Here’s a little secret from someone who has assessed thousands of examination answer scripts. Handwriting creates an unfair bias either towards the examinee or against him/her.
That is a sad truth. Some of the
most brilliant minds I have interacted with in life (professors, researchers,
students and professionals) have such a pathetic hand, it is a small
wonder that they made it through grade school. I digress only to reassure
you—in case you are dissatisfied with your hand—that you too might have seeds
of genius in you!
Back to why good handwriting gives
you a positive edge over others in the essay paper. It has to do with one
elementary fact about examiners. They are human. Examiners are usually assigned
hundreds of scripts that have to be graded within a tight schedule. Beyond a
point, their attention naturally begins to wobble, drained by hours of
evaluating (mostly) bad prose.
Now, given these constraints, examiners tend to rely on first impressions rather too frequently. If your handwriting is legible, regular and consistent; if your margins are straight, and you haven’t smudged ink and crossed out too many sentences, the examiner would be charmed into reading on.
But with a bad hand, even a George
Orwell may not receive a fair share of the examiner’s attention.