providing a computer or scribe. If he just rushes and/or is messy for no good reason then no adjustments would be possible and he'll have to make an effort to write more clearly. The school should have discussed this with you long before his exams. I wish him the best of luck!

My son is in year 8, and this has recently been raised as a concern. His school is giving him 6 weeks of handwriting "intervention" - and if that doesn't help - then he will be able to do his exams on a laptop.

DS has awful writing and now uses a laptop in exams at college but it wasn't picked up on in time for GCSE
He scored lower than expected in the 2 most essay heavy subjects he did and his school suggested a remark for both - his marks went up by 8 marks on 1 and 6 on another and I am convinced his handwriting played a part in it

I also read old docs and back in the day used to mark handwritten exams. You do "get your eye in" and you can do a lot from guessing the sense. Examiners mark so many answers and students write similar things so that you can guess whether its "possession" or "position," say.

What's actually stopping me from reading the snippet you posted quickly is the quality of the image. I can make out a lot of the words (he's writing about music, yes?) But he'd benefit from not writing two lines to a line on the paper.

Some students are provided with the following,

Exam papers in certain colours

Extra time

Laptops to type

A scribe (a one to one person who reads the exam paper & will write exactly what the student dictates)

All the above exceptions will have been agreed during the mock exams

I second the advice from @WhatAMarvelousTune. For the subjects my son could not use a computer for he was told to write big to make it more legible.

Nothing that useful to add but two of my kids had the most awful writing, I can’t believe they didn’t lose marks on exams because of it. Every single parent teacher meeting started with a rant from the teacher about how awful their handwriting was. My daughters but have unusually neat handwriting so I don’t know why theirs is so bad.

I don’t think your sons is too bad tbh. I can mostly read it so presumably when an examiner can see a whole page of it they should be able to decipher it.
Is his presentation ok otherwise.

One of my kids that wrote badly also had very poor presentation which must have lost him even more marks. It was frustrating but neither of them seemed to care about it. They were bright so it hasn’t hurt them in the long run at all but I can t help feel sorry for whoever had to mark their papers. One is a Doctor and the other has a PhD in a physics subject. The one that is a Doctor has reverted to writing in capitals. It’s childlike but perectly readable.

It wasn’t a matter of poor fine motor skills as they were perfectly capable when playing games online or when painting war hammer.

Interesting question my son is year 10 and I can’t read his writing but school haven’t raised any concerns although he has just been given 25% extra time.

Why is he squeezing two lines of writing into one line of the paper? Wouldn’t he be better off writing a bit bigger?