Marks lost for illegibility? (1 Viewer)

[Venom.]

I'm a bit worried about this; my writing has become close to illegible during memorisation for Paper 2, I'm wondering if they'll take marks off for not being legible?

My school did for trials, I lost up to 10 marks due to poor handwriting in all sections.

Someone reassure me.

 

[Aerath]

Um, yeah, you're pretty screwed if they can't read it. You don't -lose- marks (directly) from illegible handwriting. What you do lose marks for is fluency (if the marker has to stop every 4th word to ad lib what you've written), or even, if they cannot read whole paragraphs, they treat it as if nothing's there.

But my teacher said that they will make every effort to read what you've written.

 

[boxhunter91]

Um, yeah, you're pretty screwed if they can't read it. You don't -lose- marks (directly) from illegible handwriting. What you do lose marks for is fluency (if the marker has to stop every 4th word to ad lib what you've written), or even, if they cannot read whole paragraphs, they treat it as if nothing's there.

But my teacher said that they will make every effort to read what you've written.

Thanks Aerath thats good to know.
Just try write bigger in the exam. It may help.

 

[jonesay]

too late for a scribe i guess

 

[zeleboy]

They'll award you marks for what they can read

 

[bmn]

I lost a lot of marks in my trials for poor handwriting too... Only English though.

Thanks Aerath thats good to know.
Just try write bigger in the exam. It may help.

I write messier when I write bigger...

I've heard that if a marker can't read it, they give it to a marker who can?

 

[boxhunter91]

Yeh they will. They want to give you marks so they'll do every effort to read it.
How could you write messier when bigger?

 

[mazarati]

I'm a bit worried about this; my writing has become close to illegible during memorisation for Paper 2, I'm wondering if they'll take marks off for not being legible?

My school did for trials, I lost up to 10 marks due to poor handwriting in all sections.

Someone reassure me.

reassurance....

well, the markers have had so much practice deciphering handwriting that they might not have too much trouble with yours x)

 

[Uncle]

From the 2001 HSC onwards they do not deduct marks, it's all positive marking.
They all start from zero and then:

They'll award you marks for what they can read

 

[ashllis92]

they can't be expected to award you marks for something they cant even read but they will make every effort to read it even if this means photocopying it and making it huge and stuff, i know hsc markers who have had to do this, they really do want to give you marks

 

[rokkuguhyo]

Apparently, starting from 2012, HSC students won't need to worry about illegible writing:

Technology pushes HSC on to laptops

 

[marcquelle]

that sucks, i can type so much faster than i can right and now, they get to do it on laptops, > Oh well cest la vive

 

[-may-cat-]

The markers are incredible at deciphering bad handwriting, my hand writing is shocking, i'm talking really, really bad and like you i stressed out pretty hard that they wouldn't be able to read it. Yet my marks still pretty much represented what i thought i would get so don't worry too much, they are used to it.

 

[clintmyster]

The markers are incredible at deciphering bad handwriting, my hand writing is shocking, i'm talking really, really bad and like you i stressed out pretty hard that they wouldn't be able to read it. Yet my marks still pretty much represented what i thought i would get so don't worry too much, they are used to it.

+1

English teachers are the most dedicated to deciphering writing particularly in modules because they understand the sheer pressure we're under to get stuff down. My stupid ancient teacher said it cost me 15 marks tho so I was pretty darn pissed =[

 

[askrach]

as if the sound of 100+ people typing wouldn't be extremely irritating in an exam? that would drive me crazy

 

[GrassFarm]

They'll blow it up to A3 size and if it still can't be read then.. unlucky.

 

[cem]

I don't know what subject enlarges them to A3 but I can assure you that they don't in Modern History.

We don't mark 100s per day - more like 48 - 60 in four hours.

As a result if we can't read it it doesn't get marks however we do make every effort to read it and, at Modern History, the marker given the question along with the Senior Marker will sit together and try to read as much as possible. The reason for the second reader being the SM is that when the paper reaches the second marker and it again is illegible the SM reads it with the second marker so if the two marks are discrepant the SM has already read it twice and that would make is easier for a third read to adjust the discrepancy.

Sometimes we can't read a single word and, unless the rest of the sentence doesn't make sense, we will use our basic cloze skills to assign a word.

 

[bellyy.loo]

They'll try their best to read your writting. Someone from my class's handwritting was pretty illegible during the trials, and they deciphered and wrote all the words they couldnt read properly above his handwritting, so that they wouldnt need to keep pausing. Cos it's pretty unfair if you lose marks just cos your writting is hard to read.

 

[chavias]

If your writing is illegible, then the paper in question is 'flagged'.
However, keep in mind that the markers are experienced in marking, and reading thousands of styles of handwriting.
If your words appear to be 'something' then 'something' is the word they will use. If words begin to look like rushed illegible signatures, then your marks may be impacted for fluency.

Don't worry, as long as longer words dont turn out like:

___________. or A_______e... and so on...

Good luck.

 

[sirpoopalot7]

My d's are terrible lol. They look like o's and l's. And me e's look like c's. Especially at the end of exams like ancient.