Comment by stronglikedan

> Then they should have points deducted for that. Effective communication of answers is part of any exam.

Agreed. Then let me type my answers out like any reasonable person would do.

For reference…

For my last written blue book exam (in grad school) in the 90s, the professor insisted on blue books and handwriting.

I asked if I could type my answers or hand write my answers in the blue books and later type them out for her (with the blue book being the original source).

I told her point blank that my “clean” handwriting was produced at about a third of the speed that I can type, and that my legible chicken scratch was at about 80% of my typing rate. I hadn’t handwritten anything longer than a short note in over 5 years. She insisted that she could read any handwriting, and she wasn’t tech savvy enough to monitor any potential cheating in real time (which I think was accurate and fair).

I ended up writing my last sentence as the time ran out. I got an A+ on the exam and a comment about one of my answers being one of the best and most original that she had read. She also said that I would be allowed to type out my handwritten blue book tests if I took her other class.

All of this is to say that I would have been egregiously misgraded if “clean handwriting” had been a requirement. There is absolutely no reason to put this burden on people, especially as handwriting has become even less relevant since that exam I took in the 90s.

I personally don't believe that terrible handwriting should have any hold over a computer science student.

Doctors (medicine) get away with it.