The Student Room Group

Faltering

Good morning,
I am in year eleven, two weeks from GCSE'S
Recently - last two weeks - I feel like things have been going metaphorically down hill.
My handwriting gotten so much worse, scarily often I can't read it.
My scores on my own mocks have gone down.
And I feel like I'm forgetting everything I've "learnt" over the past two years.
I don't know anymore

Reply 1

Original post by Greenhouse999
Good morning,
I am in year eleven, two weeks from GCSE'S
Recently - last two weeks - I feel like things have been going metaphorically down hill.
My handwriting gotten so much worse, scarily often I can't read it.
My scores on my own mocks have gone down.
And I feel like I'm forgetting everything I've "learnt" over the past two years.
I don't know anymore
Hey lovely, this sounds to me like exam stress - don't worry it's completely normal. Sorry the past few weeks have been difficult. Teachers always bang on about handwriting in exams but genuinely it's not as important as the content itself. Examiners will take every opportunity to give you marks in your GCSEs so as long as you write something they will try their upmost best to read it and award you those well-deserved marks. Some colleges provide laptops for multiple reasons including handwriting for exams if necessary so this might be worth discussing with your college if you are worried (if they don't give you one at least you can rest assured they know your handwriting is legible).
Regarding your mocks, this can be used as an opportunity to focus in your revision, in relation to exam technique, timing or topic-specific exam questions. Mark schemes are really useful to look over for this as most GCSE questions are quite repetitive, there are usually specific phrases that crop up that can help you access those top marks.
Just remember that right now you know more about your subjects than you did 2 years ago. When you get in that exam room, you will smash it. (Plus it is 100% worth looking at the grade boundaries as a morale boost - you do not have to know everything).
Good luck in your exams!!

Reply 2

Original post by Kerahil
Hey lovely, this sounds to me like exam stress - don't worry it's completely normal. Sorry the past few weeks have been difficult. Teachers always bang on about handwriting in exams but genuinely it's not as important as the content itself. Examiners will take every opportunity to give you marks in your GCSEs so as long as you write something they will try their upmost best to read it and award you those well-deserved marks. Some colleges provide laptops for multiple reasons including handwriting for exams if necessary so this might be worth discussing with your college if you are worried (if they don't give you one at least you can rest assured they know your handwriting is legible).
Regarding your mocks, this can be used as an opportunity to focus in your revision, in relation to exam technique, timing or topic-specific exam questions. Mark schemes are really useful to look over for this as most GCSE questions are quite repetitive, there are usually specific phrases that crop up that can help you access those top marks.
Just remember that right now you know more about your subjects than you did 2 years ago. When you get in that exam room, you will smash it. (Plus it is 100% worth looking at the grade boundaries as a morale boost - you do not have to know everything).
Good luck in your exams!!

Iv'e been told that if a examinerator can't read my handwriting they'll just put a zero and move on
Is this true or is this just to scare me - Which it is doing very well

Reply 3

Original post by Greenhouse999
Iv'e been told that if a examinerator can't read my handwriting they'll just put a zero and move on
Is this true or is this just to scare me - Which it is doing very well
Examiners are required to read each sentence at least twice to determine its meaning etc. They are not allowed to penalise you for poor handwriting, but if it is entirely illegible then yes, they will ignore it and skip onto the next sentence.
I'm sure the examiner will have seen worse so I wouldn't get too caught up on it. It might be worth spending 15 or so minutes a day practising writing out your answers by hand - try larger writing or if you do joined-up letters then maybe try something a bit different, spacing out the words a bit more.
A lot of people have handwriting concerns going into exams, but the examiner will try their absolute best to determine its meaning or at least what it could mean as GCSEs are a positive mark scheme (they award marks based on merit and will not penalise you for most mistakes). If there is a major issue with exam script interpretation it will be passed onto the senior examiner or sent through the appeal process.

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