Why Handwriting Will Help Improve Your ATAR

In an earlier article I wrote about the importance of good English skills. Clear communication is accessible, whereas unclear communication is not. Unclear communication can frustrate, and that frustration, possessed by an examiner, can manifest itself in less generous marking. In this article, I want to make a brief note about handwriting, and how it too can have an effect on your overall ATAR. If you’re aiming for undergraduate medicine, this sits alongside understanding UCAT requirements for medicine, but the principle is the same: every assessable detail can matter.

The argument can be made that the VCE® Exam system for examination is antiquated. Exams continue to be handwritten, despite the fact that the preponderance of communication in the real world takes a digital form, these days. However, the fact of the matter is that the VCE® Exam hasn’t yet caught up. Arguments for the utility of handwriting skills can be made either way, but that isn’t the concern of this article. The point is this: you’re required to write your responses by hand (for most subjects), within a short period of time, and those responses can only yield marks if they are legible.

No marks can be awarded for scribbles, because scribbles are meaningless. What you write needs to be legible. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be well off if your writing meets some bare minimum standard, eg, it can be deciphered after a team of examiners subject your work to scientific analysis. An examiner frustrated by unclear handwriting will be less inclined to award you marks, and more inclined to punish you for trivial mistakes. That’s just human form. Therefore, I suggest that you spend some time during your final year of high school practicing the legibility of your writing in high pressure environments. If you are also managing UCAT preparation in Year 12, this kind of realistic timed practice can help you build the same calm, repeatable habits across assessments.

Build skills and techniques that enable you to write quickly, but clearly. There is no expectation that your handwriting will be neat. However, it should be easy to read. If that means you need to increase the size of your strokes, then that is what you ought to do. Practice, also, the legibility of your handwriting at times when your adrenaline gets the better of your dexterity. This might require some serious self-deception during SAC practice. Alternatively, a SAC itself might provide the opportunity.

Extracting as many points as you can squeeze from your ATAR requires strategy that transcends the obvious. The greater the number of advantages you find, the more likely you’ll be to sail smoothly through a potentially stormy year. For medicine applicants, that same marginal-gains mindset includes understanding how UCAT scores may combine with academic performance. Handwriting is one of those things that will make you look better than you are, for literally aesthetic reasons. It can’t get more superficially attractive than that.