Year 12 Exam Markers Agree: WA's Handwriting Is "Barely Legible"

Hand in your badge and pen licences, Western Australia; your handwriting is the worst.

Markers of WA’s 2015 Certificate of Education exams have complained about “illegible” handwriting that, in some instances, was “almost indecipherable”.

According to Yahoo, reports on exams for all Year 12 stage three courses in WA featured the same common complaint, and was often precisely what kept students from achieving higher marks.

Some writing was reportedly so small, not even magnification could make the content clear. Here's footage of a marker in action:

Some of the most difficult exams to read came from those studying specialist mathematics, with markers noting that the writing was “so untidy that the content was rendered almost indecipherable.”

Then again, reports also stated that “the penmanship” of many business management and enterprise students was similarly “difficult to read”, while food science and technology exams were “barely legible.”

Visual art students don’t get away scot-free, with examiners concluding that their “illegible scripts [inhibited] the clear interpretation of content in responses.”

For what it’s worth, it’s not just students who are getting a slap on the wrist in these markers report. Apparently teachers of Politics and Law are being urged to update the examples used in class, “as it is eight years since the Howard government was in office and Australia has since had four prime ministers.”

In fairness, the Prime Ministership of Australia is pretty hard to keep up with.

Photo: iStock.