Messy writing & bad spelling? (1 Viewer)

[rumour]

Will we get marked down if we do this?


When I say messy, I mean so messy, that even I could not read my own writing!!

 

[ur_inner_child]

Would you like marking an essay that took 30 minutes to figure out what each word was???

Just be careful with it, I'm sure you'll do fine. It's hard not to be messy if you want to be fast.

 

[glitterfairy]

Depends. If they can't read it, how can they mark it?

But you never know. I've had a look at some exemplars, and even I can't understand what their last few pages are saying. Teachers must have a special magnifying glass that makes everything decipherable lol...

 

[angelduck]

Its soo true. I know some really smart ppl from yrs past (yes, Mafia, Sam willis) whos writing is shit, i cannot read it for life of me - which sux wen u wanna copy them! But they all did pretty well. Maybe teachers have like a secret reading code, like doctors do. I cant read their writin either, must sux to work at a pharmacy...

 

[BlindGuardian]

im pretty sure u can lose marks for crappy writing
at least in our trials u could....one of my mates who's a genius at english got 8/20 which he was told would have been a 20/20 had it been decipherable
so...yeh and also doing many spelling mistakes in one essay mite cost u a mark or 2...not much though

 

[angelduck]

yeah, its gotta be legible, but it doesnt have to b that legible, apparently theres a fine line....

 

[cows_go_moo]

Heh during my english exams i wrote much faster than i usually do, that coupled with trying to think at the same time i kept adding extra letters to my words and stuff i think at one point i spelt one word backwards almost

 

[bubz :D]

you gotta be careful with messy writing, and especially with spelling (crucial if it's an english exam)

last year my teacher gave the top student 5/20 for an assessment because her writing was completely illegible. he knew that she probably would've gotten the top mark, but because he couldn't read it, how could he have given it to her?

the BOS examiners aren't going to bother trying to decipher what you wrote, they don't have the time. i know it's hard considering the space of time you're given, but make sure that your letters are at least distinguishable from others ie, don't forget to cross your t's and dot your i's, examiners get pissy with this....

good luck!

 

[ujuphleg]

on the rumour mill: apparently they only take 3 minutes to figure out what something says. If they can't read it, they'll pass it onto another marker.... you really gotta make it at least semi-legible.

Spelling of key words is crucial. English especially but other things like History and Art too i would expect. Simple reason is this: If something is spelt incorrectly it creates a bad impression for the marker. Particularly key words. eg. if you are doing Cold War in Modern History and you can't spell Khrushchev then you will create a bad impression because the logic is that you haven't studied it enough to have learnt it or simply can't be bothered.

So, in a nutshell, make the effort to try and make handwriting semi-legible and spell all key words on the syllabus.

good luck everyone!

 

[Groagy]

don't forget to cross your t's and dot your i's, examiners get pissy with this....

Do you think markers would care that the dots for my i's are nowhere near my i's and that the crosses on my t's are as long as the word itself and usually end up crossinh l's. h's. d's. etc?

 

[BlindGuardian]

Hahahahahahah

 

[snapperhead]

just to "correct" the above posts...

as someone who has HSC marked for a Humanities subject, spelling doesnt come into play as such so long as we (the marker) can workout who/what you are talking about. As for writing, we have to mark it no matter how long it takes ie you write it, we mark it (somehow!!). If someones writing is so bad that it cant be read, this is the fault of the school as it should have been picked up and made a special provision if it was needed. ie if you werent picked up, your writing isnt an issue..........

If you feel your writing is so bad it will affect you, trust me.....it wont. Even if it takes two or three people to mark it, it will get marked. You wont lose marks because of your handwriting or spelling UNLESS handwriting and spelling is a criteria (which it isnt....).

Its nice when you (as a marker) can read it but dont stress about it OK! If we cant mark it, it goes to the bottom of the bundle to be read/marked when we are fresh ie at the start of marking

Markers in humanities usually assume that you know what you are talking about when it comes to the basics..... spelling of a name or an object isnt a major issue if you can demonstrate that you know who/what it is, why its important etc etc etc

Rely on the marking criteria and the HSC markers instead of rumours and wanna-be markers at the school HSC trials level
lol
where do you people hear this stuff?

 

[Dougie]

isn't it still more likely that subconciously, a marker will give a better mark to something they find easier to read?

 

[angelduck]

lol, its wot schools instill in us, like that garbage that what we learn and how we do in yr 7 will 'lay the foundations' for our future years. Utter crap!

 

[snapperhead]

isn't it still more likely that subconciously, a marker will give a better mark to something they find easier to read?

no because they have to follow a criteria and *usually*, papers are doubled marked in one form or another. If there is a difference, you get picked up and have to justify your position to the head marker

 

[~dEjA vOuX~]

My teacher said that if they can't read an essay at the marking centre, the markers are told to just go through it a couple of times and pick out the words they can read, try to get the idea of the essay and then they give as mark based on what they can read...you are disadvantaged if you write illegibly, but I doubt they take many marks away.

 

[Ziff]

My handwriting is usually appalling on normal lined A4 paper, but for the HSC papers I use up the entire size of the HSC line which makes my handwriting somewhat easier to read - because it's "sort of" magnified

 

[Sarah168]

I can spell but sometime when Im writing too fast the letters might blend and make it look incorrect lol

 

[lil_lainy]

usually my riting is readible, like in the trials i could read it, but when i was doing my english exam i kept trying to read ova wat i had ritten and so much didnt make any sense to me, and i hate how the lines are that far apart, makes my riting worse