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

[Hadsuchahardday]

My son is currently doing his GCSEs. Although his handwriting is joined and cursive it is truly illegible and no doubt will be worse under time pressure. It is just a series of loops; letters such as a do not join at the top, tall letters are not particularly tall, r veers off at a diagonal. His spelling is also terrible which makes deciphering even harder. We’ve been told that exam papers are scanned and blown up and that different examiners mark each question. If the writing cannot be read, it is passed on to somebody more senior but what happens then? What if 4 people look at it and no one can read it? Will he be marked on what can only be read? He is a bright boy and could verbally answer the questions well, his predicted grades are generally 7-8 with a 6 and 9 for some. Answers from examiners greatly appreciated.

Yes-I mark for the largest exam board. We can refer scripts.

Some interesting (and conflicting) points made here from examiners. Looks like it differs by subject and exam board. His are edexcel I believe.
No teacher has ever said they can’t read his writing and I have repeatedly and explicitly asked.
I will look to buying a thinner nibbed pen as that was a good suggestion.
thanks again

OP unfortunately it’s far too late to be worrying about this now

This was not fiction. I was the teacher doing the transcribing. It was for an English paper. The student sat more than one paper and several subjects, across their exams, over several years, and only one paper was returned to me to transcribe. As an examiner we have been told to do our best but we do have team leaders to refer to (with our exam board and subject). There are also other options available for us to try, enlargement, colour change etc and we want to do our best for students. Obviously, we do have a lot of scripts to get through though and handwriting can be tricky to read.

Teaching cursive should be done away with, my son's perfectly neat and legible handwriting is just twice as hard to get through in cursive. Pointless.Very few people have decent cursive handwriting.

This sounds very similar to the situation with SQA exams. (I believe that the exam board has changed this year, however, so I can't speak for the 2026 Scottish exams.)

The Principal Assessor for Nat 5 English used to sample papers but also had problematic papers sent to him.

My son is currently sitting his a-level exams and is using a keyboard and screen for his exams because of his handwriting! Definitely speak to the school as it would be such a shame for your son to be disadvantaged in this way. All the best!

EDIT Just seen that your son is currently sitting his GCSEs. You could raise it for his next set of exams eg A Levels.

I work in an Exams Office and I haven’t read all the posts so someone may have already said this.

Usually if the writing is poor this will be flagged by the Subject teachers and the candidate / student will be assessed by the SENCO Team to make any reasonable adjustments to help him to work a way that gives him the same chance in exams as others entering. But these adjustments need to be their usual way of working. So School should have picked up on this if it is hard to decipher his writing and arranged for an assessment for using a laptop.

Thete are instances where Access Arrangements can be made during the Exam Season but this would usually be because something had happened that changed their way of working such as a broken arm or bad burn on their writing hand.

If he is going to 6th Form or College ask for him to be assessed at the start of the year.

if you are really concerned contact the school Exams Office tomorrow and ask if anything can be put in place to help so your know you have tried.

Good luck to him with the exams

I used to be an examiner at GCSE and A level. Everybody wants those good results: the student, the parents, the school for their OFSTED rating, and the exam board too because schools will choose the exam board they will do best with.
The candidate gets the benefit of the doubt and every effort will be made to give him credit where possible. If there are serious problems with deciphering manuscript the paper will be passed up the line.

You’re not going to get any of these if there is no identified underlying reason for the poor handwriting. Poor handwriting on its own has no allowances made for it. As an exams officer I’ve had students turn up at uni expecting to continue with the same allowances as they had been given at school, but my hands were tied and they were told they needed to focus on writing more clearly. Some university exams may be typed but there is a move back to handwritten in person exams to reduce opportunities to cheat. Any illegible scripts were returned to me by the university and the student was called in to dictate and have the papers transcribed. An inconvenience to them when their mates are off celebrating the end of exams. This obviously can’t happen with GCSEs.

No teacher has ever said they can’t read his writing

Then you're probably worrying unnecessarily.

My mum marks English GCSE.

If they can't read it then it gets flagged for a second person to take a look. If they second person can't read it then it is marked as incorrect.

His writing isn't too bad. As a teacher I probably would have flagged this up in Y10 as a candidate for using a word processor. I teach physics and encourage those with terrible writing to type their answers to prevent losing marks for bad handwriting.

I used to be asked to transcribe texts which were then submitted to the examiner with the original. I think nowadays a laptop would be a better solution. I would also suggest to your son that he tries to makr small changes e,g, not joining some letters to improve legibility. Whilst itis hard to change established handwriting, small changes are easier and can make a lot of difference to legibility.

