5 ms·
What's wrong with pen and paper.
by bambax 4y ago
What's wrong with pen and paper.
- D13Fd 4y agoIt's literally painful to do an essay exam on pen and paper. Only part of the exam is an essay exam, but modern law is going to be practiced on a computer, and it makes sense for the test to be administered on a computer. (if only they could get away from ExamSoft...)
- humanistbot 4y ago> It's literally painful to do an essay exam on pen and paper. It is taking everything in me not to make a full-on "kids these days" rant.
- mcculley 4y agoIn order to make it fair, you would have to hobble every test taker to use pen and paper. I remember writing essay answers with pen and paper and also with a typewriter and using Wite-Out. I would not want to compete using those tools against someone who is able to edit their answers before submitting them.
- post_break 4y ago[flagged]
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoIf it makes you feel better, in my modern western country, all exams are still done with pen and paper. It pretty much only has advantages: easier to proctor, less issue with cheating, less technical problems, everyone is taking the test in the same condition. The idea that you could just come out of school and not be able to write a dozen pages without feeling pain feels weird to me.
- demopathos 4y agoIt fades pretty quickly. My hands cramped returning from each summer vacation as a child.
- keybored 4y agoI mean, it is wise of you to hold back. Writing by hand can be painful without the proper technique. I have one book that teaches you how to write properly by hand. It turns out that you should use your shoulder a lot more; it’s much easier to cramp up if you use your fingers to drive the pen/pencil, which is what I have always done. When was that book released? Maybe in the 1910s sometime. They don’t teach people such things any more.
- viraptor 4y agoIt was painful for me decades ago. Not sure what it has to do with kids these days.
- crabcanon 4y ago>pen and paper Kids these days. Back in my day we used chalk and a slate!
- thiht 4y agoGo on and copy twelve pages of a book right now. Tell me at the end that it's not painful.
- corrral 4y ago> It's literally painful to do an essay exam on pen and paper. Hahaha, flashbacks to "Blue Book" exams in college, which was a long time ago but recently enough that I basically never wrote anything by hand (all typing) except those tests. They did indeed hurt. [EDIT] To be clear, they hurt because I rarely wrote anything by hand.
- postalrat 4y agoYou are already fighting through the pain of taking a test. Pen and paper is just a tiny bit more.
- kubik369 4y agoIt does not need to be painful. There are pens that require far less friction to write than ballpoints or pencils, namely fountain pens and rollerballs. Good technique helps too, e.g. writing with your whole arm instead of your fingers and your wrist only. Unfortunately, most people in Europe seem to be done with fountain pens after the first few years of elementary school. I am not sure about the rest of the world, but I would guess that it is similar. // EDIT: Grammar
- rgoulter 4y ago> Unfortunately, most people in Europe seem to be done with fountain pens after the first few years of elementary school. I grew up in New Zealand. Our writing stationery was pencils; the teachers didn't want young students using pens until the student could demonstrate competency in writing neatly. But after that, all the students used cheap ballpoint pens; maybe a gel or rollerball pen. I never encountered fountain pens until the end of high school.
- potatochup 4y agoThe hallowed pen licence! Our classroom had a sheet on the wall listing those who were allowed to be issued pens. Didn't make mine until year 6 I think.
- oynqr 4y agoDamn, I still wouldn't be allowed a neat writing device under that regime.
- chaosharmonic 4y agoThe century the test is being administered in?
- walthamstow 4y agoI took pen and paper exams at school and university between 2007 and 2012 and it was absolutely fine I'm sure writing a comment like this means I'm getting old, but nonetheless
- KineticLensman 4y agoI took A-levels in 1980 (entirely pen and paper) and a comp sci degree in 1983. The exams for the latter were entirely paper-based.
- gnulinux 4y agoI still regularly use pen and paper to take notes and design things as a software engineer because in my opinion it's simply the best tool for the job. All my CS exams in UC Berkeley were pencil and paper and I thought it was fine (preferrable to computer exams). I understand that some people doesn't like it.
- shard 4y agoThis might shock and amaze you, but I took many midterms and finals for my CS and EE classes using pencil and paper in the 21st century, and this was at a well-known Californian private university.
- endless1234 4y agoWere everybody else also doing it on pen & paper, or were you the only one?
- csmcg 4y ago? Every exam I ever took for my BS in EE was pen and paper. 2015-2020.