Handache during written exams

Thought I'd ask this well before the start of exam season, so if I need to do hand exercises I have plenty of time to work on my muscles. :biggrin:

Anyone doing an essay-writing subject will recognise it, about a side of writing into the exam & you suddenly get hand pain. It is distracting, annoying & makes you write less elegantly because you want to avoid undue suffering from putting unnecessary words in. I've partially solved the problem by only doing 1 module out of 6 which requires essay-writing in the exam, but it still sucks to spend valuable writing-minutes trying to shake some feeling back into your hand and thinking 'Ow ow pain' rather than constructing good arguments in your head.

So, my question: does anyone have any good advice about how to stop your hand hurting in exams? Thumb weight lifting? Massage? Drugs? Hypnosis? I'd be interested to know if anyone has managed to solve this problem & managed to get past the essay-sprint & into the essay-marathon.

Reply 1

MissHero

Lots of practice at writing for longer periods of time? Try and do a few more timed practice essays for your subject and it'll help you to improve what you write as well!

Reply 2

blissy

My finals were 3 1/2 hours long each - had to spend the whole time writing! All I can say is you just HAVE to stop and shake or rotate your wrists every now and again.

One day I had two exams in a day (so 7 hours of writing) and had to run my wrists under cold water when I got home because I was in agony.

Other than that, write on every other line of the paper so it doesn't matter so much that you're being scruffy.

Reply 3

beach surf babe

Maybe take small breaks (a couple of minutes or so?) to give your hand a rest.

Reply 4

FrenchGal

Last time I sat exams, we had to write for 6 hours, every day of the week. Course your hand gets sore after a couple of hours, but it is bearable.
You'll survive, hun.

Reply 5

salgueira

Whatever subjects it is that you folks do, I'm glad I don't. o_O Yeah, it's only a minor quibble (I only have one essay-writing exam this year and it will be 3hrs) but would rather not be limited by physical weakness when it's ideas & expression that are being marked. Hmm. Maybe I need a bionic hand. Or go ambidextrous.

Reply 6

FadedJade

nother thing to do is get a load of pens, all of different thicknesses, so that when your hand starts to hurt you switch pens and you're holding it in a different position so it doesnt hurt as much. (bear in mind it will get to the stage when you want to swap pens every five minutes because it just hurts! I'm so pleased that I type my exams.

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