As an exams officer usually the teachers would flag this with the SENCO & he would then be tested. He wouldn’t be offered a scribe just for bad handwriting, he would be offered a word processor. A WP is a centre approved adjustment and doesn’t have to be applied for through the JCQ, so there is nothing stopping your son having one now for the rest of his exams. If you feel he needs one ask the SENCO or exams officer. We have had students break there arm on a weekend and then come in on a Monday and we have given them a laptop for the remainder of their exams.

I’m a SENDCO and a senior examiner. I can read that. The clip isn’t sharp and it’s just random words not a full sentence so it hard to decode in this context.

He should have been referred at the start of year 10 if his writing was illegible. I’d be a high attainer? He looks like he is trying to write two lines in one squeeze more words in and his and is fluent and fluid.

at the exam board, we no longer escalate scripts for poor hand writing. I read it multiple times and if I can’t decode it I don’t mark it. I haven’t had a completey illegible script. And mark what I can decode.

what did teachers say during his mocks?

School should’ve picked up on this if it’s really bad.
i always thought the same re DS’s writing but he’s done well academically so it’s obviously not that bad!

Don’t worry - he has a glittering career ahead of him as a GP… 😀

Sometimes examiners will mark the whole script. Im an examiner. We generally do not refer up a script that is illegible and I cant remember the last time I did that. We mark what we can read. Handwriting gets worse under pressure so advise him to plan first.

If I can't read something I pass it on to the chief examiner. I believe they then make a decision and if illegible it is not marked and flagged with the school as an issue.
In 25 years of marking I have flagged three scripts.

As a former examiner for three different exam boards I can confirm that the paper will get looked over and over until they work out what he’s written. Though those marking are generally quite good at working out what has been written. If the grade doesn’t reflect his achievement at school you can definitely request a re-mark, though the mark (and grade) can go down as well as up.

Coming to this a bit late @Hadsuchahardday and while I am an examiner, it’s for spoken not written exams, so I cannot help there.

But – you say in your OP that your DS's writing is "truly illegible" – and yet more than once you say no teacher has flagged an issue and you have asked multiple times.

So is it actually illegible? Who says so? If teachers have been able to read it for his mocks, then it will not be an issue. As an aside, the photo you shared, even out of context and out of focus, is more than readable.

I had a student once in year 10 (which is when this issue needs to be looked for GCSE at the latest tbh) of whom the whole rest of the class said "he'll need a laptop miss, his writing is unreadable." It wasn't tho. It was neither neat nor pretty but I could easily read it so it was fine. Actually your DS's writing is quite neat and as I say, clearly readable. Others' comments about context and the repeated points made in many essays are also valid.

I agree.

Most people’s handwriting is neater and easier to read than when not writing in cursive.

It's pretty essential, because it's much quicker than printing.

Also, oddly, it helps with spelling; your hand just naturally gets the feel of various homophones. The best thing my son's dyslexia tutor did for him was to take his handwriting apart and get him writing in a beautiful cursive style, and his spelling was certainly improved by it. He ended up with nicer handwriting than his non-dyslexic siblings.

I am an Examiner of long standing and a teacher for many years.. The advantage iof scripts being marked on line is that the examiner can use the zoom facility, which can help. Another thing I did with my rather illegible pupils was to tell them to write on every other line: that can make it easier to read.Very, very occasionally, if the writing is completely illegible, it is only marked on what can be read.Every effort is made. If the handwriting is so bad, I am surprised the school has not done something about it. Sometimes typing is allowed, or scribing, and certainly extra time, if the handwriting is due to something like dyspraxia, and if spelling is very poor it may be dyslexia as well
,but a proper assessment is needed and it is expensive, but worth it.Alternatively,there are sets of handwriting books which do help, if worked through, though a bit late now.

I don't mark School level exams, but know enough about the system to say that the school should have flagged any major concerns and made reasonable adjustments well before the exams started. So, either, they don't have any as they can read his work, or they have been very remiss in their duties. I don't know how exam boards work, but at University level (in my University) I have had two occasions where I could not read enough of the script - perhaps only about a third - to feel confident in awarding a fair mark. On those occasions, the student came in and dictated the script in a room with an invigilator who recorded it. It was then transcribed and compared to the original and I then marked the transcribed version. From memory, I think they also had to verbally add in the punctuation and paragraph breaks as well. Would also agree with all the advice about writing on the lines and getting a finer nibbed pen btw.